When my wife and I moved to Texas, it was a major revelation to us how easy the Texas government makes it to attend to the official business of living - driver's license, vehicle registration, property permits, and so on. State and county officials appear to bend over backwards to make residents' lives easier, not more complicated. If one isn't sure what to do, they'll take extra time and trouble to coach you through the steps involved, and even lead you from station to station to make sure everything's sorted out. I've never before encountered that level of helpfulness when it comes to state and local government.
(To mention just one example, I built a 400-square-foot shed in our back yard last year, metal construction on a concrete slab. Getting a building permit meant five minutes in the municipal offices, a payment of $40, and that was it. I walked out with the permit in hand. Try doing that in most cities!)
On the other hand, I've lived in a state (coughLouisianacough) where a lot of bureaucrats and civil (?) servants don't seem to give a damn about the people they serve. There are honorable exceptions, of course, particularly in smaller towns, but those in the larger centers appear to be there to do their time, draw their pay, and slow-walk customers at every possible opportunity. Moving from there to Tennessee was a big improvement, and from Tennessee to Texas an even bigger one.
Sadly, friends and correspondents in "blue" states and cities report that bureaucratic helpfulness is a pipe dream. Charles Hugh Smith examines the problem.
The reason blue states are losing population isn't just high taxes; it's a lack of fiscal discipline and accountability, and insanely unaffordable housing costs. Immense floods of tax revenues sluice into the state coffers but the outcomes of all that spending diminish rather than improve. Problems don't seem to get solved even as the permanent "solution"--throw more money at it--fail due to the decay of fiscal discipline and accountability, and the rise of a "stakeholders" mentality where dozens of entrenched interest groups each hold a veto in every decision.
As I've explained before, straightforward government processes like getting a building permit have become Kafkaesque nightmares of delays and soaring costs, partly because every agency benefits from stretching the process out by finding reasons to demand a resubmittal: more delays means more hours of work and more fees.
Nobody benefits from a speedy permit process except the general public, and they have no political power. The same political class gets re-elected despite their poor performance, so there's no incentive to enforce any discipline or accountability. Failure is the New Normal as every "stakeholder" finds reasons to meddle with or nix any plan that might disrupt the self-serving, inefficient, ineffective status quo.
A great many city and county officials are doing their best to solve local problems and improve core services, but there's only so much they can accomplish if the state creates a culture of entrenched-interests dysfunction, skims most of the tax revenues and malinvests public borrowing.
. . .
Simply put, people are moving not just to escape unaffordable housing and high taxes. They're moving to escape fiscally irresponsible, ineffective, unaccountable governance that always wants more tax revenues while delivering diminishing quality services and infrastructure. There's nothing like a homeless encampment a few yards from your million-dollar cottage to modify one's calculation of the benefits of staying put. Throw in decaying public transportation, library hours being slashed and random crime, and all the supposedly great amenities start losing their luster.
There's more at the link.
I'd love to hear from you, dear readers. How have you experienced this problem where you live? Please leave us a comment, telling us the city and state where you live, and let us know how the bureaucrats and civil servants there treat you and others. Is it a never-ending frustration, or a pleasant experience?
Peter
21 comments:
A link (to a link) talking about how this kind of thing benefits certain groups of people:
https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/key-mostly-outward-facing-facts-from-the-story-of-vaccinateca/
There has been a general tendency, over time, for bureaucracies to increasingly serve the interests of the - not the bureaucracy itself, exactly, but rather, the class of people to which the individual members of the bureaucracy belong.
I don't think this is necessarily deliberate, either.
I have ADHD. Y'know what is very difficult to do, when you have ADHD? Hopping through all the hoops that have been placed in the way of getting your ADHD treated.
I don't necessarily think the hoops were placed to -prevent- me from getting ADHD treatment, mind; rather, I think the hoops were placed by people who don't see them as substantive barriers to doing so.
Likewise, I don't think the barriers to entry, in general, are necessarily placed by people to prevent people from entering (maybe to prevent the "wrong" people from entering, but that's its own topic); bureaucrats who have spent their lives mired in bureaucratic processes don't see going through bureaucratic processes as a problem, because they know how to navigate those processes.
