Home Sweet Seizure
In the midst of trying economic times, Tamworth selectmen Tom Abugelis, Willie Farnum, and John Roberts are moving ahead with seizing citizen’s properties for back taxes. From the 5/14/09 Selectmen’s meeting minutes, one family wrote a letter asking not to have their home taken from them. Two properties were recently deeded by the town, and it is not clear if the letter was written by one of them or by a new family whose property is soon to be on the chopping block, as such discussions are closed to the public:
A taxpayer requested the Board stop a lien from being placed on his property. The Board advised of their policy to not stop liens from being placed on properties or deeding of properties.
Cold. Fortunately, it sounds like the family is only being put on the path to being literally tossed out on the street, and will be staying in their home for now: Administrator Cassandra Pearce chuckled at a public meeting, in front of a rolling camera, about the town “becoming landlords” for the time being on a recently seized property.
B..b..but if we don’t take people’s properties from them, then other people won’t be quite as motivated to write a check to the town every year for their “fair share”. We’d not have the money to pay for a wildly expensive elementary school, nor a community nurse, nor for the health & welfare budget, nor… Tell it to the folks losing their homes. It is wrong to have a system in place that takes people’s homes from them for not contributing their “fair share”.