Man faces foreclosure over $50 fine

Bart

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It all started with his vehicle being left in his own driveway.


http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=779234
<H2>Milwaukee man faces foreclosure because he didn't pay parking fine </H2>
<H3>The ticket went unpaid for four years, eventually amounting to $2,600 in fines</H3>


Peter Tubic ignored a $50 parking fine in 2004, and on Monday, it cost him his $245,000 house.


In what city officials believe is the first case of its kind, the city foreclosed on Tubic's house on W. Verona Court after repeated attempts to collect the fine - which over the years had escalated to $2,600 - had failed.


"Our goal isn't to acquire parcels," said Jim Klajbor, special deputy city treasurer. "Our goal is to just collect taxes. . . . It is only as a last resort that we would pursue . . . foreclosure."


Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz technically stayed the judgment to give Tubic one last chance to explain why he hasn't paid or even responded, but Sankovitz ruled in favor of the city's foreclosure. (snip)


Tubic takes the blame for disregarding the 15 or more notices he received seeking payment and warning of the pending foreclosure on the house, which was fully paid off, but says he had good reason.


He was physically and psychologically unable to handle the situation, he says.


According to the Social Security Administration, Tubic, 62, has been disabled since 2001. He has been diagnosed with psychological disorders that limit his "ability to understand, remember and carry out detailed instructions," according to documents from the administration.


In addition he suffers from chronic pain caused by degenerative diseases of the knees and spine, as well as chronic respiratory disease, diabetes and obesity, among other ailments.


In several lengthy conversations with the P.I. Team spanning two weeks, Tubic frequently grunted in pain and broke down in tears.


"They're trying to take my house away for a parking violation," Tubic said. "I know it was my own fault for letting it drag on, I've been under mental duress. I haven't been able to handle this."


Janine Geske, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice and law professor at Marquette University, called the case a human tragedy and an example of how people can fall through the cracks in the system.


"It seems like a drastic remedy," Geske said of the city's foreclosure. "But on the other hand the city has to enforce its zoning laws. I don't fault the city for that. (snip)


Tubic first got the fine for parking his Ford E150 with no license plates in the driveway of the home, which belonged to his parents at the time . The radiator had broken and Tubic couldn't get his plates renewed unless the van passed an emissions test. He didn't have the money to make the repair and had more pressing worries, he said.


His father was suffering from dementia. His mother was battling cancer, and he was their live-in caretaker. He needed to shop, cook, clean, maintain the house and tend to his parents' needs.


The van repair could wait, he thought.


Then a man from the city showed up and told him otherwise. It was February 2004. Tubic would have to move the van or get license plates for it within 30 days, per city zoning codes, the man said. Somebody had complained. (snip)


Several days later Tubic's dad died. Tubic was overwhelmed, he said.


"It was a combination of things financial and emotional, my caregiving role, all heaped themselves on me at the wrong time," he said. "I still don't function well."
 

Colonel_Reb

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Sad thing that cities are so desperate for money. If you live in the country you don't have to worry about such things. Every time I stay in a city for any length of time I am more grateful that I didn't grow up in one.
 
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Heres the real question - how can the government seize something that does not belong to it? Who REALLY owns your property that you pay taxes on, your or the government? And how is that any different then feudalism, wherin serfs (aka you and me) paid rent to wealthy barons who provided them with basic services like "defense"?
 

Colonel_Reb

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Oh that goes without saying for me InfamousOne. That is the most sickening aspect of the whole thing. Our country and gubment freaking stinks!
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C Darwin

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InfamousOne said:
Heres the real question - how can the government seize something that does not belong to it? Who REALLY owns your property that you pay taxes on, your or the government? And how is that any different then feudalism, wherin serfs (aka you and me) paid rent to wealthy barons who provided them with basic services like "defense"?

What percent of the American population understand this concept? I'd say 2%.
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Bart

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InfamousOne said:
Who REALLY owns your property that you pay taxes on, your or the government?


The government owns the property in reality. Another way to look at property taxes is as a form of rent. You don't pay the rent the landlord gov. throws you out. The fellow in the story has paid his tax bills however, which are very high in Milwaukee. It also has high sewer and water rates. If anything, the officials could have hauled the jalopy away as they do so often for abondoned cars on the streets. If he still didn't pay they had his vehicle to do with as they pleased.
 
G

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What a sick travesty. Government workers are the biggest jerks in the whole world. Someone should have used some common sense, empathy, or compassion somewhere along the line. This just makes me sick.
 

bigunreal

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Stories like this should cause all intelligent people with any compassion at all to completely disrespect our injustice system. Our police, government officials and courts are so infested with corrupt, unfeeling stooges that I am reminded of Jonathan Swift's brilliant observation (made well over 300 years ago) that it is impossible to bribe most legal authorities to do good.
 

Poacher

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Bart said:
Tubic first got the fine for parking his Ford E150 with no license plates in the driveway of the home, which belonged to his parents at the time . The radiator had broken and Tubic couldn't get his plates renewed unless the van passed an emissions test. He didn't have the money to make the repair and had more pressing worries, he said.


His father was suffering from dementia. His mother was battling cancer, and he was their live-in caretaker. He needed to shop, cook, clean, maintain the house and tend to his parents' needs.


The van repair could wait, he thought.


Then a man from the city showed up and told him otherwise. It was February 2004. Tubic would have to move the van or get license plates for it within 30 days, per city zoning codes, the man said. Somebody had complained. (snip)

So you can't park a car without plates in your own driveway? Is that the law? What busy body would complain about something like this? Someone was out to get him.
 

Bart

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Wisconsin is tough on crime. Pay your fines or else face the music!It's a law and order state. Meanwhile inner-city crime has been spreading like wildfire to the surrounding suburbs, but nobody seems to care.


http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0821081books 1.html


Wisconsin woman, 20, arrested for two overdue library volumes


AUGUST 21--The next time you forget to return a couple of library books (and ignore those annoying letters about the overdue status of said volumes), think of Heidi Dalibor. The Wisconsin woman, 20, was arrested earlier this month in connection with a pair of books overdue for several months. Dalibor, who made the mistake of ignoring a court citation issued after she failed to respond to letters and phone calls from the Grafton library, was busted August 6 for failing to return copies of Janet Fitch's best-seller "White Oleander" (a 1999 Oprah Book Club selection) and "Angels &amp; Demons," author Dan Brown's precursor to "The Da Vinci Code."


According to a police report, Dalibor was apprehended at her family's home,cuffed and stuffed in a cruiser, and booked for violating the "overdue library materials" ordinance. She also had to pose for the below mug shot at the Grafton Police Department. Dalibor subsequently settled with the library by paying her overdue fines and reimbursing it for the cost of the two novels, which totaled around $180. Dalibor's mother Patty told TSG that her daughter was "a good kid" who works two jobs. She is also now the owner of the Fitch and Brown books, which Dalibor got to keep as a result of paying off her library levies.Edited by: Bart
 
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