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If you used 40’ to build a wall it would be less than 10,000 acres @ $3;000.00 an acre that covers market rates in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona
Market rates?
If it were as easy as "paying market rates", then we would have long since had a border wall. The problem that GWB experienced is that the presumable border wall (aside from being a visual nuisance) was lowering property values, and in some cases bisected land that the federal government didn't buy. That's an increased cost that people are going to want to be compensated for, hence the litany of unresolved court cases that carry on to the current day.
You guys haven't even considered how much this boondoggle is going to cost just to get to the construction stage.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/1...government-abused-power-seize-property-fence/
The Taking: How the federal government abused its power to seize property for a border fence
A decade ago, many border Texans got a raw deal when the federal government seized land for a barrier — while others pushed up the price. Will the government's rushed, haphazard process be repeated as it pushes for a border wall?
The major findings:
- Homeland Security circumvented laws designed to help landowners receive fair compensation. The agency did not conduct formal appraisals of targeted parcels. Instead, it issued low-ball offers based on substandard estimates of property values.
- Larger, wealthier property owners who could afford lawyers negotiated deals that, on average, tripled the opening bids from Homeland Security. Smaller and poorer landholders took whatever the government offered — or wrung out small increases in settlements. The government conceded publicly that landowners without lawyers might wind up shortchanged, but did little to protect their interests.
- The Justice Department bungled hundreds of condemnation cases. The agency took property without knowing the identity of the actual owners. It condemned land without researching facts as basic as property lines. Landholders spent tens of thousands of dollars to defend themselves from the government’s mistakes.
- The government had to redo settlements with landowners after it realized it had failed to account for the valuable water rights associated with the properties, an oversight that added months to the compensation process.
- On occasion, Homeland Security paid people for property they did not actually own. The agency did not attempt to recover the misdirected taxpayer funds, instead paying for land a second time once it determined the correct owners.
- Nearly a decade later, scores of landowners remain tangled in lawsuits. The government has already taken their land and built the border fence. But it has not resolved claims for its value.
Expect stronger pushback now that it's confirmed that Homeland's word isn't worth half a shit.