The Hillman Test
Pop quiz: When is urban renewal not urban renewal? When the land up for “renewal” has no buildings, no cracked sidewalks (if any sidewalks), no manhole covers, or anything in the way of store fronts at all. Instead the land in question has grass fields, lots of open space, a silo or two, and cows. House Bill 1107 attempts to undermine the ol’ “blighting farmland, but calling it ‘urban’ to get government money” corporate welfare trick. You might remember Senate sponsor Morgan Carroll from last year’s corporate welfare / transparency fight against metro districts. I applaud Sen. Carroll and all legislators in the fight against corporate welfare of all kinds. Especially when it is as blatant as this blighting hoax. If I were asked to write the bill, I would have said something like:
No land that can feed an urban area may be called an urban area. Furthermore, if Mark Hillman would like to live on the land in question, then the land in question is clearly not urban.
In fact, let’s make this process easy. If there ever is a disagreement on whether a piece of land is urban or not, we’ll put it to the “Hillman test.” We’ll call up Mark Hillman and offer the land to him. If he takes it, it’s farmland. If not, it’s urban. What’s a more objective measure than that Hillman test?
