TIME
Forget the balanced-budget amendment. In Breathitt County, Ky., if you don’t get rid of red ink, you go to jail. After failing to obey a court order to balance the budget by July 1, three county magistrates were simply thrown in the slammer. The three had refused to vote for a 1% payroll tax, which state officials claimed would eliminate the $400,000 budget deficit. Their suffering coal-mining county could not afford it, argued the martyred magistrates, who were released four days later after reluctantly agreeing to the tax.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- L.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5°C of Warming
- Home Losses From L.A. Fires Hasten ‘An Uninsurable Future’
- The Women Refusing to Participate in Trump’s Economy
- Bad Bunny On Heartbreak and New Album
- How to Dress Warmly for Cold Weather
- We’re Lucky to Have Been Alive in the Age of David Lynch
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- Column: No One Won The War in Gaza
Contact us at letters@time.com