MORE GOOD NEWS: CHEYENNE VAMC TO WORK ON EXPANDING VETERAN-DIRECTED HOME & COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICE

Today brought a most welcome phone call from Cheyenne! Veteran-Directed Home & Community-Based Services is poised to expand. Nothing locked-down just yet, but the biggest goal I had this year was to win VA administrators' agreement to get the process started.

The specific news was about the medical center anticipated development of their own VD-HCBS program to serve elderly and disabled veterans in that part of VISN-19 territory.

Very welcome news, indeed. Our thanks not only to Cheyenne but to all the state, federal and local leaders who voiced their opinion about how valuable this program is to vets otherwise facing nursing home placement.

UVC...THANKS!

House Veterans Committee Disabled Military Retirees Property Tax Hearing April 25 (HB16-1444)

The legislative process begins April 25 at the Colorado Statehouse, when the House Veterans  Committee takes up HB16-1444, the bill to put military disabled retirees into the state's disabled veteran property tax laws.

Committee Chair Sue Ryden, herself a sponsor, will call the committee to order at 1:30PM, and HB16-1444 is first on the schedule.

I will be presenting the basic argument as the first witness, speaking as chair of our own C-123 Veterans Association. The United Veterans Committee of Colorado will also have me represent their 450,000 members in supporting the bill. Even the state's Division of Veterans Affairs is behind this bill!

Although the state's constitution covers both VA 100% disabled veterans and military personnel retired by their service for total disability, only VA-rated veterans were specified in the law, so the new bill aligns the constitution with the law by adding the totally disabled military retirees.

Things are happening...our bill is now before the Colorado House Veterans Committee

Fix HB6-1251 to match the constitution's Article X Section 3.5

In his effort to align the constitution with legislation, Colorado's state senator for Fort Collins has a "late bill" now being worked on in Denver. It was a miracle that, so late in the Legislature's crowded final thirty days, this issue still got attention from leaders in both parties and both chambers.

Senator John Kefalas crafted the bill and with bipartisan support now has it before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and in the Senate awaiting committee assignment.

Bill Detail: HB16-1444

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Title	Definition Qualifying Disabled Veteran Prop Tax
Status	Introduced In House - Assigned to State, Veterans, & Military Affairs (04/15/2016)
House Sponsors	S. Ryden (D) T. Carver (R)
Senate Sponsors	J. Kefalas (D) L. Garcia (D)
House Committee	State, Veterans, & Military Affairs
Senate Committee
Date Introduced	04/15/2016
Description	The bill aligns the statutory definition of qualifying disabled veteran, as it relates to a property tax exemption for qualifying seniors and disabled veterans, with the language established in section 3.5 of article X of the Colorado constitution.
Amendments out of Committee	None
Link to Full Text	Full Text of Bill
Link to Bill Versions	Bill Versions
Link to Fiscal Notes
Link to History	History
Link to Lobbyists	(no lobbyist data)
Link to Audio	[This feature is available by subscription.]
Votes	House and Senate Votes
Vote Totals	Vote Totals by Party
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A Message from Bob McDonald, Secretary of Veterans Affairs on the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War

A Message from Bob McDonald, Secretary of Veterans Affairs:

Our nation is currently commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, a long overdue opportunity to honor our 7.2 million living Vietnam Veterans and the 9 million families of those of us who served from November 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975. The Department of Veterans Affairs and more than 9,000 local, state and national organizations have joined the Department of Defense as Commemorative Partners in this important commemoration. 

For us, this partnership holds special significance in light of our mission to serve those who “shall have borne the battle,” their families and their survivors. Embracing our Vietnam Veterans and their families is in keeping with the intent and spirit of our MyVA transformation, focusing on our customers and improving their experience with the VA. 

Please take advantage of the opportunity this commemoration presents to express your gratitude for the service and sacrifice of this generation of American Servicemembers. Thank a Vietnam Veteran and welcome them home!

"Unemployability" VA Total & Permanent Disability Rating (TDIU) for Vets With Line-of-Duty Injuries – Colorado's unique exception

Colorado is unique among US states in distinguishing VA line of duty permanent and total unemployability ratings (TDIU)) from VA's other permanent and total disability schedular rating.

