Still want to give more power to the government, moron lefty voters?
A state law allows counties to effectively steal homes over unpaid taxes and keep the excess revenue for their own budgets.
An 83-year-old retired engineer in Michigan underpaid his property taxes by $8.41. In response, Oakland County seized his property, auctioned it off to settle the debt, and pocketed nearly $24,500 in excess revenue from the sale.
Under Michigan law, it was all legal. And hardly uncommon.
Uri Rafaeli, who lost his property and all the equity associated with it, is just one of thousands of people to be victimized by Michigan’s uniquely aggressive property tax statute. The law, passed in 1999 in an attempt to accelerate the rehabilitation of abandoned properties, empowers county treasurers to act as debt collectors. In the process, it creates a perverse incentive by allowing treasurers’ offices to retain excess revenue raised by seizing and selling properties with delinquent taxes—even when the amount owed is miniscule, and even when the homes aren’t abandoned or blighted at all.
Organizations representing property owners like Rafaeli say the practice is unconstitutional, inequitable, and unreasonably harsh. They call it “home equity theft”—a process that’s a close relative to the civil asset forfeiture laws that have been used by police departments to similarly deprive innocent Americans of their property without due process. They are now asking the state Supreme Court to restrict the practice.
Ya’ know, it seems like there is something just wrong about that.
I’m from the government and I’m here to hurt you.
Americans may still have some personal freedoms but one of them isn’t the ownership of property!
Government is simply a word for the things we do together.
How is there no doubt in my mind that the man is a white christian?
And they wonder why it’s necessary for them to conduct business with the public shielded by metal detectors.
In the 1930’s, H.L. Menken wrote on this kind of situation:
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
Your home, your land, your car…All belongs to the government. Don’t believe me. Look it up for yourself.
@Bwaney Fwank:
“Government is simply a word for the things we do together.”
At gunpoint.
Nice Town Hall you got there
Not only is this an evil policy, it is short sighted.
Now some of these people have no home and will end up in public housing. That will end up costing much more than the money the govt makes from (stealing) those homes.
Happens here in NY all the time and usually some real estate dealer on the town board will buy the property up. How nice the crooks are. And the rest of the town board will sit silently and do nothing. Sure you can trust the government, if you feel crazy.
I’m sorry, but I don’t necessarily believe this libertarian rag. Never have.
It may be true, but it’s too conveniently outrageous.
I’ll have to get confirmation from a reliable source.
Not saying it’s untrue. Not saying government doesn’t suck. But I question the veracity of this ‘fucked for less than ten bucks’ account.
Government is stupid. No doubt. But if the guy was paying hundreds in annual taxes and missed a minor payment do you think that they would devalue his property and auction for pennies on the dollar and collect less revenues in the future?
I’m sorry. I am a skeptic. There is more to this story.
Mama don’t let your babies grow up to be g-men… let em be patriots and such…
How low does the ‘owed money’ go? 10¢? 30? 1 dollar?
Will a one day off number written on the check make the check invalid ?
What if you forget to dot the i on your name? Do they seize the property for that too?
Earlier in the year, there was a story like this from NJ I believe. Or somewhere else in the northeast.
It seems to me that this is a golden opportunity to set up a watchdog group to look for similar situations – they crop up with a distressing regularity. Find them, pay the fines and publicize them so the rest of the residents are on alert. It probably would cost too much (more than I can afford though) to set up a non-profit to do this.
Having just recently taken a consulting programmer position for a county government, i can tell you that incompetence, sloth and ineptitude is the order of the day.
They are too stupid to intentionally take a property in this manner.
That is not to imply that there aren’t lurking weasels looking to capitalize on such incompetence.
And it is also very possible that apparent sloth and ineptitude is a foil for profiteering by those who seem to be incompetent dullards.
But conspiracies require many vigilant and silent coconspirators. It’s hard to hold together.
I don’t know. I remain skeptical.
Remember the kid who smoke marijuana at his grandmother’s house, and the police confiscated it as a “drug den” under drug laws?
Guess who gets the profits from those seizures?
Yep! They reward themselves!
PHenry, I respect your incredulousness
It is probably a seriously misplaced decimal point by an incompetent civil servant t 16:45 at night
I heard about a guy that double payed his taxes. Rather than the county just cut him a check or apply the extra to the next payment (we have 2 payments in Shitlinois). He had to fill out forms and get notaries, etc.
Contrast.
In my county less than 20 miles away, my wife wrote the checks for the late payment amount. I got hand written letters from the county telling me to only pay $X for the second payment.
So the county took his property, valued at $128,000 and sold it at auction for $24,000? I would investigate the relationship between the county clerk, the sheriff (who runs the auction) and the successful bidder. This is a scam, and one or more of the above is corrupt as hell. Was the public properly notified? How about the owner?
At a nearby city many years ago, an enterprising court clerk embezzled a sizable amount of cash. She collected fines for traffic tickets, and was authorized to reduce the fine by 1/2 if the violator plead guilty. Everyone was charged the full amount, but the people who paid in cash were put on the books as getting 1/2 price “discount”. She pocketed 50% of the cash take, for several years before being caught. As I recall, she had to make some restitution but got no jail time.
Remember, it’s always okay for the government to steal all your shit provided the government says it’s alright for them to steal all your shit. And you really don’t need guns. The government will protect you, if they feel like it, only after taking all your shit, though.
For years there have been ads on the radio encouraging those deeply indebted to the gummit to call Tax Relief experts. Supposedly the feds routinely write off tens of thousands of dollars at a time. And this local government can’t overlook 8 frickin dollars?
If this story contains all the pertinent facts….an uprising is way past due.
Barry said n ’64; Ronny in ’82, ” … the government IS the problem!”!
Both conservatives were right. Disclosure – I voted for them; not unbiased.
The “story” is the real shit. Steve Lehto even “covered” it.
The fuckers stole his house for less than a bottle of moonshine.
It pops its head up from time to time and then gets buried again – but the practice continues – and has – for decades.
First time I read of this kind of shit was about 50 years ago in DC.
Some poor schlub didn’t pay his property taxes and the DC gov’t stole his home.
Probably more common than most think.
ALL gov’ts are criminal organizations.
I guess they have to be.
izlamo delenda est …
Coincidentally, the new railroad is going right through his property….more beans, Mr. Taggart?
This sort of thing is why I always say politicians are higher skilled class of criminals than the mafia. They make their crimes legal. Our best defense is tricking them into living in capitol cities where have a slight chance of keeping a eye on them and a shot at preventing them from getting completely out of control. Though they still do once in a while, with a Hitler, Mao, etc. that usually requires a war to regain some control over them.