Ever hear of MSB “A Private Corporation?” Well neither had I, until walking to my mail box this morning. MSB stands for Municipal Surcharge Bureau. MSB is basically a group of outsourced bureaucrats working as collection agents for the Department of Public Safety, and the State of Texas. As best as I can determine, they are currently responsible for the collection of ticket surcharges on infractions such as, driving with an expired license or without a license, driving without insurance, or driving under the influence (DUI). One to three of these infractions entitle the state charge the “Offender” with a surcharge every three years. And by the way, this “Private Corporation” has aspirations far beyond its current collections role. Their website claims the following as their vision: “[To Become the] Receivables Management Solutions for Every Government in: every city, every county, every state.” Reading about these cats makes me reflect on Douglas Adams description of the Vogons in his classic work “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!” “Vogons are described as mindlessly bureaucratic, aggressive, having as much sex appeal as a road accident… They are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy – not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.” I trust my reader perceives my hostility at this point.
As you may have guessed I recentlyreceived a ticket for driving on an expired license. I wrote about my experience in an article for this site several months ago. http://www.tylertxdirectory.com/8936/getting-pulled-over-in-tyler-texas-again/ First off, I was charged more by the city than I was led to believe I would be by the officer who gave me the ticket. Ok fine I’ll just pay the ticket and be done with it. When I had paid up all my charges, and gotten everything current, I was enormously relieved. One less thing to worry about right? Wrong! A walk to my mail box today dispelled my happy delusion. Turns out, now that I had paid the city, the state wants its kick- back. At first I wasn’t even sure it wasn’t a scam. Well it is a scam but… Upon talking to others who had already encountered this organization, I heard stories of people being fined without their knowledge, ever growing penalties as a result of inadequate notification, and even warrants issued for the arrest of citizens who believed they had paid their tickets!
The Driver Responsibility Program, (sounds nice huh), was put into law in 2003. But the whole “Surcharge” nonsense is just another shameless project to squeeze more revenue out of the citizenry! And what’s worse the rules are so unclear, as to make it a sliding scale. No one really understands the fees, so who can tell if they’re being over charged? So what do we do? I don’t know. I guess we can start by calling our congressman, and trying to make the issue visible enough to find someone willing to vote for repeal. The hard thing is to find a politician willing to divest his office of funds, especially if he or she can collect them in the name of “Driver Responsibility.” I guess for now, I’m out another one hundred four dollars. Enjoy it DPS, but you’d better use it to put gas in an officer’s car or something. God knows that’s where it was going before I sent it to you!
Municipal Services Bureau Is a Bloated Bureaucracy That Doesn’t Belong in Texas
July 23rd, 2012It’s ironic that a state as proud of its liberty and individualism as Texas would give so much cart blanch authority to as bloated, hateful, and inhuman organization as the MSB, “a private corporation.” Not strong enough? I despise this company with the burning heat of a thousand suns. Still unclear? If it were possible to see a picture of the staff’s personalities and people skills, they’d look like the picture of Dorian Grey. I’ll have to consult my priest, but I’m not sure it’s possible for anyone who’s worked at the MSP, (particularly in the absurdly named “Customer support” capacity), to escape the grasp of purgatory, let alone cross St. Peter’s threshold and actually see the Celestial city!
Ok deep breaths… I recently received word that my license was suspended for failing to pay another hundred dollars for a ticket I received a year and a half ago for failing to realize that my driver’s license had expired. The dead line for the payment was a mere seven days prior and they had already suspended my license! The great part is I had not received a single notification prior to the suspension. When I “consulted” with one of their “experts,” she insisted that their computer showed the notices had in fact gone out. “What good is that” I asked “IF I NEVER RECEIVED THEM?
Ok where do we go from here?” I asked. “Well, sir” she persisted, “It’s important for you to understand that we did in fact send you the notices.” “No, it’s not” I replied, “because, I never received them.” When I volunteered to pay she informed me that there would be a forty eight hour turnaround before the payment actually cleared, followed by another seven day turnaround before my license could be reinstated, at which time I’ll need to visit the DPS office where I’ll presumably be treated to yet another round of fleecing. To top it all off, when I attempted to make a payment, I was informed that she could not or would not; (whichever) take a credit card payment. I would have to call back and pay through the automated service.
I consider myself an upstanding citizen. I live here legally, I own a small property, I pay my bills, and I’ve never been to jail for any reason. But I’ve just been informed that a faceless bureaucracy can charge perennially me for a very minor past traffic offence, without adequately informing me they’ve done so, and then suspend my driving privileges when I fail to pay. I should say as well that I’ve spoken to numerous other people who’ve had precisely the same experience, so simply looking at a computer screen that may or may not say they’ve attempted to inform me is not evidence enough. If there are any state senators, or officials who happen to be reading this, or if my readers know any personally, please, please, please this “law,” needs to be repealed! It’s an absolute mess! It’s the kind of law I’d expect to come from a wing of the bloated federal government, like the IRS or the KGB, not my home state of Texas!
Tags: Bloated Bureaucracy, Burning Heat, Cart Blanch, Celestial City, Cross St, Customer Support, Deep Breaths, Grasp, Individualism, Msb, Msp, Personalities, Picture Of Dorian Grey, Private Corporation, Purgatory, Seven Days, St Peter, Thousand Suns, Threshold, Turnaround, Tyler Texas, Whe
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