NEWBURYPORT, MASS — The New Jersey Department of Labor has tracked down a single mom in Massachusetts who it overpaid 35 years ago and the state wants its $73 back, according to a report in the Newburyport (Mass.) News.



Alice Mainville, who, according to a column in The Record, grew up in Paterson, said the flap goes back to her days in high school, when she was working in a bakery. In the story, she didn't dispute the debt. Instead, she was more curious than anything, saying: "What blows me away is that any time or energy went to collecting a $73 debt. Surely, there's something more lucrative for the state to pursue."

But not so fast, said New Jersey Department of Labor spokeswoman Kerri Gatling.

Gatling told the paper there is no such thing as a debt "write-off" in unemployment insurance law.

"Once a debt is established," Gatling said, "it remains in effect until repaid. When we get a new, valid address, we send a refund notice to that new address."

Good luck. Mainville, now 53 and working as a secretary, said she has no intention of paying the debt, and said the fact New Jersey had tracked her down after all these years was "pretty arbitrary."