Offices to stay open through June 12 as state reworks budget, hoping to save service officers.

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... For two previous articles about the budget cuts in Michigan ... and more Sign of the Times articles ... view this page.

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Disabled veterans office gets reprieve

BY PAULA M. DAVIS
 

BATTLE CREEK -- The Disabled American Veterans Battle Creek office was to close Friday because of state budget cuts, but it and the six other field offices in Michigan received a temporary reprieve.

David Martin, the sole employee at the Battle Creek office, said he learned just after noon on Friday that the office will remain open on a part-time basis through June 12.

The office acts as an advocate, assisting southwestern Michigan veterans with medical claims, compensation claims and other issues.

Starting Monday, instead of 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the office at the Veterans Administration Medical Center will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., for four more weeks.

``After that, I don't know what's going to happen,'' Martin said.

Neither does the Michigan Disabled American Veterans Service Director Tom Wendel, who's looking for funds to shore up the budget.

The Disabled American Veterans' offices are one the casualties of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's recent $349 million executive-order cut, which sliced more than $2.3 million from Michigan's Department of Military and Veteran Affairs' budget.

Resulting cuts to the Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans organizations is prompting a protest. Veterans and veterans organizations plan to stage a rally at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the state Capitol.

``The executive order cut took $187,200 from my budget, which is basically my entire fourth-quarter budget,'' Wendel said.

He said the field office closures were to happen Friday, but the Disabled American Veterans still has enough money to keep them open until next month. The fourth quarter begins July 1.

``A month from now I may have to do a full layoff (of department service officers),'' he said. ``I don't know that yet.''

Wendel said that the reductions are coming during a time when more veterans need help as a result of current overseas conflicts and Michigan's ailing economy.

``This past year, the increase in claims through the Veterans Administration has been huge,'' he said.

Like other state residents, veterans have faced layoffs, downsizing and loss of private health-care benefits.

And some, ``are turning (to us) for the first time saying, `Now I need help from VA medical system,''' Wendel said.

Since October the Disabled American Veterans office in Battle Creek has assisted 1,274 veterans or their family members. Taken together, all seven offices have assisted 5,106 people since then, he said.

``Right now when veterans really need help is not the time to cut,'' said Bob Cook, commandant of the Kalamazoo Marine Corps League.

The executive cut resulted in a $86,000 loss of state funding to the league.

Cook wasn't aware of that cut or its immediate impact but said that he and other veterans fear the state will ultimately centralize services now offered by veterans through various outlets such as the VFW or the American Legion.

``These jobs are being taken away from us veterans organizations and given to someone controlled by the government,'' Cook said. ``We feel we can do a better job -- veteran to veteran.''

In Lansing on Thursday, he hopes many turn out to protest the budget reductions. But he said ``most of us feel that it's a done deal. Most us of feel that our protest efforts will be in vain.''

Protest planned

The Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans organizations are planning to protest state budget cuts to the Disabled American Veterans at a rally at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Capitol in Lansing.

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