They have bureaucracy-navigation-privilege, and, as we have been told, privilege is invisible to the people who have it. Oh, you just have to file these seven documents. Oh, you don't know what documents to file? Well, that's easy, you just look it up here. Oh, you didn't know about the "here"? Well, that's kind of your problem, we've made it very easy to access this information, why can't you just look it up like anybody else?
Location was Costa Mesa CA (a fairly conservative city in what used to be a conservative county). We were installing a solar power system with a battery and needed multiple inspections by the City inspector to get our installation approved. He was well known by the solar power guys as being a PITA, especially since he did NOT understand the shutdown procedures for a battery system and kept failing the install because it didn't react like a PV-only system. My installer finally had to get a senior tech from the manufacturer out to babysit the idiot thru the shutdown per the manufacturer's documents and specs. The City guy was the ONLY one who was 'qualified' to do solar inspections so we were stuck.
Texas resident here..you can still find plenty of bureaucratic nonsense in the state.
For example...during a freeze we had water pipe supplying the house crack requiring a piece of metal pipe to be replaced with the newer plastic pipe. So while the plumber was there replacing that I asked if he could remove the old, no longer in use piece of copper pipe going into the garage and then looping right back through the wall (this was once connected to a water filter/softener). Nope, he said because that was "drinking water" you had to have a permit from the city. The pipe I was asking to be removed was connected to the one he was fixing!
I do have to say that Texas' ease of renewing drivers license and license to carry via website is outstanding.
Having lived in Louisiana for most of my life, I agree the bureaucrats there make everything worse.
Like you I'm in Texas and it is easy. I've done project management and commercial build outs all over the US and in several other countries, and I can't believe how easy some things are.
With a birthday coming up, I had to renew my driver's license. Online, took 5 minutes. Last time I did it in person at a smaller station it took so little time I thought they just were blowing me off... Had to renew my TX LTC (carry permit). Again, online was preferred, took 5 minutes. As long as their stored imagery meets current standards, I should get my approval in days.
Compare to my ham license renewal. Took about 40 minutes online, with having to create new accounts at some FCC payment site, link my old FCC info, then go back and actually pay.... still 40 minutes at my desk isn't bad compared to other options.
When I needed to move my electrical service from overhead to underground, I went into the office, explained what I wanted to do, they told me the requirements, and HANDED ME the new meter base. My electrician had the new line, meter, and panel installed in 3 hours, while the electric co-op swapped out a pole and converted the drop to an underground service. One short morning's work.
Fishing and hunting permits? Online, 10 minutes.
Vehicle registration? online, couple minutes. Granted that if you have to go into the office it will take longer, as there are a lot of car dealer agents in line to do title work, but it is still a one stop process.
The property tax assessment, challenge, and payment all proceed quickly for ordinary requirements, although it is a bit cumbersome that two agencies (and a court for a challenge) are involved.
My DBA involved filling out a form online, printing it, a notary stamp and cashiers check, and mailing the packet, but was straightforward and well documented. I got the certificate in a few days.
You can argue about the validity of having to get licenses and approvals for those sort of things, but I can't fault the ease of the processes.
nick
I know that people in less blessed places always fume about service at the post office, and at the DMV - but I have never had less than excellent service in either function here in San Antonio. The central post office staff at the main post office on Perrin Beitel is amazing and helpful.
And as for the Department of Motor Vehicles - a story.
About fifteen years ago I rolled my old Volvo sedan into the back of a truck's Tommy-Lift while trying to merge on a highway on-ramp. The grille and both headlights were smashed - and the only way that my insurance would pay out, would be if I basically junked the car, did the repairs, and then re-registered it. This was complicated, involved about half a dozen forms ... and one of the senior people at the DMV took me aside to another counter, wrote out on the forms exactly what I should say so that the process would go through the state office without a problem, stood over me while I filled them out and signed them - she took almost twenty minutes to help me with this. And it did go through without a hitch. When I went to renew my driver license at another DMV office, I was able to make an appointment on line, waited in the office for about ten minutes, then called to the counter and processed.
I've never been able to figure out why dealing with these two entities should be so painless here - possibly because San Antonio is chock-full of military veterans working a subsequent government job.