Only Colorado denies TDIU totally and permanently line-of-duty rated vets the state property tax exemption provided in the state constitution's Article X Section 3.5 by somehow considering this VA classification of veterans different than VA's other category of 100% disabled veterans.

No other state in the Union treats TDIU disabled vets differently than 100% schedular vets. To 49 other states, both VA 100% disability ratings are treated the same. The only difference is that TDIU vets are rated so disabled that they are unable to work.

NOTE: PDIU & TDIU have been used interchangeably, especially by older vets like me. TDIU is the current proper VA term.

Families of Troops Killed in Line-of-Duty – Denied Surviving Spouse Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption

If a disabled vet isn't already in receipt if the property tax exemption, the survivor is forever forbidden this important benefit. The system is set up so that widows and widowers of troops killed in the line-of duty will never get the benefit. (click for Gold Star Families' blog on this)

How does Colorado keep troops'' widows from receiving the Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption?

Colorado's "PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION FOR THE SURVIVING SPOUSE OF A PREVIOUSLY QUALIFIED DISABLED VETERAN" form explains that the widow or widower of a totally and permanently 100% service-connected veteran:

"The veteran to whom the applicant was married must have applied for and been granted the disabled veterans property tax exemption as provided by § 39-3-203(1.5)(a), C.R.S., prior to his or her death" (Colorado CMDVA Form 15-DPT-AR DV-002-07/14) 

Very clearly, CMDVA's form discourages widows from applying unless the veteran was already receiving Colorado's disabled veteran property tax exemption. This is even though no prohibition can be found in the constitution or the state's laws as regards the veteran's receipt before death.

Other confusing barriers pop up to frustrate Colorado's most disabled veterans and their survivors. Colorado's constitution spells out the exemption's qualification requirements, but as this blog has carefully detailed, legislation enacted in 2007 to accommodate Referendum E (which became Article X Section 3.5 of the constitution) didn't properly address two vital provisions in the constitution:

(1) HB07-1251 left out the constitution's provision for totally disabled military retirees, and (2)  the Division of Military Affairs added somehow a barrier to VA's Permanent and Total Individual Unemployability (TDIU.)

Vets who've been around the block with the US Department of Veterans Affairs will tell anyone asking how slow the VA is in making its disability awards. Even the simplist 100% disability rating can take years following the initial injury while on duty. Following the Gulf War, this writer was retired by the Air Force with a permanent and total 100% service connected disability military retirement effective in 1996, yet the VA 100% service connected rating didn't follow until 2015! Thus, Colorado denied its tax exemption even though the constitution clearly provides for it. Further, Colorado refused to recognize the VA's TDIU rating dating from 1998,

Were I to have died from my Gulf War injuries or at any time from 1991 until my VA rating came through in 2015, my widow would be forever denied the exemption regardless of my clear eligibility.

Colorado has been doing this to hundreds of disabled veterans' widows and widowers (Gold Star families) since 2007 when HB07-1251 was signed by the governor. For nine years, we have refused the tax exemption to survivors whose veterans were qualified by military disability retirements or TDIU VA disability ratings. Colorado also refuses it to active duty personnel who die in service because, obviously, they never were able to apply for the exemption and thus, their widows are refused.

Does this make sense, after reading the Blue Book's comprehensive description of the goal for Referendum E, or does it make sense after reading Article X Section 3.5 of the constitution? The answer should be no. CMDVA's interpretation of the statute, even though it seems in step with the constitution, has drifted far from what the electorate approved by a 78% margin in the 2006 election.

Until a more compassionate program is established, this year's' military widows will join the ranks of those between 2007 and 2016 in being refused this vital, well-earned benefit.

Many voices now calling for Colorado's Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption to be properly applied

Today I attended Colorado Senator John Kefalas' community coffee in Fort Collins. He was impressive in his grasp of budget, transportation, energy, childhood nutrition and other issues.

He kindly invited me to explain my perspective on Colorado's Article X Section 3.5, and the imperfect way the subsequent legislation has excluded two groups of otherwise eligible disabled veterans.

Senator Kefalas explained that both chambers of the Legislature have requests for "late bills" for leadership to consider, although the President of the Senate seems to have already denied us. Not only is the Senator in support of us, but he explained that so, too, is the United Veterans Committee and its legislative representative Mr. Bill Hanna, and the Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs itself! What great news.

Regardless of party, our region is well-represented in Denver.