Dear Secretary Carnahan:
This opinion letter responds to your request dated December 3, 2010, for our review under § 116.334, RSMo, of a proposed summary statement prepared for the petition submitted by Ron Calzone regarding a proposed amendment to Article VI of the Missouri Constitution (pink paper). The proposed summary statement is as follows:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to change the power of the General Assembly and constitutionally chartered cities or counties to:
• Prohibit the use of eminent domain to acquire and resell property found to be blighted, substandard or unsanitary for the purpose of clearance, redevelopment or rehabilitation; and
• Allow them to require owners of property found to be a public nuisance to abate or clean up the nuisance and, if the property owner fails to do so in a reasonable time, allow the local government to pay for the abatement and impose a lien to recover the cost?
Pursuant to § 116.334, RSMo, we approve the legal content and form of the proposed statement. Because our review of the statement is mandated by statute, no action that we *Page 2 take with respect to such review should be construed as an endorsement of the petition, nor as the expression of any view regarding the objectives of its proponents.
*Page 1Very truly yours,
_________________________ Chris Koster Attorney General