Colorado Senators - You KILLED Veteran's Survivor Property Tax Exemption for my Widow? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

         What Were You Thinking?
NOT ABOUT ME, MY WIFE OR MY KIDS!
THAT'S FOR CERTAIN!

 

Colorado Voters Have a Long Memory - especially about how veterans and their survivors are treated

I believe Colorado's Democrat legislators have initiated the more important advances in veterans' benefits, but it would be wrong to conclude that either party is truly disinterested or uncaring. Democrats controlled the House and Senate in 2006 under a Republican governor and are together credited with getting Referendum E in front of the voters. There, the constitutional amendment found overwhelming support. This established the Disabled Veterans Property Tax Exemption in 2007 and reflected well on both parties.

Yet Democrats were particularly uncaring on June 7, 2021 when the Colorado Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted down HCR21-1002 (by pure party line vote). The bill had been approved unanimously by the House to correct an awkward problem in our Disabled Veteran Survivor Property Tax Exemption. 

This small property tax exemption was initially offered to totally disabled veterans and saved them about $640 a year. The Legislature updated the exemption with HB14-1373 in 2014 to provide for veterans' survivors who were already in receipt of the exemption. Repeat: the exemption was for survivors of a vet already receiving the exemption.

Sadly, that language overlooked the real-world tragedy that not all troops survive to come home to be veterans. Colorado's current tax statute denies the exemption to every widow of every servicemember lost in the line of duty while on active service.

Get the distinction? Get disabled but survive to come home and the exemption is there for your survivor. Sacrifice far more and die in the line of duty and your survivor gets denied the exemption. Widows from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and recent conflicts are refused this exemption because their spouses died on duty, rather than surviving to come home and "be in receipt." 

HCR21-1002 was going to fix that unfortunate wording of the statute so our 140 Colorado Gold Star Widows could qualify for the same small partial property tax exemption. But the opportunity to do the right thing on June 7 was shot down when every Democrat on the state senate's veterans and military affairs committee voted against the bill. There were some heartless phrases thrown around that "we'll have to look at this important issue during next session" and "let's get focused on this next year for something by 2024."

These Democrats might not have known than 80% of these widows are over 60 and 40% are over 65. They've done without the exemption due veterans' widows since losing their husbands in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and more recent conflicts. The state senate turned its back on these survivors.

The Senate made a mistake. Voters took note.

 

C-123 Veterans Association Joins Colorado's United Veterans Coalition

To better support state and federal veterans' issues, The C-123 Veterans Association has affiliated with Colorado's United Veterans Coalition (UVC.) UVC is the single most effective voice for over 350,000 veterans in Colorado. It brings together the VA and nearly every interested organization and political entity in the state.

RADM Dick Young USNR (Ret.) was elected president last week. UVC will celebrate is annual banquet on June 27 and tickets are still available.

How'd that Colorado Senate vote go for Gold Star Wives' property tax exemption?

June 7 2021: HOW DID COLORADO STATE SENATORS VOTE TO PERMIT GOLD STAR WIDOWS THE SAME PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION COLORADO GIVES DISABLED VETS' WIDOWS? One Guess.

   DEMOCRATS = 100% NO              GOP = 100% YES

Interesting. And very, very  revealing. Every senator* who voted "YES" to honor our Gold Star Wives with SJR21-010 in May seemed to see things differently on June 7, and voted "NO" on HCR21-1002.

Thumbs down on spending $93,000 to permit these 140 widows of active-duty troops same small partial property tax exemption Colorado now gives survivors of our 100% disabled veterans.

Here are their empty words from SJR21-010 tossed to the wind, now shown to be useless and meaningless:

"That we, the members of the Colorado General Assembly honor the pride and the pain of the parents and partners and children and siblings of our fallen heroes and recognize the families of these proud patriots with an expression of profound gratitude and respect."

* voting no:

• • State Sen. Julie Gonzales 
  D District 34, Chair

• 
  

• • State Sen. James Coleman
  D District 33, Vice Chair
  
  • State Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis
  D District 17
  
  
  
  
  
  

COLORADO SENATE PRIORITIES FOR 2021 AND 2022

2021 SENATE PRIORITIES - what were they?

                   2022 SENATE PRIORITIES  - what will they be?

Gold Star Wives didn't do well in the 2021 session of the Colorado legislature. Let's hope both parties remember a shared and important core value next year: To support veterans when they return to the home front by working to enhance veteran benefits.

SENATORS, PLEASE DO BETTER IN 2022!

 

Genuine thanks are due the Colorado House of Representatives!

I must set aside my disappointment with the Colorado Senate Veterans Committee killing HCR21-1001 last week. The House is due a salute and my most sincere thanks for their amazing step of a unanimous vote approving HCR21-1001. 

"...submitting to the registered electors of the state of Colorado an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the extension of the property tax exemption for qualifying seniors and disabled veterans to the Gold Star Spouses of deceased members of the United States Armed Forces. "

Thank you, Republicans and Democrats in the Colorado House of Representatives for your unanimous approval of HCR21-1002 that you forwarded to the Senate where others decided $93,000 was just too much to "honor" survivors of our servicemembers.

