Minneapolis employees told to pay back wages

[Bees Knees]

A Minneapolis employee was told to give back part of her paychecks from 1978, which the city considers as advances when the city changed payroll systems.

Read the story... http://kstp.com/article/stories/S231849.shtml?cat=206

[Golden Rocket]

More Highhanded Government

This was probably something done to soften the blow on employees who were accustomed to receiving weekly checks when the city decided to go on a bi-weekly payroll. You wonder why they need to recover the money now after going without it for all these years.

Someone probably initially decided to recover the advances, whether this was even authorized or communicated is probably impossible to tell at this point. The recovery probably had its basis in fact, accounting-wise. When a government is involved, you don't know whether to blame politics or administrative bungling, or both.

And government mentality wants to exempt itself from laws passed for the rest of us to observe, such as the statute of limitations mentioned in the article. Very much like the federal bankruptcy laws which let debtors off the hook, except for amounts owed to government.

Bees Knees, not an earthshaking impact, but nonetheless a very interesting story, and one which the media can focus to stir up local people. Notice of all the affected employees, the media chose a librarian with 45 years of service, surely the most innocuous of all possible victims. Nonetheless clear proof that government bungling and highhandedness is alive and well in Minnesota, just like everywhere else.