HIGH ALERT: Beware of RegionSmart Development aka Eminent Domain

Beware of RegionSmart Development aka Eminent Domain

Heads Up for Arkansas, Mississippi, & Tennessee!

This Dangerous LAND GRAB known as “RegionSmart Development” Legislation Must be Killed!

RegionSmart has ties to a huge asset management company called BlackRock, considered the world’s largest asset manager.

NOTE: Arkansas has removed the malevolent BlackRock
from their portfolio!!!

A RegionSmart Compact is being proposed between Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, a Tri-State compact of local governments — and all run by an un-elected board. This same scheme will be popping up in other parts of the country. Don’t allow RegionSmart Development in this area. Our politicians’ feet must be held to the fire immediately.

Say NO to quasi-governmental entities!

The RegionSmart legislation would give an un-elected commission of bureaucrats, appointed by mayors in each of the three states, the ability to:

• seize your property through eminent domain,

• assess fees (the Republican term for taxes), and

• issue bonds with no clear details of who would be on the hook for a bond in default (most likely the taxpayers in the state).

Secure Arkansas has warned our readers of the dangers of U.N. Agenda Regionalism, Sustainable Development, and “Smart Growth” in our past articles.

This RegionSmart Development will be run by an Un-Elected Board with power being shifted from elected officials to appointed individuals & agencies. RegionSmart is an affiliate of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a leftist organization. This is global governance.

MUST READ: click here, and you’ll see the list on the right-hand side with links to:

• the Global Chair

• the Global CEO

• the Global Governing Trustees 

• the Global Board of Directors

When they call it Global Governance, they’re not kidding…

Remember the attempted Land Grab of the White River Watershed National Blueway that we helped stop back in 2013-2014? And the Ozark Highland Man and the Biosphere back in 1996? This RegionSmart legislation is eerily similar… Maybe The Powers That Be think that if they wait long enough, we won’t be paying attention or that we’ll have forgotten what they tried to do with the big Land Grabs they had in mind back then…. but we haven’t. We are watching. The Blueway Land Grab would’ve affected 1/3 of Arkansas and 1/5 of Missouri!

Back in the Clinton Era is when power shifted from public officials to Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

RegionSmart executive director Anna McQuiston speaks to area political and business leaders

at a Feb. 18, 2022, launch event for the proposed tristate compact

The States and Counties in the Tri-State Compact are as follows:

1. Arkansas: Counties of Crittenden, Craighead, and Mississippi

2. Mississippi: County of DeSoto

3. Tennessee: Counties of Shelby, Fayette, and Tipton

image credit

RegionSmart Legislation would create 3-state governmental agency with eminent domain powers and not subject to any state’s public records laws

• RegionSmart Tri-State Compact – to be run by an un-elected board

• RegionSmart Development District – to be run by an un-elected board

• RegionSmart Development Agency of the Greater Memphis Region – to be run by an un-elected board

Arkansas SCR1 RegionSmart Tri-State Compact is between the state of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The lead sponsor of Arkansas SCR1 is Senator Keith Ingram (D). The co-sponsors of SCR1 are Representative Joe Jett (R), Representative Deborah Ferguson (D), and Senator David Wallace (R).

The Tri-State Compact legislation in Tennessee is HB1989 and SB1915.

All sponsors and co-sponsors of RegionSmart legislation must be pulled. We must hold our elected officials accountable to the people. The RegionSmart Compact would strip the states of their sovereignty. Tennessee residents, this includes you, too! Be sure you’re contacting your legislators and asking them to pull this legislation!

Arkansas Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR1 was in committee but has died on the calendar, but we should keep an eye out for more legislation that could come up. The Arkansas corresponding legislation bill has not been filled yet.

Here is the legislation used in Mississippi Senate Bill 2716, and some of the items in that bill are listed below. These same items will also appear  in the Tennessee and Arkansas RegionSmart legislation.

