Editorial: "Effort to Recover 21 Cents Simply was Inane"

Editorial response to the Randy Ludlow article "Battle Over 21, Debt to State Finally Ends with Application of Some Common Cents," which appeared in the The Columbus Dispatch on January 26, 2003

The Columbus Dispatch
January 30, 2003

I was incensed to read in Sunday's Dispatch of the lengths Licking County bureaucrats and a magistrate went to persecute (not prosecute) a child-support recipient for nonpayment of 21 cents.

There can be no possible justification for their incompetent actions, especially after they mailed the first collection letter requiring 37 cents postage. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of taxpayers' dollars were spent to collect 21 cents, at a time when cities and counties are complaining of budget deficits.