Dear Editor,
Good news for Westchester County, New York. A Federal Court has ruled against Gov. Cuomo in a lawsuit against Westchester County. Many of you will remember Rob Astorino’s comments on Property Rights being infringed on constituents there because of a H.U.D. grant for a new apartment complex that was relocated to another area. H.U.D. heavily fined the county, Astorino sued the state and Cuomo sued Westchester County.
Have you heard about DOPRA (Defense of Property Rights Act)? This is a bill in Congress that is being proposed and work still has to be done on it.
Congressman Tom Reed held a meeting in Tioga County, and they are looking at helping those that were denied property rights (fracking ban/mineral rights) on their properties in which we would receive dollars from the Federal government as we has our rights limited.
My question to Congressman Reed was, “Would we have to renege our mineral rights if we accept the dollars?”
This is something we will have to watch closely. I have said before, watch any grant / loan / reimbursement from the government as it will come with stipulations that would jeopardize our property rights in the future, or payment would eventually be paid back from royalty payments when and/if drilling starts.
Sincerely,
Sandy Gumble
