Maryland, what a neighbor

I have had a couple of run-ins with the state of Maryland and I am growing more and more irritated with MD's state government.

The first happened shortly after my tags expired on my vehicle. I had moved in the time period that property taxes are calculated (July 2006) and thus had not received my property tax bill from Harrison County, and did not have records on file for Mineral County. I knew that I needed to renew my tags, but had neglected to do so as I hate paying my property taxes 2 months early just to renew my tags. The Sherriff's office helped me to find my bill, but phone payment was not an option. I was going to be passing through Harrison county in the next week, so I decided to pay in person on my way to Charleston. While I waited to get the highly coveted paid receipt so that I could renew my tags my wife had a baby. I drove my vehicle between Keyser and Oakland in order to watch my daughter at home and be with my wife and new baby at the hospital. On the final trip I was pulled over by a MD state trooper because one of my three brake lights was out. He noticed that my tags had expired earlier in the month and wrote a $60 citation for expired WV tags. I took the ticket because, like most, I am an easy target for the police to pull over and fine. I still don't understand why I should pay MD $60 when I had been working on the issue, which in WV is not as easy as going to the DMV and paying to renew your tags. It takes several steps and visits to the assessors office, the sheriff's office, and then the DMV to get your tags renewed. I believe that a WV trooper would have understood and possibly cut me a little slack since my wife had just had a baby 2 days prior.

Next, a recently discharged employee and WV resident filed for MD unemployment. I questioned why the filing was in MD and asked how this could affect me since I don't have a MD unemployment account. I was given a phone number to call and proceeded to do so on 3 occasions. After 1/2 hour wait times I would hang up in order to continue working. Today I was called by MD Unemployment and threatened with a fine if I did not immediately fax the form that I received back to them. Correction: a staff member was told to pass this message on to me and direct me to immediately return their call. I explained why I had not already done this ( I needed to know what, if any affect this would have on my payroll withholdings and whether this would create a MD unemployment account), to which I received vague answers of "it won't, don't worry about it", and an explanation that wait times for their division are usually fairly long. I went ahead and faxed the form to avoid a fine and penalty from our neighbor to the north. Yet another unpaid obligation that is levied against small business people. It took roughly 1/2 hour to complete the form and fax it, plus the 2 hours of phone calls. I am tempted to send an invoice to MD for services rendered. Perhaps I can get my $60 vehicle fine back.