Property Tax Credit Overstated Refund Issued

So I get home today and am greeted with a letter from the State of CT Department of Revenue Services.  Is it ever good news when you get a letter from the CT equivalent of the beloved IRS?  I think not. The letter is titled "Property Tax Credit Overstated Refund Issued".  Huh? Long story short, the state screwed up on the instructions to calculate the property tax credit so now about 7% of CT residents (we're one of the "lucky" ones) have to pay back money to the DRS after we already received our refunds.  I laughed out loud when I went on their website and in their press release they state that "When we make a mistake, we own it and fix it immediately".  This press release was issued on a Friday of course because there is less chance of people hearing about it at the end of the week.  The name for that is a "news dump" and is a standard practice throughout the media when a company (or in this case a State) has bad news to report.  I'm just a walking encyclopedia of information, aren't I?  I'm showing my age...make that a walking Wikipedia of information!

So they "own it" eh?  If you own the mistake doesn't that mean that you also own everything associated with the mistake?  Maybe I should send the DRS an invoice for $90 for my pain and suffering over receiving their letter and call it even...isn't that what people do nowadays?  But of course if they were to "own it" and forgive the money that everyone owes that would just add to the $500 Million deficit.  They actually said that we can either pay this now or  we can wait until we file our 2016 state taxes and include it then.  Wow, you guys are awesome!  Of course if you do neither you will be subject to fines and penalties...in other words, pay me now or pay me later!

Just how much did this little mess up cost?  Between $11 to $12 Million in underpaid taxes.  That's a lot of $90 invoices.  So I will write a check to the DRS and be done with it.  I could be cynical and mention that our state is either near or at the bottom of virtually every "Best State To..." list but I won't go that far.  Don't get me wrong, I love this state, but this little snafu just adds another bad check mark to an already lousy reputation for the state.  I promised myself when I first started writing this that I would not get too political, so allow me to give you the definition of insanity...doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  Or in other words, voting for the same people over and over and expecting things to get better.  It's fairly obvious that hasn't happened.

Wow, I just re-read this blog and it is a real downer.  So let's end this with some good news, shall we?  Um, okay, you go first!