• The governing authority of RegionSmart Development shall be vested in a Board of Commissioners consisting of fifteen (15) members (appointed by the Mayor)

• To charge and collect fees for use of the facilities owned and operated by RegionSmart Development

• To plan, construct, maintain, own and operate roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, ports, freight routes and facilities, and terminal facilities;

• To issue bonds upon the security of the revenues to be derived upon any property held or to be held by it, at any time or from time to time;

• To issue bonds upon the security of revenues to be derived from operations or agreements for the ownership and operation of property not owned by RegionSmart Development, provided such property or operations are located within the district;

• To make plans for submission to the communities involved for coordination of streets, highways, parkways, parking areas, terminals, water supply and sewage and disposal works, recreational and conservation facilities and projects, land-use pattern and other matters in which joint or coordinated action of the communities within the areas will be generally beneficial;

• To charge fees and collect fees for use of facilities owned and operated by the RegionSmart Development District;

• To exercise the powers of eminent domain and condemnation over any and all rights or property, of any kind or character, necessary for the purposes of RegionSmart Development, subject to the provisions of this Compact; provided,

• To perform and conduct all actions necessary and incidental to carrying out the powers and purposes of this Compact as approved by its Board of Commissioners;

• Article V.  This Compact shall become effective upon passage of appropriate legislation in two (2) of the three (3) states in substantially similar form

RegionSmart Tri-State Compact Initiative attempts to subvert the people’s vote and establish a quasi-governmental agency controlling parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. This effort is being pushed by the Mid-South Mayors’ Council, a collection of over one dozen mayors in the region.

Do not give governmental power to an un-elected board!

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Smart Growth gives an unelected commission of bureaucrats — appointed by mayors in each of the three states — the ability to:

• seize your property through eminent domain,

• assess fees (the Republican term for taxes), and

• issue bonds with no clear details of who would be on the hook for a bond in default (most likely the taxpayers in the state).

The commission would be based in Memphis therefore not subject to Arkansas’s open records laws or open meetings laws, which means it would receive and spend tax dollars taken from Arkansans but could not be held accountable by the Arkansas State Auditor.

Here’s a map of Memphis, TN and West Memphis, AR.

RegionSmart is an affiliate of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), and RegionSmart/ULI held a conference in Memphis, TN that included topics on transforming communities worldwide by prioritizing “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”, with a strategy that focuses on “Race and Ethnicity, Gender, LGBTQ Status, Gender Identity…”  Notice how they use positive-sounding terms when speaking and writing about these things, but that’s deceitful. ULI supported BLM and the 1619 project.

Unaccountable Technocracy! Arkansas Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR1 would enter Arkansas into an interstate compact with Tennessee and Mississippi for the greater Memphis region. The effort, called TriState Compact Agency, would fund transportation projects and seek to capture additional federal dollars. SCR1 would create a quasi-governmental and public entity (Public-Private Partnership) Reinventing-government with the power of “eminent domain and condemnation of any and all rights of property,” in parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

The legislation would give an un-elected board broad sweeping powers including eminent domain to condemn properties, the ability to issue bonds and borrow money, and would not be subject to open record or open meetings laws.

This deceptive compact must be approved by the legislatures of all three states, signed by the three state governors, and then approved in Congress and signed by the President… so it must be stopped at the state level!

Update for Mississippi: A bill in the Mississippi Legislature to ratify the RegionSmart compact, labeled Senate Bill 2716, passed the State Senate but has died on the calendar in the House of Representatives. State Sen. Dr. David Parker (R-Olive Branch) was the principal author of the bill with fellow DeSoto County senators, Kevin Blackwell (R-Southaven) and Michael McLendon (R-Hernando) as additional authors. Thank goodness this didn’t pass the House in Mississippi!

ACTION ITEM: Immediately contact these Arkansas legislators and ask them to pull this villainous Land Grab legislation and to never bring it up again:

• Senator Keith Ingram (D) from West Memphis at 870-735-8610 or email him at [email protected]

• Representative Joe Jett (R) from Success at 870-276-5319 or email him at [email protected]

• Representative Deborah Ferguson (D) from West Memphis at 870-735-7098 or email her at [email protected]

• Senator David Wallace (R) from Leachville at 870-919-8046 or email him at [email protected] 

Now we know who has been working with beastly BlackRock and sponsoring dangerous bills…

In closing, this resolution/compact has ties to the Urban Land Institute and BlackRock.

We are becoming a totalitarian surveillance state and a dictatorship. Property rights are essential in this country, and we must protect them at all costs!

We must be diligent because there could be more of this type of diabolical legislation coming in the future…

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Securing the blessings of liberty,

Secure Arkansas
securetherepublic.com/arkansas
[email protected]

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