"What's going to happen is there's not going to be any veteran service officers out there working with veterans to file their claims."

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... As this bad economy trickles down, veterans are going to be trickled on.  Find more Sign of the Times articles here.

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Veterans hurt by budget cuts

Service officers could lose jobs

Barrett Newkirk
The Enquirer

On a typical day, David Martin makes contact with about 20 veterans, helping them push through the paperwork needed to receive health benefits.

But Martin, a veteran service officer with the Disabled Americans Veterans in Battle Creek, won't have a job after Friday as his agency tries to shoulder a $187,200 reduction in state aid.

About 20 service officers at 11 veterans groups could be let go because of $1 million cut from their budgets as part of an emergency executive order to reduce state expenses approved by the Legislature on May 5.

"When this cut takes effect, basically what's going to happen is there's not going to be any veteran service officers out there working with veterans to file their claims," Martin, 61, said. "So when the services run out, where are veterans going to go?"

Doug Wells, Martin's Detroit-based supervisor, said Disabled American Veterans will be laying off seven service officers located across the state. To compensate, he said the agency's remaining staff will take on some of the workload, but volunteers also may be brought in to offset the personnel loss.

"They're not going to be experts," he said about the volunteer helpers. "It's a technical position. It's not something that you can teach someone to do overnight."

The executive order cut 25 percent of the annual state aid for advocacy programs to Disabled American Veterans and 10 other veterans support groups. At the DAV, where Martin and Wells work, that equates to more than $187,000. For Michigan's American Legion it equals $226,500 in lost state help.

"It means that we can't absorb the cuts without cutting personnel," said John Nelson, director of veterans affairs and rehabilitation for the American Legion. He estimated that the American Legion would eliminate up to five service officers and that the cuts in all 11 agencies would mean at least 18 offices across the state would be out of work.

"It could come out to be worse than that," he said. "I don't see how it could be any better."

Nelson estimated his and the other veteran agencies employ between 80 and 100 service offices, many working part-time.

For the American Legion, he said, the cuts will reduce the efficiency of how claims are processed and cut back on how much access veterans have to benefit support.

While the cuts represent 25 percent of the state funding for veteran groups, they are less than 0.8 percent of the entire budget for Michigan's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, a discrepancy that upsets the veteran support workers.

Maj. Dawn Dancer, spokeswoman for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said previous reductions have bypassed the veteran groups but that was not possible during the most recent round.

"Other departments and services have been cut each and every time," Dancer said. "This was the first time any money was taken from (the veteran service organizations)... It was their turn."

Two executive orders in 2007 that reduced state expenses eliminated more than $2.6 million from the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs but did not list specific cuts for any veteran group.

Dancer noted that the small size of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs means the cuts are minimal when considering the entire state budget. And the department is helped, she said, by federal money that can replace some state cuts, like those for maintenance costs and the D.J. Jacobetti Home for Veterans in Marquette.

That facility and other veteran homes have not been impacted by budget cuts, Dancer said.

"We've never, ever cut costs to the care and well-being of those veterans," she said. "We've always been able to keep high standards."

Nelson of the American Legion acknowledged that the veteran groups were spared in earlier cuts, but he said the recent reductions will be extremely hard to manage.

"The part that is missing there is that we are such a small section of the budget," he said, "and our operation is so dependent on every wheel turning."

Barrett Newkirk can be reached at 966-0692.

Additional Facts

Veterans service agency cuts

Executive order 2009-22 cut $2,029,200 from Michigan's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, including $1 million going to 11 veteran service organizations. The reductions break down as follows:

American Legion $226,500
Disabled American Veterans $187,200
Marine Corps League $86,000
American Veterans of WWII, Korea and Vietnam $118,700
Veterans of Foreign Wars $226,400
Michigan Paralyzed Veterans of America $42,500
Purple Heart $ 40,400
Polish Legion of American Veterans $10,500
Jewish Veterans of America $10,500
Vietnam Veterans of America $40,800
Catholic War Veterans $10,500
TOTAL $1,000,000

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Michigan, economy, veterans' service officers, budget cutbacks