Blind woman threatened with loss of home over 1-cent bill

I'm wondering what percentage of human beings who work for public entities are so rigid that they would threaten someone with a $48 penalty for not paying a 1-cent bill.

Why wouldn't the worker simply pay the penny and then, if the worker felt this was an unacceptable financial loss, simply reimburse himself/herself the next time he/she passed by the spare-pennies container sitting out on the counter of a 7-11?

I doubt that the worker knew that the target of the threat was a 74-year-old blind woman. So that's not the point. The point is that it cost more to send the letter than to pay the bill, and it was gratuitously harmful to a citizen.

Mass. woman 1 cent debt to city paid by former city councilor she does not know
Associated Press
November 19, 2008
ATTLEBORO, Mass.

A 74-year-old blind woman's 1 cent debt to a Massachusetts city has been settled.

People from across the country called Attleboro City Hall on Tuesday offering to pay the 1 cent balance owed by Eileen Wilbur for an overdue water and sewer bill.

Antonio Viveiros, a former city councilor who does not know Wilbur, wrote a check for one penny. He says he was "irked" by the fact that the federal government can spend billions for bailouts, yet a senior citizen was threatened with a lien on her home over 1 cent.

Wilbur's daughter first noticed the letter that warned of a lien and a $48 penalty if the overdue bill was not paid by Dec. 10.

Mayor Kevin Dumas says the whole situation was blown out of proportion.