October 26th, 2011
This past summer, I wrote an article on the municipal surcharge bureau (MSB). (My perceptive readers and grammar hawks, will notice I didn’t capitalize the name. Immature I realize, but I’m desperate for a way to lash out at these people).The MSB is essentially a collections agency for the State of Texas, and the Department of Public Safety, in the vaunted tradition of the biblical Roman tax collectors and the sheriff of Nottingham. I’ve already recounted the tale of my registration infraction and how I was required to pay penalties, both to the City of Tyler and to the State Capital in Austin. Largely out of spite I decided to make my one hundred four dollar payment to MSB in installments… I mean if I’m going to be ripped off, why not make it as inconvenient as possible for the thief, right?
Well as it turned out, recent financial challenges made it necessary for me to request an extension in order to avoid a suspension of my license. Upon making the request I was condescendingly lectured to by the vogon on the other end of the line, that the extension was only being granted as a courtesy, and the next payment would have to be on time. “That’s ok,” I replied; “this is my last payment.” “Well, actually,” it replied hesitantly, “you’ll be required to make another payment of one hundred dollars next year… uh… a… and the following year” the unisex voice stammered, clearly nervous about breaking the news. I hit the ceiling. “Are you kidding me?!” I yelled. “I’m afraid not,” it squeaked. “According to the driver responsibility act of two thousand whatever…” and it proceeded to quote me chapter and verse of some recent legal code, no one but an expert in legal blather could possibly understand.
I’m becoming more and more aware of how buried we are becoming in stupid red tape which serves only to complicate our lives and separate us from our money, in exchange for absolutely nothing! And unfortunately, no one can seem to stop it because its government that’s doing it! If only we could manage to elect representatives willing to divest the government of at least a portion of other people’s money. Until then, maybe we should all start to pay these fines in pennies! The bean counters may actually enjoy counting them.
To read my original article on the municipal surcharge bureau, click on the following link Municipal Surcharge Bureau and the Driver Responsibility Program in Texas
Tags: Blather, Chapter And Verse, City Of Tyler, Collections Agency, Department Of Public Safety, Driver Responsibility, Financial Challenges, Grammar, Hawks, Infraction, Installments, One Hundred Dollars, Perceptive Readers, Red Tape, Responsibility Act, Sheriff Of Nottingham, State Of Texas, Surcharge, Tax Collectors, Thief, Tyler Texas, Vogon
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June 3rd, 2011
Ever hear of MSB “A Private Corporation?” Well neither had I, until walking to my mail box this morning. MSB stands for Municipal Surcharge Bureau. MSB is basically a group of outsourced bureaucrats working as collection agents for the Department of Public Safety, and the State of Texas. As best as I can determine, they are currently responsible for the collection of ticket surcharges on infractions such as, driving with an expired license or without a license, driving without insurance, or driving under the influence (DUI). One to three of these infractions entitle the state charge the “Offender” with a surcharge every three years. And by the way, this “Private Corporation” has aspirations far beyond its current collections role. Their website claims the following as their vision: “[To Become the] Receivables Management Solutions for Every Government in: every city, every county, every state.” Reading about these cats makes me reflect on Douglas Adams description of the Vogons in his classic work “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!” “Vogons are described as mindlessly bureaucratic, aggressive, having as much sex appeal as a road accident… They are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy – not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.” I trust my reader perceives my hostility at this point.
As you may have guessed I recentlyreceived a ticket for driving on an expired license. I wrote about my experience in an article for this site several months ago. http://www.tylertxdirectory.com/8936/getting-pulled-over-in-tyler-texas-again/ First off, I was charged more by the city than I was led to believe I would be by the officer who gave me the ticket. Ok fine I’ll just pay the ticket and be done with it. When I had paid up all my charges, and gotten everything current, I was enormously relieved. One less thing to worry about right? Wrong! A walk to my mail box today dispelled my happy delusion. Turns out, now that I had paid the city, the state wants its kick- back. At first I wasn’t even sure it wasn’t a scam. Well it is a scam but… Upon talking to others who had already encountered this organization, I heard stories of people being fined without their knowledge, ever growing penalties as a result of inadequate notification, and even warrants issued for the arrest of citizens who believed they had paid their tickets!
The Driver Responsibility Program, (sounds nice huh), was put into law in 2003. But the whole “Surcharge” nonsense is just another shameless project to squeeze more revenue out of the citizenry! And what’s worse the rules are so unclear, as to make it a sliding scale. No one really understands the fees, so who can tell if they’re being over charged? So what do we do? I don’t know. I guess we can start by calling our congressman, and trying to make the issue visible enough to find someone willing to vote for repeal. The hard thing is to find a politician willing to divest his office of funds, especially if he or she can collect them in the name of “Driver Responsibility.” I guess for now, I’m out another one hundred four dollars. Enjoy it DPS, but you’d better use it to put gas in an officer’s car or something. God knows that’s where it was going before I sent it to you!
