When I lived in Portland, OR, the local alternative weekly had a feature they called “Rogue of the Week”, in which they chronicled tales of the corrupt, the venal, the greedy, and/or the just plain stupid. It’s too bad I’m not living in Portland anymore, because this story has stupid oozing from every pore.
Our next-door neighbors are being taken to court by the Clear Creek Independent School District Tax Office for delinquent property taxes. I imagine this sort of thing happens with disturbing frequency. People hate paying taxes, right? What makes this story so disturbing is that the power of the law is being brought to bear upon our neighbors for a tax bill of- get this- $0.05. No, that is not a typo. CCISD’s Tax Office, in their infinite (lack of) wisdom has apparently decided that a scofflaw is a scofflaw.
This is some serious DUMB@$$ AWARD-quality stuff. Since I don’t have the name of the person or persons responsible for this travesty, I’ll just have to rail against CCISD’s general incompetence…of which this is merely the latest egregious example.
I wonder if there is room in the pinhead of whatever official made this decision to consider the implications of their action? Clearly, given that said pinhead made the decision to pursue legal action, the answer to that is a resounding “NO”. Those who can, do. Those who cannot go to work for CCISD as an administrator.
Surely, someone involved in this case must have realized that collecting the delinquent $0.05 would be a far more expensive proposition than asking if anyone in the office could spare a nickel? Is it too much to expect a degree of reason and intelligence from those we charge with running our schools? Apparently so.
The esteemed Houston legal firm of Linebarger, Goggan, Blair, & Sampson, LLP (a subsidiary of Dewey, Cheatham, & Howe, LLP) spent $0.60 simply mailing legal notification to our neighbors. When you factor in staff time and the firm’s Christmas party fund, collecting CCISD’s $0.05 will end up costing many times that. Is it just me, or is someone in serious need of re-discovering their grip on reality?
There are times when I begin to believe that I may have plumbed the depths of human stupidity and finally reached rock bottom. Then I run across something like this, and I am once again in awe of the seemingly unfathomable depth and breadth of human ignorance.
I think I’ll tape a nickel to my neighbor’s front door in a show of solidarity. Perhaps I can convince someone- Bob Dylan, perhaps?- to write a protest song on their behalf. Hey, if he can pen a song for Hurricane Carter to protest the abuses of our legal system, why not a quick ditty for our neighbors? I’ll even make it easy…how about something to the tune of the theme from “Beverly Hillbillies”? In the case of CCISD, that would be appropriate.
