Your Government Will Fund Itself By Fining You

People heard about this after the Ferguson shooting...then they forgot.
Here's your reminder:

https://reason.com/2019/08/22/is-your-hometown-balancing-its-budget-by-fining-everybody-it-can-heres-how-to-find-out/

Your Government Will Steal Your House For Uncut Grass

I was prepared for this article to be clickbait, with a lot more nuance than the title suggests. I was wrong.

Here's the timeline:

Old man's Mom dies...
He hires someone to take care of the lawn while he settles her affairs...
Lawn guy dies...
City fines him $500 a day with no notice...
City could have cut his lawn for him and charged him...
But the city relies on these fines to pay the salaries of the city officials submitting the fines...
Man can't pay the fines so they are trying to take his house...

What is going to happen...

IJ is suing...
The fines will be overturned...
The cities taxpayers will have to pay legal fees...
The city will start fining more to make up the shortfall...

https://reason.com/2019/05/08/florida-city-tries-to-steal-an-elderly-mans-house-over-uncut-grass/