budget showdown hits home

We headed over to the secretary of state's office yesterday, because our friend Kimberly needed to get her driver's license renewed. It had not been our plan, orginally, to make this drive on a Saturday morning (in fact, if at all possible we would have avoided it, because the office which is open on Saturdays is quite distant). We made the trip specially because, due to a budget showdown in the state government, the offices will not be opening again on Monday, and in fact may not open for quite some time. This is also true of other state services, like camping grounds in state parks, preschools, and tax stamps on alcohol (i.e. no new alcohol can be imported into the state until the politicians reach an agreement). Interestingly, apparently all enforcement of rules will continue (can't have us losing revenue, after all).

As you can see from the picture, we were not alone in our realization that it was now or never. The queue actually reached out the door, around the parking lot, and quite nearly to the road about 100 meters away. It was impressive. We felt quite bad, as we were sure they would close, stranding all those people without their documents, but they managed to process everyone. About two hours later we were able to head back, complete with a swanky new driver's license.

Nikki commented:
No more will I complain about the line at the PennDOT office last week for my license... although, by comparison, I would still argue MI SoS is far more efficient. That was one line for one service... I still have to transfer vehicle registration--which is not only another line, it is another building in another town entirely.
on Mon Oct 1 19:31:51 2007

David commented:
Less than a month and you're already pining for the green hills of Michigan. Well, the off-white walls and sterile offices of Michigan, anyway.
on Tue Oct 2 08:08:58 2007

Anonymous commented:
Interesting choice of words. "Off-white walls and sterile" are the words I'd expect to be used to describe an insane asylum

- Mara
on Wed Oct 3 07:39:23 2007

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