Tags: Bureaucrats, Department Of Public Safety, Douglas Adams, Driver Responsibility Program, Driving Under The Influence, Driving Without Insurance, Expired License, Guide To The Galaxy, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, Infractions, Mail Box, Private Corporation, Receivables Management Solutions, Road Accident, Sex Appeal, State Of Texas, State Reading, Surcharges, Tyler Texas, Vogons
Posted in Tyler Businesses | 4 Comments »
May 9th, 2011
How politics have changed in this country the last few years! Last week the State of Texas was denied federal assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The wildfires in the west have damaged over 2.2 million acres, more than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. There have been more than 9000 fires reported since November and more than 400 homes have been destroyed. Yet FEMA denied the Governor’s request for aid on the basis that the state has already been given twenty “targeted grants” specifically to deal with wildfire threats. The governor’s office responded by stating that the federal money was already specified for particular incidents not for larger more general damages. Governor Perry said “I am dismayed that this administration has denied Texans the much needed assistance they deserve. It is not only the obligation of the federal government, but its responsibility under law to help its citizens in times of emergency. Our state has become a model for the nation in disaster preparedness and response, but Texas is reaching its capacity to respond to these emergencies.” I must confess to having mixed emotions on this issue. On one hand, as a Texan I take great pride in the fact that when disasters come, natural or otherwise, (and we’ve experienced both in my family in recent months and years), we don’t sit on our front porch and wait for the FEMA trucks to arrive! We get out and help our neighbors and ourselves pick up the pieces and put our lives back in order. On the other hand I simply can’t believe that this current administration in Washington has suddenly become so fiscally conservative that they simply can’t find the money to assist those who have lost homes in West Texas wildfires.
This administration has funded every pork barrel, boondoggle project it could find over the last couple year under the guise “economic stimulus,” and now suddenly when a state which happens to be in political opposition to the president, finds itself in dire straits, the money dries up? I find it impossible to believe that there’s not a bit of quid-pro-quo happening here! You can call me a conspiracy hack if you want, I’d rather owe the feds as little as possible anyway, but when I see the administration in Washington investigating the possibility of bailing out blue states like California, and in turn refusing to help a red state like Texas with disaster relief, I can’t help but conclude that political bias is at play! Say what you want about President Bush, but he was much more even handed in helping any state recover from disaster, red or blue.
Tags: Current Administration, Disaster Preparedness, Economic Stimulus, Emergency Management Agency, Federal Assistance, Federal Emergency Management, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency Fema, Federal Money, Fema, Front Porch, General Damages, Governor Perry, Guise, Million Acres, Mixed Emotions, Pork Barrel, State Of Texas, Tyler Texas, Wildfire Threats, Wildfires In The West
Posted in Tyler Businesses | 2 Comments »
January 31st, 2011
To no one’s surprise, a new rumor started on Facebook. It did not take long for the status that read “Kentucky just passed a great law. To be eligible for food stamps, Medicaid, or cash assistance for your children or yourself, you have to pass a DRUG test. Now every other state should do the same! If you agree re-post.” to flood my Facebook home page. After I did some investigation (mainly just looked at snopes.com) I found that no such law had passed, but this law has been proposed to the Kentucky state legislature’s House of Representatives. The proposed bill states that once a year anyone who is eligible and applies for government living assistance will have a drug test once a year. After I read about this bill I wondered why this has not passed and why the state of Texas has not thought of this.
I think that Medicaid is a great thing. I am not on insurance and there is no way I could pay the bills if something happened to me or my children. I have been on pregnancy Medicaid with two of my pregnancies. When you are on Medicaid you are asked if you have or do use illegal drugs, and you talk to a social worker, but they just mark down what you say without testing you. The drug test would be helpful in this situation, not only as reliable source of the situation that this child will be brought into, but also this can show doctors the proper treatments to give to these pregnant women.
The purpose of cash assistance is to help people in desperate situations get back on their feet. While on the cash assistant programs they require that each person applies for jobs on a regular basis. Well if they did a drug test before people are accepted for the cash assistance the program would know whether they would even be hired, since most jobs require a drug test.
I think that it would be great if it was true if the rumors were true, and if at least one state would start doing drug tests to be allowed to even apply for government assistance. Many of these government assistance programs work along side of Child Protection Services; you would think that these programs would want to know the situation of the home in more detail than what the parents write on the application. I have nothing against people getting on government assistance and I understand that people run into hard times, but it bothers me that people take advantage of these services. Texas really needs to do something different when it comes to applying for these services and I think a drug test would be a great new law.