I think you are mistaking simplicity based on state and/or politics when it's actually more urban versus rural. Yes, here in Texas it is fairly simple to renew certain things online. But . . . those times one has to go in person, here in the DFW 'burbs, it is just as painful and onerous as any blue hive. Nothing but minimally competent diversity hires and long lines and general unpleasantness.
However, arrangements we've made for rural property we've bought and are moving to in a neighboring state have been as simple and convenient as one can imagine. Pleasant people, all native-English speakers - who've gone out of their way to help and make things as simple as possible.
I used to live near Wheeling WV. Ohio County has no permits except for septic systems.
But Wheeling... At one point (and maybe still) they had 76 types of business licenses - and because of overlap, most businesses needed to get 3, with yearly renewal fees.
Building requires permits and inspections... Inspections are $50 each, and if the inspector finds a single mistake, he leaves and starts the next one at that point. I'm told most permits require 6 to 8 inspections. Oh, and if you want to open a business, the building has to meet current code, checked by the same inspection system...
This is, of course, before getting to higher city taxes, water and sewer fees, etc...
I'm told big cities are worse, which makes me wonder how anything gets done in them!
Well, my own experiences seem to mirror yours but in a bit more extreme fashion... I came to Wichita Falls, Texas from Champaign, Illinois and could not imagine a more stark difference... Getting my vehicles registered, buying a house, etc... Nothing at all like the vaguely malevolent bureaucracy that rand things up North. Seeing what is going on up there, I'm glad I got my family down here where at least there is not the feeling that we are fighting the government to do anything at all. Throw in the official stance of "we will not prosecute crimes" and "we will take your firearms"... And of course the unofficial shadow banning of anyone with a military background in a University environment... Well, made my choice quite easy to come here.
We came to a rural town and returned to our roots in the S.E., to leave cities and all the trappings. Half mile down a dirt road from a secondary road several miles outside a very small town.
What we didn't anticipate was a flood of federal dollars for growing government facilities 40-50 miles away. This led to a mad scramble from developers to change part of our county into a bedroom community after they fouled up the closer counties.
The power hungry local bastards started with heavy handed attempts to introduce county wide zoning and comprehensive plan changes to grease the skids for the developers they are clearly in bed with. The people in this county are rural. Many of us purposefully settled here because it is not overdeveloped and it had scant zoning only the more affluent end. You can imagine, it did go over well.
We spent the better part of 2 years battling them and fought to a little better than a draw, but a win for those of us in the woods. In the meantime, council spending money at a pace like Hunter B did with hookers and blow. New signs, tax breaks for the "special" ones. Seeing "non-profits" with chants of "public/private partnerships" come raining in.
In the meantime, they never address issues with understaffed offices to serve the citizens. Their attitude became (always was?) haughty, of course they knew better than we did what our fences/barns/chicken coops should look like so as to make them pleasing to the eye for the developers and residents of the anticipated tax farms.
Simply deciding to put a small cabin for an ailing parent on one's owns property was subject to a myriad of limitations and rules....on land we already own. How much property we could use, where it was located in relation to roads/access. Telling people they could not live in a camper on their own property while they built their home...its not a proper full time living structure you see, they have to protect us.
I am glad Texas is different, but I wonder how long it will last. The people here are conservative, Christian, and patriots by and large. The county has a history of violent uprisings and independent people dating back hundreds of years...yet...we are be slowly invaded from the blue land, many of the young people are little to no different than the rest of the country. And, they vote.
Everything always comes down to power and money. Nothing else matters for some, even here, where we thought we chose carefully.
They are going to burn it all down. Our country, our culture, our freedom and independence. Just have to wait and see where that leaves us and what arises from the ashes. I am not optimistic.
I'm sure the Louisiana uncivil nonservants learned their techniques from the French. French fonctionnaies seem to take pleasure in being as awkward as possible, when they aren't on strike or vacation that is. There is also the important word "normalement" which confuses foreigners at first because they look in the dictionary and find it definded as "usually" or "normally". The dictionaries all fail to mention that when uttered by a fonctionnaire there is an implicit "but not in the case" that must be added.
