VAN ZANDT
VIGNETTES
By Udo Birnbaum
Lessons from the wild hogs
The grass roots war
It did not take long to change the rules for collecting the $7 bounty per wild hog offered by commissioners' court, not after fifteen (15) carcasses, of various sizes, arrived on the back of a pickup at the county extension office in the Courthouse Annex.
And so the next day all that was required was the nine (9) pair of ears, to be followed, however, a few days later by another pile of carcasses and another pair of ears, hopefully reducing the wild hog population in Van Zandt County by a grand total of 34 as of press time. The bounty paid should have minimal impact on taxes (and wild hogs).
But then commissioners did not jump through all the hoops of committees, hearings, two chambers of the legislatures, triple reading of proposed legislation, as for example the Tort Reform Bill (HB4, "Trial Lawyer Extinction Act") being enacted in Austin.
But I guess, all legislation or rules start with some problem (or become one). But unlike several candidates for state office promising to do away with "frivolous lawsuits", I do not remember a single one of our local officials running on a platform of promising to do away with "wild hogs".
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Nevertheless, Commissioners, thank you for making a sincere and open effort to address what is indeed a real County problem. And if it takes wild hogs to instill a little more interest in our local government, so be it.
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