State veterans office sounds good

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State veterans office sounds good
By PATRICK COOLEY, Special to The News
POSTED: February 25, 2008

MARIETTA — Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposal to create an Ohio Department of Veterans Affairs is encouraging to some, but Washington County’s veterans services officer said the process will be complicated.

In his 2008 State of the State address, Strickland called for the creation of a statewide department to take on the responsibilities currently held by local entities.

“Consolidating our veterans programs in one cabinet-level agency will ensure that we serve our veterans more effectively, especially at a time when thousands of Ohioans will be coming home from the battlefield,” Strickland said in his Feb. 7 address.

Keith Dailey, Strickland’s press secretary, said the department will be responsible for collecting and maintaining information on veterans’ benefits and helping Ohio’s injured veterans learn more about federal programs that can benefit them.

Washington County Veterans Services Officer Roy Ash said problems could arise because veterans services are funded at the county level.

“The veterans services are state-mandated but county funded,” he said. “They’re talking about a Department of Veterans Affairs, but they have no real authority to do much of anything over each county.

“The chances of them getting all 88 counties to agree to do it one way are not very good. It’s county money, and they are going to be very parochial about it,” he said.

Washington County’s Veterans Services is funded through property taxes. Of the 2.6 mills of county property taxes, 0.5 mills goes to veterans services. The estimated revenue that rate will generate in 2008 is $553,620.

Ash said even if this department did create state oversight over county veterans officers, most counties would still operate the same way they do now, and the effect on individual veterans would be anyone’s guess.

Cutler resident Karen Coe is optimistic the proposed department could help her husband.

David Coe, a 30-year veteran of the United States Army and Air Force, suffered a series of strokes in 2000 and 2001. Because there was a question over whether Coe was on duty at the time he suffered his first stroke, they have not received a disability check since April of 2000, his wife said. Karen Coe says the couple lives on less than $1,000 a month.

“I also think that every veteran should have a universal ID card so they can select their own doctors and hospitals,” she said. “That way, instead of always making an $8 co-pay, they could take advantage of some local pharmacies where they only have to pay $4 in Parkersburg.

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