My experience in Japan is that while there is at times excessive paperwork and a requirement to do far too much of it in person (and where you the 'customer' play the part of mailman moving the papers from desk to desk), they are quite quick, efficient and helpful. Often there is a clear instruction board with a flowchart for common tasks by the reception area and most have a website you can go to first which lists what you need to bring etc. so you just follow the chart gathering and distributing the paperwork as you go. In the cases where it is not a common task you often get a dedicated bureaucrat to go with you from desk to desk to explain to all the other bureaucrats why you are "special" and so on.
A little bit of background on Charles Hugh Smith.
He used to be a General Contractor in construction. His municipality implemented a "Drawing and Design Review and Storage" regulation with a $5k price tag.
CHS thought...well, maybe seismic codes (California) or they need to hang onto the drawings in case there is a fire or for search-and-rescue.
He went to the office with the drawings and his checkbook. They didn't want the drawings. They wanted the check. They basically told him "Take your damned drawings with you, we don't have a place or way to store them."
One of the suggested fixes was to have ANY municipality accept and process your applications. Computers, don't you know. Then he could drive to Redding or where-ever and pull the forms and they could send an inspector with an additional mileage fee. It is called shopping around.
Of course the idea never went anywhere. Governments lose power when people have choices and the control freaks cannot stand when that happens.
Seguin, TX- actually 18 acres about 10 miles SW of the city.
The County offices walked me through my VA tax exemption and AG exemption- so I'm paying about $180/year in property taxes. The electric co-op charged $75 for a new meter loop because I wanted to put the electric underground for the old farmhouse- and later for the new one.
They told me it would be about two weeks, but the surveyor was out that Monday and told me they'd drop a new can and 200Amp panel. Everything was done within a week. Same for the fiber.
It's supposed to be the first 500' are free and an extra $1.50/ft after. I know my spur from the main power to my pole is over 600', but I wasn't charged.
Had to make an appointment to renew my CDL during the 'Rona shut-down and the pic was horrible.
But I was in and out.
Whenever I renew my trucks or pay taxes, it's a bit of a wait, but goes pretty smoothly.
I'm in the country, so the only permits required are Septic (and there's TX state workarounds on that) and needing a pro well service to dig a well, no matter how shallow- because of logbooks.
I did the electric service myself and doubt they even looked (I would have...) at my new panel at the house.
A good friend lost his house and everything he owned in a wildfire 5 years ago last December. He still has not completed rebuilding his home. Ventura City and County loudly trumpeted that they would expedite the permit process to get people back in their homes, but did the exact opposite.
For a start, a fire site is considered a hazardous waste zone, so you must remove the top 6-12 inches of soil, pay for tests, and keep removing until it tests clean. Then you have to get grading permits. The house had stood there for decades, but he had to pay 5000 dollars to be told that the soil wasn't stable, and he needed 130000 in excavation to put piers down to bedrock. After getting a third engineer, he was able to show that the soil is stable. Total cost for this, about 25000.
Next, the height limit was lowered, so he couldn't build the same house he had, but also could not increase the ground footprint. Oh, all new homes MUST have solar, and MUST have an electric car charger installed, even if you don't have or want an electric car. So on, and so forth, ad infinitum. Delay after delay getting permits - he spent about 150000 before any actual building started.
Then COVID, with its delays and supply issues. Increases in lumber prices added about 150000 more to the house price. I'd hate to think what it takes to build without the "expedited" permits.
A building permit needed for a 400 sqft shed? Say what? Glad I live in a red state.
The permit difficulties are dependent on the actual city, as my city is (relatively) easy to work with, but an adjacent city that isn't much different is a serious PITA. It also doesn't help that there is obvious corruption involved in that city. A friend had to remodel and the city inspector kept nit-picking everything. All the problems went away once they hired a firm that the inspector's relative or in-law owned.
"On the other hand, I've lived in a state (coughLouisianacough) where a lot of bureaucrats and civil (?) servants don't seem to give a damn about the people they serve. There are honorable exceptions, of course, particularly in smaller towns, but those in the larger centers appear to be there to do their time, draw their pay, and slow-walk customers at every possible opportunity."
Maybe the Louisiana Civil Servant committee hasn't yet realized how easy it is to hide and dispose of a body in that state. Not only a lot of swamp, but a lot of critters who are too happy for the slow moving grub ...
