This statement (meme) has made it’s way around social media for awhile now. It is a very true statement and anyone who doesn’t agree is probably either a socialist or someone who has a mountain of student loans they don’t want to pay back.
I, like most everyone, have debt. I pay it. I don’t expect anyone else to pay it nor do I expect to willingly pay anyone else’s.
I cringed when I saw this meme on the profiles of certain people. Not because they are wrong and certainly not because they aren’t entitle to complain about the government handing our money to dead beats not willing to pay their own debt.
I was taken aback because many of the people I saw posting this meme actually support an individual and her animal rescue that blatantly defies multiple court orders to pay back her own student loans.
That’s not just hearsay. It’s a fact.
In 2014, Rochelle Steffen, founder and head of Mac’s Mission animal rescue in Southeast Missouri, was ordered by a judge to repay her student loans totaling almost a quarter of a million dollars.
She got lucky when the 2014 judgements were written to disallow any further interest to accrue in the loans.
National Collegiate Student Loans requested a garnishment on the judgments to ensure that Rochelle would pay back those loans.
At the time of the judgements, Rochelle worked for a prominent local news station, KFVS 12. Her animal rescue was not a legal rescue then, being neither a registered non profit, nor licensed with the State of Missouri as a rescue.
Here’s where things get fun.
As soon as the judgments were rendered, and the garnishment was ordered, Rochelle walked away from her position at KFVS12. One cannot garnish a non existent paycheck, right?
And guess what else they cannot garnish?
That’s right; the law cannot garnish income derived from a non profit entity paying employees with a 1099.
Now, guess what year Rochelle finally made Mac’s Mission a non profit.
You’d be right if you guessed 2014, right about the time the judgements on her student loans came down. She knew what was coming and applied for non profit status on Jan. 17, 2014. She was notified of the granted and backdated status in a letter from the IRS dated Oct. 15, 2015.
And even though they can’t get their money out of her because she works for a non profit, the student loan people got another judgment against Rochelle in 2021 for $34,307.86 plus court costs, and this judgement includes 9% per annum until paid in full.
So, not only are tax payers stuck paying her student loans, donors of her rescue pay for all her personal expenses; home, shop, vehicles, equipment she uses for her “art”, vacations, etc., all on top of her salary as “marketing manager”.
So when I saw that meme on the social media pages of conservative folks I know support her and her efforts, I was a little confused.
But then it dawned on me that maybe they just don’t know.
But they should.
And now they can.
And you can too.
Share, so all of your friends can know too.
All judgements can be verified on Missouri Casenet.