"Living in sin one way to beat negative aid" from the June 17, 1976 Door County Advocate
By KETA STEEBS
Living in sin one way to beat negative aid
By KETA STEEBS
Gov. Patrick J. Lucey won this round in the negative aid fact but cheer up, Gibraltarites and Islanders, there's a way to get even. All we have to do is divorce our spouses and live in sin.
The Homestead Tax Credit will automatically be given the ex-partner with the lesser income and the other person can assume squatter's rights. Persons earning $7,500 or less are entitled to a sizable tax credit now but the trouble is not too many families can exist on this income and still have strength to file.
So follow me closely and here's what we'll do. First of all we determine which spouse earns less than $7,500 and then we turn our house (or farm) over to him or her — whatever the case may be. By dissolving joint tenancies we leave one person with the property and the other off the hook. The one off the hook is the one making $7,500 or more per year. The property owner, in most cases, will be left with zero income.
The State of Wisconsin, however, only recognized the combined incomes of husband and wife no matter whose name the property is in. A call to a revenue man in Green Bay verified the fact that the only way a husband and wife's income cannot be lumped together is if they are no longer husband and wife. Nothing can be done about those couples choosing to live together without the benefit of wedlock, he admitted sadly, but he did not think much of the idea.
"You will break, the state with your hare-brained ideas," he advised emphatically. "We need the money."
Well, so do we. I'm willing to divorce my husband (naming negative aid as grounds) and move back in with him as soon as the divorce is final. His limited income will enable him to collect a sizable refund the first year and I can keep my money. While I'm separated he and the boys can collect food stamps and qualify for welfare, medical assistance, free glasses and appliances. Our TV is shot and my refrigerator is making a funny noise so I'm making sure I don't return home until the state buys us new appliances (and don't think there isn't a fund for that purpose.)
Come to think of it, maybe I'll wait until fall after the kids are outfitted for school and we have our oil allotment taken care of.
An uncontested divorce shouldn't cost more than $200 — just about what the boys' tennis shoes cost for the year — so the initial expense will be made up in no time. I'll have to spend a few bucks fending for myself during our year's separation but I'm sure my sister (not adversely affected by negative aid) will take me in. During that time, of course, I will exercise visiting rights, thus enabling my family to see more of me than they do now.
My attorney advises that a precedent setting suit such as I propose might be looked at unfavorably by a judge but he's given me an out. "List cruel and inhuman treatment as your reason," he ordered.
"Cruel and inhuman treatment?"
"Yes, it's cruel and inhuman to have to listen to someone gripe so much about taxes. Whatever partner has to listen will automatically be given the decree."
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Other posts by Keta Steebs
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/keta-steebs