Interesting Article - Please let this pass!

As some of you may know, there is a law that states that active duty service members may keep the residency of their home state as they move from duty station to duty station (see last post - Greg's still a PA resident, despite living in MD, VA, NC, and now CA). However, this law does NOT apply to military spouses. The logic (as was eloquently explained to me by the lovely lady at the 29 Palms DMV last year) is that "technically, it is the choice of the spouse to move to where her husband is located. It is not the husband's choice to be stationed in (place duty station here)." WHAT?? Typical - what kind of standards of marriage does the government have? I thought when I said my vows that I said I would be with Greg forever and ever, through thick and thin (ie through 29 Palms and back). According to Uncle Sam, though, this is my choice.

So, as a result, me and thousands of other wives have to change residencies every. time. they. move. In the past three years, I've been a MD, VA, and CA resident. This has completely confused everything, most notably taxes. Last year, Greg and I had to file federal taxes jointly, but state taxes separately, since we "live in different states". On top of this, even though Greg is a PA resident, greedy CA says that all military members stationed in CA have to pay income taxes to the state of California...so even though we filed separately, we both had to pay. And on top of this, I had to pay state taxes to Virginia AND to California, since I was a resident in both states in 2008. And even though I only lived in CA for 6 months out of the year last year, I had to pay a full year's worth of taxes (something I suspect is an accounting error, but don't get me started on that). 

Other areas of inconvenience: car registration, licensing, etc. We've already gotten a ticket for "driving with an expired license", even though in PA if you're in the military, and expired license is still valid, since you don't have the chance to go back to PA and renew it. But apparently the cop didn't want to take the time to look this up - ridiculous! 

And finally, all of the fees I incur because I am a California resident are pretty much the highest in the country. All because I get to live in the lovely Mojave Desert....it's not even like I'm living in Bel Air! California is billions of dollars in debt right now, and because I am not a part of the same law that protects Greg, I have to just pour my money into a never ending deficit!

Sorry about my ranting. Point is, I saw this article online today, and feel really passionately about it. I think you should all read it - I'm not the only one frustrated by this - over 800,000 military members PCS every year (that's move, in non-military talk)! 

Check it out: Why Spouses Should Get Same Rights As Hubbies