I recently commented about the election of a new tax collector for Haywood County. In most counties, the position is not filled via a popularity contest.
In Haywood, the long-standing incumbent was defeated by somebody who the Smoky Mountain News reports entered the contest on a whim, had his political party pay his filing fee, wasn’t really serious about campaigning, and was a little surprised he won.
In the former report, I mentioned the new guy’s duties would be cut back due to his lack of experience. In addition, attention is being called to his failure to pay property taxes on-time in the county at least four times. In the former report, I erroneously thought the county was going to garnish his new, county-paid wages, but the garnishing is old news. The debt has been paid, and the new tax collector now owns no taxable property besides his vehicles.
Since the dude’s resume does nothing to increase public confidence, the county commissioners have now asked the outgoing collector to please stay on and help the new guy. This, amazingly, is agreeable to the two tax collectors; but some in the county are now alleging the arrangement is some kind of dirty deal that ignores voters’ wishes and is designed to perpetuate whatever unspecified hypotheticals the voters may have been trying to curtail.
I won’t mention what hypotheticals that last sentence may conjure about the allegators.
