What's Wrong With This Picture?

mini me · #1 03-09-2013, 11:49 AM

In contrasting these two stories, it struck me just how out of phase society's priorities, as expressed by the stupidity of the governmental bodies that they tolerate, can be sometimes. OK, so that last sentence is dripping with questionable grammar, but you get the picture.

Story A: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...text|FRONTPAGE

Story B: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...grant-students

Nonsense.

finnbow · #2 03-09-2013, 12:09 PM

Story A: Lots of service people will take up residency in another state if their assignments/training take them to states without a state income tax (e.g., Texas, Florida) to avoid any state income tax as their assignments move them around the globe. It's not clear to me that when someone does that that they deserve to be considered a resident if returning to another state whose incomes tax they deliberately avoided for school.

Story B: These laws are directed at the children of illegal aliens (who had no say in where their parents moved them to) and whose parents, though illegal aliens, paid state taxes.

If one looks at both of these stories in a dispassionate and rational way, they aren't really outrageous (nor related, for that matter). In story A, a person deliberately takes action to avoid paying income taxes in a state and then tries to play weasel their way into paying in-state tuition as if they were a resident. In the second case, the parents of the prospective students did pay the requisite taxes to be considered a resident for tuition purposes. Makes pretty good sense to me.

mini me · #3 03-09-2013, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by finnbow

Story A: Lots of service people will take up residency in another state if their assignments/training take them to states without a state income tax (e.g., Texas, Florida) to avoid any state income tax as their assignments move them around the globe. It's not clear to me that when someone does that that they deserve to be considered a resident if returning to another state whose incomes tax they deliberately avoided for school.

Yeah, whatever. Except that your post has nothing at all to do with the Det News story, where someone who grew up in MI joins the Navy, returns to MI to go to school after leaving the service, and gets shafted with out of state rates.

Quote:

Originally Posted by finnbow

Story B: These laws are directed at the children of illegal aliens (who had no say in where their parents moved them to) and whose parents, though illegal aliens, paid state taxes.

Unless of course you consider that this is likely the very reason that their parents came here in the first place. They knew that they could enter the country illegally and then, once here, get their children access to all that this country has to offer. Its not all about "the kids having no say", it about the reasons that motivated their parents to bring them here in the first place. And them because we're generally a compassionate people here in the USA, we continue to to well-intended things like this that ultimately provide additional incentive for parents to bring their children illegally into this country.

But taking care of one of our own apparently pales in comparison as a priority?

BlueStreak · #4 03-09-2013, 01:46 PM

This maybe a little off topic, but as a sidenote;

Although I agree with the point you are making to some extent, as a veteran I'm getting a little tired of "the troops" being used to push a political agenda. As you can see by the membership here and in reading this article, not all military or ex-military folks are righties.

That being said I am also tired of fellow veterans who have taken to demanding gratitude from their fellow citizens. Many of us who pay for veterans benefits don't receive anything similar themselves by a very wide margin. But, most of them pay out of gratitude, gladly and willingly. Get demanding about it and watch that gratitude dry up.

Dave

ebacon · #5 03-09-2013, 01:52 PM

That UofM story is disturbing. Did something change with regard to legal domocile of servicemen? For example my dad is from NJ. When he was in the Army he was always considered a NJ resident no matter where he was stationed. He even had NJ tags on his cars regardless if he was in Fort Worth, Roswell, or Heidleberg.

Maybe the UofM student messed up and registered to vote in FL or something and now the state is using that against him. If so it's a pretty cheap shot IMO.

BlueStreak · #6 03-09-2013, 01:58 PM

Or maybe, as Finn said, he changed residency to avoid paying MI taxes, then went home to demand out of state tuition? That may have been the rub.

I never changed my residency. But, then the Navy stationed me in California. Ohio may have been cheaper anyways.

ebacon · #7 03-09-2013, 01:59 PM

Ahhh. I see.

finnbow · #8 03-09-2013, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mini me

Yeah, whatever. Except that your post has nothing at all to do with the Det News story, where someone who grew up in MI joins the Navy, returns to MI to go to school after leaving the service, and gets shafted with out of state rates.

"Stone lived in Michigan most of his life, he moved to Florida after high school because he couldn't afford college. He worked at Disney..."

Without further details, he sounds like a Florida resident to me. It would be interesting to find out whether he paid Michigan state income taxes while he lived in Florida or during his years in the military. It doesn't matter where you grew up or lived most of your life, it matters where you reside. He lived and worked in Florida before going in the military.

This is not to say that state universities don't get it wrong occasionally with respect to service members returning to their home state to go to school. However, in this instance, it doesn't appear like UofM did. Historically, state universities apply very strict residency requirements. Otherwise, people would simply "move" there the year before school, flip a few burgers for a couple of months, and subsequently save $50,000 in tuition over the next 4 years.

ebacon · #9 03-09-2013, 02:29 PM

The legal definition of residency is the place you intend to stay indefinitely. Note that indefinitely does not mean forever. It just means you have no plans to leave at the moment. When the man moved to Florida he probably had plans to stay there until something better came along, but he did not go to Florida with an intention to return to Michigan at a date certain. That means he was a Florida resident, not a Michigan resident.

When a person leaves his home state to serve in the military he generally intends to reutrn to his home state when his tour is over. Even though his body moved, his legal residency did not.

mini me · #10 03-09-2013, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

Or maybe, as Finn said, he changed residency to avoid paying MI taxes, then went home to demand out of state tuition? That may have been the rub.
.

Michigan is where he grew up, he graduated from Dearborn High School in Dearborn MI. where he left from to join the service. Then he came home to Michigan. Either you guys are reading something into the story that's not there, or I'm missing something. But I'm pretty sure its the former.

Now compare his treatment to the folks in the State of CO who think that college tuition should be discounted to the families of those who came here illegally. Its screwed up.