Amid rising fears of furriners buying up Murkin land comes this little glimmer of sunshine:
Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) vowed to back legislation prohibiting Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean citizens and entities from purchasing land in Texas.
The bill, submitted two months ago by Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, states that citizens, corporations, and government agencies of the four nations “may not purchase or otherwise acquire title to real property” in the state. Abbott confirmed on Sunday that he would endorse the legislation, which has not yet been voted upon by lawmakers.
The bill should pass — and if not, I’ll be looking at the list of who voted against it.
Why stop at those 4 countries?
Why not, only US citizens can purchase US property?
Democrats are already in favor of granting American citizenship to anyone and everyone. and then what?
JQ
and now let’s talk about Bill Gates who is purchasing arable farm land as quickly as he can get his hot little paws on it.
and what about George Soros and the other b/millionaires investing in farmland
have we been overlooking something very important?
Here we go again with proposed seizure of property rights from landowners, a subject on which I am sensitive, being a property owner. Telling a land owner he cannot accept a million dollars from a foreigner when Americans are only willing to pay 800K is a seizure of property and leftist to the bone.
Why not allow the purchase by foreigners and tax the land owned by them at 200% or even 300% of the tax rates for American owners, and make a profit? That’s the free and capitalist way. I’m not even sure that’s a good idea, because I have experience of it. I own land in British Columbia and for many years paid nearly double the property taxes paid by locals. BC abandoned that scheme because the locals complained that they couldn’t sell their property for the high prices they wanted. They also argued that even at ordinary tax rates they made a fat profit because non-resident owners usually consume few or no municipal services while paying full taxes.
Plus, how many of the people wishing to purchase from those 4 evil countries are actually good people hoping to flee to America?
As for the outright ban on foreign ownership ghostsniper suggests, OK, but only if the rest of the world can ban US citizens from owning in their countries. If Texas is going to ban non-Texan land ownership, you’d be far better off banning californicators.
“Foreign entity”. That’s gonna be eel slippery. “Who bought your farm, Earl?” “ConAmalgamatedHugeCo”.
This is a tricky one. We must absolutely retain control of energy, food, and production capacity, but even if you require a US citizen as a front man, they’re still pretty easy to buy.
I doubt this would stand up to the countless lawsuits it would generate, but beyond that, that issue should have been addressed 30 years ago. In my family’s little stretch of Missouri and Tennessee, Russians (who’ve now become Ukrainian), have been paying top dollar, in cash, for 2+ decades. My family farm near Platte City, Mo (at one time 1100 acres, now less than 600), is completely surrounded by Russian/Ukrainian enclaves, all of whom seem to specialize in rebuilding salvage title OTR trucks and hauling hazardous waste. Our little 52-acre farm in Anderson County,TN has lots of fairly new Chinese and Russian/Ukrainian neighbors. I’d be surprised if Texas is much different.
I’d be more worried about the massive bill that’s coming due for all the subsidized low income housing that’s cropping up all over the country. The Dems have placed almost a trillion $ of pass through out-year money with Big Builders to build cheap apartments in every major city. Those illegal immigrants can’t stay at Hilton Gardens forever. And they’ve only funded the building, not the cost to maintain, which will be up to 3x higher than typical residential apartments.
Now for the bad news…