Amherst: Your Tax Dollars at Work

So, here's what happened.

We get our local census form in March, as always, just before the spring election, so that we can ensure we are on the voter rolls. Recording household pets is optional. On the back, there is also a form on which one can fill out an application for a dog license, which must be renewed each spring. One can send a stamped, self-addressed envelope and have the license mailed, or one can pick up the license in person.

Last year, I dropped off the form and paid the license fee right away at Town Hall, but was told that the license--which is required by April 1 and whose purchase is enforced after May 31--was not ready yet. I came back for it a few weeks later.

So, this year, when the form arrived, I sent in the fee and figured that I would save myself the postage and save the clerks the trouble of doing a mailing by instead stopping by Town Hall (where I often have to go on business anyway) to get the license later when it was finally ready.

Evidently, the Town bureaucrats had a better idea. Writing me via first-class mail--which cost the Town and the taxpayers 42 cents--they informed me that I had neglected to provide them with a self-addressed envelope bearing stamps worth 84 cents.


We are in the midst of a budget crisis. You do the math and contemplate the logic. Any questions?