And maybe we should make their rich families pay for the bullets
Posted by Marc Hodak on July 20, 2009 under Stupid laws | 
3 Comments to Read
One of them is Jim Tedesco
No one can top a New York state legislator in achieving that delicate balance of self righteousness, populist money grubbing, and raw chutzpah:
Rich New Yorkers convicted of crimes would be forced — if [Republican Assemblyman Jim Tedisco’s] bill becomes law — to pay the state and federal governments for how much it costs to keep them in jail.
This is one of those ideas that sounded good when Jim was sitting on the toilet one morning, reading the paper about some illegally thrown bar mitzvah in a downtown prison. “Hmm. The rich have the money. Why do we taxpayers have to pay to house them in prison?” Naturally, he called his brainstorm the “Madoff bill” because everyone’s heard of Madoff who, as far as the law knows, doesn’t have a cent left.
A sliding scale would determine how much convicts would have to pay, based on their assets, under Tedisco’s bill. Those who are worth $200,000 or more would pay the entire tab, while those whose net worth is $40,000 or less would pay nothing.
Once he was done pushing that one out, certain things should have occurred to him:
– When someone is tried and convicted, legal penalties are pronounced at sentencing. You can’t extract extra penalties after sentencing.
– A person can only be sentenced for the crimes they committed. Since this proposed penalty would be based on the person’s assets not already attached under sentencing, which one would think would fully account for ill-gotten gains, then this idea amounts to a penalty for simply being “rich,” which last I checked wasn’t a punishable offense, even in New York.
Fortunately for the entertainment value of this proposal, Tedesco’s economic illiteracy is even greater than his legal illiteracy:
Convicts’ homes “or any equity found in it” would not be counted in determining their assets nor would their mortgage payments, tax bills or payments for child or spousal support, Tedisco said.
I love that “any equity found in it.” So you don’t have to bother looking under sofa cushions and in backs of closets to make sure you don’t miss any of that equity. And not counting mortgage payments, tax bills, or certain other payments as assets is a big help since they…uh, aren’t assets.
Of course, the thing I hate the most about this bill is the economics.