Morristown Gets Slapped With Half-Million Bank Seizure

Resisting court orders is never a risky idea for government, and at the end of February, the city of Morristown had over $570,000 seized in a bank levy over a court case which should have been resolved a long time ago.

Blogger Linda Noe has the details:

"Now that those funds have been seized by the U.S. Marshals, my guess is that Morristown has sobered up and is having some serious discussions with Plaintiffs' lawyers to settle the attorney fees, litigation costs, and/or civil penalties that were assessed against the City in the Stephens, et al. v. City of Morristown case. In this mix may be the dismissal of the City's appeal to U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a case that was brought only after Morristown refused to acknowledge problems with the Witt sewer line and refused to repair and rehabilitate that line, the City spent thousands in attorney fees for its lawyers, had to pay attorney fees and costs for the Plaintiffs' lawyers, and ended up under a court-order to fix the Witt line. [The Tennessee Municipal League (TML) paid initial attorney fees but that stopped at some point and then Morristown was directly on the hook for paying the City's defense team]

All this money was spent because the City ignored a serious problem with the Witt sewer line that was brought to its attention as soon as Koch Foods hooked up to the Witt line around 2005.

And the City would likely still be ignoring the problem today if several gutsy Witt residents hadn't  hired a lawyer after deciding that they had taken enough of the City's stonewalling and odors and overflows.

During the lawsuit, Judge Greer blistered the City in discussing the City's "malfeasance" in handling its finances, making illegal money transfers, failing to provide critical documents, ignoring recommendations of its experts, etc.

With two consecutive years (2009 and 2010) of the sewer fund being "in the red," you have to wonder if the City's appeal of the attorney fees and other costs was just another in an ongoing series of delaying tactics to avoid acknowledging the financial morass that has been present for years and years."

Topeka, Kansas Repeals Domestic Violence Law

Idiocy in Kansas government now means the lives of women, children and all victims of domestic violence have no value - a budget dispute between the city of Topeka and Shawnee County has caused the D.A. to say he won't investigate or prosecute such cases and the city has repealed their law against domestic violence.

Elected and appointed officials in the state's capital city say it's because of budget cuts, which won't take effect until 2012. The city did not vote to repeal other misdemeanor crimes - shoplifting is still a crime, for instance.

D.A. Chad Taylor publicly announced his decision not to prosecute domestic violence due to county budget cuts, and the city feared it might have to pay for the court and jail costs, and by repealing the law, they say it is still against a state law - so everything is still jes' fine.

For residents of Topeka, a lesson is presented - crimes of violence won't be prosecuted unless money changes hands.

County officials have so far refused to increase any tax rates to insure crimes are prosecuted. Another ten cents on the property tax rate, for instance, is too high a price for public safety.

And so idiocy and pathetic leadership in one Kansas county has created public policy which will likely lead to third world physical brutality. Classy.

District Attorney Chad Taylor

State To Cut Sales Tax, Morristown Set To Raise It

This week the state government crafted a much-agreed to plan for a rollback on state sales tax on food from 6 percent to 5.5 percent. The state Democrats pushed for the rollback, which is likely to be approved by the state and will go into effect on Jan. 1 2008.

The plan only affects food sales tax and customers will get a - somewhat small - break.

Except in Morristown.

Poised to enact a property tax rate increase of 40% the city also plans to provide a referendum (is it one of those city games of a non-binding votes the city has held before if the public rejects it?) which would increase the local option on sales tax on all items by .25 percent and decrease slightly the massive property tax rise. If approved, grocery taxes would be cheaper outside Morristown city limits.

In addition to the sales tax increase and the historically high new property tax on residents and businesses, the city also wants to tax residents and business under a new 'storm water assessment", a new tax based on 'impermeable square footage' for property owners and they hope to net some $400,000 annually. That's about the same amount of they city's 'book-keeping error' from last year.

The first Morristown council meeting to vote on these proposals, June 14 at 4 p.m., is also the same meeting where the public will be allowed for the first time to comment on these widespread tax increases. According to city officials, all these tax increases will only allow the city to operate for 3 years before another increase is needed.

UPDATE: As I mentioned on this topic before, I doubt there will be much if any dissent on the increase, since comparatively the rate in Mo'town is pretty low anyway. I do wonder just how much taxes and the dubious management of city finances must increase before the public does decide to get involved in the issue.