Government Land Banks Win

Again government appears to use its power to short change the taxpayer and the Michigan Supreme Court goes along with it.

As report in an article in the Michigan Capitol Confidential the Michigan justices “denied a petition for appeal by a group of independent investors, after a state appeals court upheld a circuit court's ruling that they did not have legal standing. The target of the suit was the Kent County treasurer, Kent County and the Kent County Land Bank Authority, for allegedly allowing the land bank to cherry-pick tax-foreclosed property before it went to public auction.”

Apparently these “Land Banks” are purchasing the tax forfeited land for far less than the property would have gone for at auction.  That, my friends, is cheating the taxpayer out of quite a bit of money, along with cheating the taxpayer out of future property tax revenue from those properties.

Why would a local government behave in this manner?

Why would they forgo money, money that belongs to us the taxpayer?

According to the article Land bank supporters say they improve neighborhoods by forcing buyers to invest in the properties, which in turn, increases the tax base.  If you do not allow the piece of property to go to auction, then how do you expand the tax base?

Am I missing something here?