Tongue in cheek of course.
South Texas building permits are 'okayish' as long as the permit seeker isn't too sarcastic or overbearing. Some flattery (Gosh, I couldn't do what you do ...) helps some too. If a building inspector meeting is held, asking their advice as to how they would correct it definitely helps. It seems a lot of people hold them in contempt and holding back their job and it is easy to hold a grudge against them.
Sevier County, TN - not in a city anymore!
We don't have much interaction with the county government, but things like car registration are easy, and the clerks are actually helpful when one has questions (e.g., "Why did we not get a property tax bill for these two parcels we bought last year?").
Before that, we were in Sunnyvale, CA; the city officials generally tried to be helpful, but there were a lot of regulations (variably enforced, depending how connected one was), and the state, county, and regional bureaucracies were many, big, confusing, and grotesquely inefficient.
" he couldn't build the same house he had, "
This one pissed me off here in my Pacific NW town. House built in 1909 with steep pitch roof. Garage built at the exact same time with less pitch. Wanted to tear out garage as it was rotted and flooding, replace with newer and possibly bigger. Couldn't built same garage as code required steep pitch to "keep the look of the neighborhood". Wait, my effing garage was built in 1909 and that's the look you are going for!
Abandoned the project, having spent almost $1000 in permit fees, jacked up the building, cut off the rotted bottom, poured a new slab underneath with stem wall, rebuilt cut off part, set it back down and bolted it to stem wall. Did NOT apply for a new permit because eff them.
Then, two years later, someone builds a Frank Lloyd Wright looking monstrosity just around the corner. So much for the look of the neighborhood. I guess they knew whose palms to grease.
@Eric Wilner
I live in Sevier County, too. The difference between low and high regulation areas is amazing.
I used to live in tidewater Virginia, where every move was regulated by the county, state, and feds because we lived in the Chesapeake watershed area. Every move we made was a huge pain. I had 65 acres of forest, and decided I wanted to clear a 100x100 foot area for a garden. The permitting process took six months and $700, and they sent out a guy to make sure I didn't cut down a single tree outside the 100 ft margin. On my own property. I couldn't build a path from one side of my property to the other without doing a federally approved ecological impact study because part of my place was considered "wetland."
The state sends inspectors onto your property every year to make sure you haven't made unapproved improvements. The guy saw a shed I'd slipped into a little spot by my driveway and accused me of cutting down a tree to make room. I had to prove to him that the tree had died and fallen down on is own. It was a horror.
My neighbor went ahead an cleared a half acre without a permit. He simply decided that the fine was less hassle than the permitting process. They make *you* work to get the permit, but *they'll* work to get the fine. And the cost was about the same.
So, I moved to Sevier Count, TN, and got a place with a little land on a hill. I put up a little shed, and then thought "Maybe I better make sure I have the right paperwork." I called up the county office and said "Hey, I put up one of those Amish sheds by my house. Do I need a permit for that?"
She said "Is it real big, like for a business or warehouse or something?"
"Nah, it's big enough to hold a tractor and some barrels, but that's about it."
"Well, we can give you a permit for that if you want. But most folk don't bother."
"I'm good."
"Then have a blessed day."
Texas can be accommodating, however, return after living away for several years and try ti get an appointment for a new TX DL (from another state DL). 3-5 month wait in the DFW Metroplex. You can however drive 150 miles out and get an appointment later in the week at a small town DMV. But make sure they are open as the website doesn't show local closures and the state website will issue the appointment for the closed location.
The same political class gets re-elected despite their poor performance, so there's no incentive to enforce any discipline or accountability.
There is only one political class regardless of label. Near root is a scientific, bureaucratic attitude that politicians are hired to perform governmental work and one is the same as another. If we regarded politicians who failed in their basic duties as our enemies to whom punishments can easily, cheaply, and if necessary fatally, be meted out, things would change. But nope.
If government were run more like a business—fire the incompetents—things would improve slightly. Not much. Instead the elected and unelected linger in their offices until senility or the desire to enjoy their wealth cause their retirement. The nobles of Russia and France wish they had had it so good.
There's nothing like a homeless encampment a few yards from your million-dollar cottage
To raise cash to flee, to whom is the cottage sold?
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