Tags: Bill States, Cash Assistance, Desperate Situations, Doctors, Drug Test, Drug Tests, Facebook Home, Food Stamps, Government Assistance, House Of Representatives, Illegal Drugs, Kentucky State Legislature, Medicaid, Pregnancies, Pregnancy, Pregnant Women, Snopes, Social Worker, State Of Texas, Surprise, Tyler Texas
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January 21st, 2011
I’m not sure what I think of this, but the state of Texas is considering the creation of a “domestic violence registry” similar to the one for sex offenders. It seems so many women repeatedly find themselves in abusive relationships that our state is considering doing the job that has traditionally been done by dads and older brothers for centuries, namely, weeding out undesirable suitors for their female family members. I am a proponent of the sex offender registry. That has been a good tool for parents as well as a source of shame and isolation for the sickies out there who have survived the big house and made parole. But I’m not sure about this one. The bill is being proposed by Texas Democratic Congressman, Trey Martinez Fischer of the 116th district encompassing the San Antonio area.
Let me start by saying unequivocally, that I have never struck nor otherwise abused any of the women in my life. The kind of domestic abuse the law would aim at is not the average day in or day out argument over the remote control or leaving the toilet seat up. It would require anyone convicted of domestic violence three times or more to register with the state. A data base would be kept, and anyone could check the list for the names of potential mates free of charge. The thinking is that it would give women in particular who have been in bad marriages and relationships, a means of ensuring that they are not entering into another dangerous relationship. The concern I have is that I’m not sure I want the government, even the state government, compiling lists of citizens, and what they do wrong for the benefit of other citizens. I’m fine with the sex offender registry, being that, that is a particularly distasteful and dangerous crime largely against children. But where do the registries stop? There is an argument out there that says “hey if you’re not guilty you have nothing to worry about.” This may be true at present, but these things have a way of expanding into more and more areas covering more and more offences. Will there be a registry for drivers who chronically forget to renew their vehicle registration or inspection tags? If so I’d like to know now because it may influence my position!
I’m open to being wrong on this, but in an era where the arm of the national government is over reaching into all areas of the citizens life I find it hard to consider feeding the beast. I realize the proposed law is only state wide, but with unlimited free access we’re airing a lot of people’s dirty laundry. It will be interesting to see what comes of the bill. I look forward to hearing the various arguments so I can come to a more informed decision, but at present I find that I’m very uncomfortable with the new registry.
Tags: Abusive Relationships, Big House, Dads, Dangerous Relationship, Democratic Congressman, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, Female Family Members, Mates, Proponent, Sex Offender Registry, Sex Offenders, Sickies, State Government, State Of Texas, Suitors, Texas Congressman, Toilet Seat, Trey, Tyler Texas, Women In My Life
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Municipal Surcharge Bureau, Again!
October 26th, 2011Well as it turned out, recent financial challenges made it necessary for me to request an extension in order to avoid a suspension of my license. Upon making the request I was condescendingly lectured to by the vogon on the other end of the line, that the extension was only being granted as a courtesy, and the next payment would have to be on time. “That’s ok,” I replied; “this is my last payment.” “Well, actually,” it replied hesitantly, “you’ll be required to make another payment of one hundred dollars next year… uh… a… and the following year” the unisex voice stammered, clearly nervous about breaking the news. I hit the ceiling. “Are you kidding me?!” I yelled. “I’m afraid not,” it squeaked. “According to the driver responsibility act of two thousand whatever…” and it proceeded to quote me chapter and verse of some recent legal code, no one but an expert in legal blather could possibly understand.
I’m becoming more and more aware of how buried we are becoming in stupid red tape which serves only to complicate our lives and separate us from our money, in exchange for absolutely nothing! And unfortunately, no one can seem to stop it because its government that’s doing it! If only we could manage to elect representatives willing to divest the government of at least a portion of other people’s money. Until then, maybe we should all start to pay these fines in pennies! The bean counters may actually enjoy counting them.
To read my original article on the municipal surcharge bureau, click on the following link Municipal Surcharge Bureau and the Driver Responsibility Program in Texas
Tags: Blather, Chapter And Verse, City Of Tyler, Collections Agency, Department Of Public Safety, Driver Responsibility, Financial Challenges, Grammar, Hawks, Infraction, Installments, One Hundred Dollars, Perceptive Readers, Red Tape, Responsibility Act, Sheriff Of Nottingham, State Of Texas, Surcharge, Tax Collectors, Thief, Tyler Texas, Vogon
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