
DC cancels tax lien sales - growupkids
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/2013/09/13/a0933688-1cc0-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html?wpisrc=al_locmisc
======
noonespecial
Witness, if you will, a perfect example of the fourth estate performing its
function. The article that brought about this result was a modern masterpiece
of journalism.

Now ask yourself what would have happened if those in power had a bunch of
warrantless "dirt" on these particular journalists and decided that they'd
really rather just keep the gravy train rolling.

We _all_ have something to hide _and_ something to fear.

~~~
crazygringo
Can we _please_ not bring the NSA into every single comment thread on HN? It
is completely unrelated to this story. Let's just agree that the journalism is
great.

~~~
noonespecial
We kind of have to. Journalism is under siege(1). The rise of the unashamed
surveillance state makes it much worse. There's been a sort of "journalism is
dead, who cares" kind of attitude floating around. It isn't. I do.

We need to think about what we're about to lose.

(1) [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/world/europe/britain-
detai...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/world/europe/britain-detains-
partner-of-reporter-tied-to-leaks.html?_r=0)

~~~
sliverstorm
Perfect... bring up the NSA every thirty seconds, until everyone is utterly
sick of hearing it and automatically ignores anything related to the NSA... we
can't thank you enough noonespecial, you are doing God's work.

~~~
obituary_latte
What a shit attitude. Try taking into consideration that people feel helpless.
People are desperate to try and change things. People may be acting - not in
concert mind you - to affect some change. Try to respect that these people you
lament are at least fucking trying.

If all else fails, stfu.

~~~
sliverstorm
_If all else fails, stfu._

Who was it who has the shit attitude?

~~~
obituary_latte
Touche. It appears I have a shit attitude towards stifling expression on such
an important issue.

~~~
sliverstorm
Though I should not be surprised, you misrepresent me. There's nothing wrong
with covering the issue. It's just not helpful at best, and actively harmful
at worst, to try to inject the issue into _every possible place_. We are
intelligent adults; we are more than capable of thinking about more than just
one issue.

It isn't like there are many people left who haven't heard about it, and even
if there were, the front page of HN has consistently contained several
articles covering the NSA _specifically_ for a number of weeks now.

~~~
mixmastamyk
People want to talk about, you'll have to deal.

------
kqr2
Prior thread on _Left With Nothing_ (the article which spurred this reform)
for reference:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6349476](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6349476)

DC should also do a thorough analysis as to why the government failed and how
to prevent such failures in the future.

They should follow the 5 Why's process:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys)

~~~
malandrew
Unfortunately, my experience is that with government they just paper over the
first why without ever getting to the fifth because the first why is visible
to voters and will help them get re-elected. Fixing the fifth why would be so
far removed that voters wouldn't notice and the effects probably wouldn't even
be felt until the next person was in office.

------
robomartin
It needs to go farther than that. Nation-wide.

In the US it is a myth that you own your home or land. This is true even if
you've labored for thirty years and paid off your mortgage in full wothout
ever being late even one day in the span of those thirty years.

How is that possible? Simple: Property and other taxes.

How is it ever right that the govenrment can take away your property? Property
taxes in particular almost ensure that you are always on the edge of a
precipice that can lead to the loss of your home. If, for any reason
whatsoever, you can't pay your property taxes your home is gone. Poof!

It is my opinion that property taxes in the US ought to be eliminated. The
obvious issue of how to pay for whatever is supported through property taxes
is immaterial to the central argument here, that is: a person ought to be able
to own their home and truly be "free and clear". If a property is encumbered
with taxes you never really own it. It's an illusion.

Property taxes also have other ugly effects. For example, during the real
estate boom cities found themselves with vastly more revenue than in the past.
As often happens in these situations governments spent the money and made
deals predicated upon the idea that the ride would never end. This, of course,
was not true and whole cities have gone bankrupt as the result of their
transgressions. With revenue locked to a stabilized metric (some kind of a ten
year average of something, for example) this would not have happened.

Property taxes are the devil.

------
8ig8
This is an example of why I fear the disappearance of _news_.

Investigative reporting is expensive. As newspapers wither, who will do this
important work? This investigation lasted 10 months. It was speculative. It
might not yield any worthwhile information.

Who will do this risky reporting in 5 years. HuffPo will just sit back and
wait to regurgitate the fair use.

------
dark_void
I bought my house 10 years ago, and moved out of my house 4 years ago and kept
it as a rental. One day 2 years ago, I received a notice that a homestead lien
was placed on the house.

Apparently the city had decided that I had never lived in the house at all.
They placed a lien, with no explanation, no warning, and no avenue for appeal
or even discussion. The lien, with interest and penalties, was about $10,000.

The first thing I did was to contact an attorney. Of the 6 attorneys I found
in the area who dealt with such matters, 4 of them agreed to speak to me but
all 4 had represented the county in the past, and therefore could not
represent me. The other two simply refused to make an appointment with me.
Presumably they have bigger fish to fry and are not interested in my case.

The lien still sits on the house, accumulating interest daily. I'm just
thankful that they have not foreclosed yet and that it's a rental and not my
main house. It's an impossible situation even for people with reasonable means
but the poor and elderly are completely at their mercy.

------
dnautics
the creation of an ombudsperson is a well-intentioned idea, but the words of
the mayor are still troubling: "from this point forward, no District residents
whose property has been sold at a tax-lien sale will be at risk of losing
their homes through this process _if they have extraordinary circumstances
that warrant a re-examination of their cases._ "

So, now we have to trust the city to be able to decide if your situation is
"extraordinary"?? Isn't this backwards, this process should not be the
default, it should be the extraordinary. There's also very little admission
that there's anything questionable with the way they were doing things, and
that everything is (for the most part) going to continue, move on along,
nothing to see here.

Even if you were to concede that there is nothing wrong with the _idea_ of
taking someone's home for tax truancy, the question remains, why weren't the
homeowners at least compensated for the value of their place less the value of
the lien?

Radio static on the other end.

