Michigan Condemnation of Excess Property Amendment (1920)

Michigan Condemnation of Excess Property Amendment
Election date November 2, 1920
Topic Bond issue requirements and Debt limits
Status Defeated
Type Legislatively referred constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

Michigan Condemnation of Excess Property Amendment was on the ballot as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in Michigan on November 2, 1920. It was defeated.

A “yes” vote supported authorizing the legislature to allow municipalities to condemn excess property when making certain public improvements.

A “no” vote opposed authorizing the legislature to allow municipalities to condemn excess property when making certain public improvements.

Election results

Michigan Condemnation of Excess Property Amendment
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		360,668	45.08%
No		439,373	54.92%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Condemnation of Excess Property Amendment was as follows:

“

VOTE ON PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION Relative to empowering the Legislature to authorize municipalities, subject to reasonable limitations, to condemn and to take the fee to more land and property than is needed in the acquiring, opening and widening of parks, boulevards, and other public places and for any public use, and to make provisions for the issuance of bonds to supply the funds to pay therefor.     Amendment to article thirteen of the Constitution, empowering the Legislature to authorize municipalities to condemn more land than is necessary for certain public purposes and to issue bonds therefor; it being proposed that said article be amended by adding thereto a new section, to be known as "Section five" to read as follows:     SECTION 5. Subject to this Constitution the Legislature may authorize municipalities, subject to reasonable limitations, to condemn and to take the fee to more land and property than is needed in the acquiring, opening and widening of parks, boulevards, public places, streets, alleys, or for any public use, and after so much of the land and property has been appropriated for any such needed public purpose, the remainder may be sold or leased with or without such restrictions as may be appropriate to the improvement made. Bonds may be issued to supply the funds to pay in whole or in part for the excess property so appropriate, but such bonds shall be a lien only on the property so acquired and they shall not be included in any limitation of the bonded indebtedness of such municipality. YES NO

”

Full Text

The full text of this measure is available here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Michigan Constitution

A two-thirds vote is required during one legislative session for the Michigan State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 74 votes in the Michigan House of Representatives and 26 votes in the Michigan State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

See also

1920 Measures

• 1920 Measures
• Bond issue requirements on the ballot
• Eminent domain policy on the ballot
• Parks on the ballot
• land on the ballot
• and natural area conservation on the ballot
• Highways and bridges on the ballot
• Debt limits on the ballot
• 1920 legislative sessions

Michigan

• Michigan ballot measures
• Michigan ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• University of Michigan Press, "The Initiative and Referendum in Michigan," 1940