originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
That sounds like a story that needs telling. Can you elaborate? What is it they are doing to follow people across state lines?
I can't speak for anyone other than myself and my significant other obviously but when we decided to leave we went to settle things with that years
taxes at the city hall. We paid up what would be due, turned in license plates, and parking permits. All was settled all was good.
Then just before we left all these tickets and bills for both things we had settled ahead of time and from things we simply never did started filling
the mailbox. So while we should have been packing and looking for a new place the town and the state were trying to suck up more of our money and
making fighting it nearly impossible due to absurd office hours.
Eventually we got out.
Settled in to our new home, new jobs, new license and vehicle and registration and all that.
Months go by and the mailbox begins to fill with tickets, threatening legal letters, past due notices, all from CT. Then the phone starts ringing all
the time with police. Some from the old city we lived in some from the state. Everybody threatening to put liens on things we didnt own, tow away cars
that we didnt own, drag us into court for back taxes we didnt owe and tickets we supposedly got while not even living there.
Basically the state and the city were trying to extort us. It would all go away if we just paid them.
Trying to explain things and sending copies of documents certified mail got nowhere. It was like they were openly mocking us by ignoring the documents
and evidence.
Note that while we had all the evidence on our side and the state had no evidence other than state created tickets and bills it was up to us to prove
innocence but the state wouldnt even hear us.
Neither of us would risk going back there to clear things up in person for a number of reasons. Besides the cost and time to travel and take off work
there was this fear in the back of our minds that whoever went would get locked up and the other would have to pay to get the person out. Not unlike
Al Qaeda kidnapping people for ransom.
Eventually we saved enough money to hire an attorney. We handed over every document and evidence we had to the attorney and within one afternoon he
reported back to us that it would stop and if it didnt to let him now and we'd sue the city, the state and the individuals involved in the
harassment.
The fact that the state gave up so fast tells me they knew they were in the wrong and had no leg to stand on all along. They were just being bullies
hoping to keep milking us for our metaphorical lunch money as long as possible.
The whole ordeal was like some Kafka nightmare of bureaucracy run amok. It's a very big part of my general distrust of government and all
bureaucracy.
You try to do good. You go out of your way to jump through their hoops and play by their rules and it still isnt good enough.