 Earlier, well before any news of HCR21-1002's existence, I have expected and urged a statutory approach to protecting Gold Star Wives by exercising the legislature's power to redefine terms, thus avoiding the two-year delay built into HCR21-1002, and resolving the issue with 2022 legislation.

Gold Star Wives Are Due the Disabled Veteran Survivor Property Tax Exemption

 

Colorado proudly honors survivors of our totally disabled veterans...thousands of them,
but ignores 140 equally worthy Gold Star Wives

COLORADO SENATE DISHONORS ITS OWN RESOLUTION "HONORING" GOLD STAR FAMILIES

I'D CALL IT A JOKE BUT IT ISN'T.

One month ago the Colorado Legislature payed its respects to Gold Star Families* with a sweetly-worded joint resolution. Passed unanimously, the resolution praised the patriotism and dedication of families of Colorado's soldiers, sailors, Marines and Airmen who've died in the line of duty:

Right. Uh-huh. Fellow Coloradans, SJR21-010 wasn't worth the postage to mail it to the survivors. Neither was it enough of "an expression of profound gratitude and respect" to move the mighty senators to more carefully consider HCR21-1002. It certainly wasn't worth the esteemed committee of law-makers' bipartisan review. Instead, on a party-line vote, all Dems voted NO and the outnumbered Republicans voted YES.

What did they shoot down? Spending $93,000 to qualify just 140 Gold Star Widows the same small partial property tax exemption we give thousands of widows of our 100% disabled veterans. The situations are quite similar, except the disabled vets made it home and qualified for the exemption; dead servicemembers could not. The total impact of the Gold Star Widows would have been a "whopping" 0.00062 increase. Wow, how generous (not.)

That's the only difference. The tax law states for survivors to have the disabled veteran property tax exemption, their disabled veteran must have received it before his/her death. As you can imagine, a death on active-duty, and in the line of duty, pretty much precludes coming home disabled to apply for and get the exemption. 

Perhaps legislators who crafted the Seniors' and Disabled Veterans' Survivor Exemption (HB14-1373) did not pause to consider that not all troops make it home. Most do. A few of them are 100% disabled and can qualify for the exemption and so will their survivors. However, the very few who will never come home will never qualify their survivors only because they died first.

HCR21-1002 was an effort to correct this macabre injustice in our tax laws. I'm a totally disabled veteran in receipt of the exemption, and my wife will keep it as my survivor. Had I died in service she would be disqualified. Only because of awkward wording on our tax code.

June 7 was an opportunity to make things right, and to honor the resolution Colorado passed to respect Gold Star Families. June 7 was a missed opportunity to make good law. Shame on those who thought otherwise.

The Senate committee may not have realized that 90% of these widows are over 57, and 40% over age 75.  Or if the senators did know, perhaps they were appreciating that, given the survivors' average age, putting off a solution for their property taxes will have nature taking her usual course. The Senate can anticipate that year by year, for as long as the Senate is able to prevent any relief, there'll be fewer and fewer Gold Star Wives surviving to take advantage of any exemption.

What might be the reasons Gold Star Wives might want to be included in the exemption if they happen to be senior citizens eligible right now?
1. sell the marital home and downsize
2. reduce housing costs to adjust to loss of spouse's income

3. conflicts in wills taxes, credit, or other important property details

4. selling home elsewhere to return to Colorado

5. purchase home for first time

6. inherit home from other than deceased spouse, or gift

7. situations I can't predict

SHAME

Are 140 Gold Star Wives added to the current 489,000 homestead
exemptions just too, too much of a burden for the Great State of Colorado? No, not when we can also spend many millions on family planning for undocumented immigrants.

Someday solution: redefine "qualified veteran" to include a dead one. Add the words, "or a member of the Armed Forces of the United States who died in the line of duty on active service" in a new statute – one that respects and honors Gold Star Widows.

* NOTE:
1. There are two types of Gold Star Wives. First, a small number of survivors of servicemembers whose deaths were in the line of duty while on  active military service. This is the group proposed for the disabled veteran survivor property tax exemption.

2. The other group are survivors of veterans who die after active duty and whose service was 100% disabling. They are already qualified for the exemption.

Helped My Old College Roommate With His VA Claim

PAUL, my old (we're both 75) roommate from college days, Army buddy, fellow IBM employee and friend for over half a century, is almost totally deaf.  

Paul (L)  and Wes, San Diego 1967

He hears sounds but needs powerful hearing aids to grasp the words. We first met as roommates during college and were occasionally bunkmates in the Army. Travels over the years gave us the opportunity to stay in touch. I'm writing this note about Paul to remind all veterans that military service has made us brothers and sisters; we must always help others, including getting them help from the VA when needed.

No Vet left behind. Ever.

Paul was supposed to be best man at my wedding at the March AFB chapel on June 14, 1969. Instead, he found himself headed off for Army basic training. While at Fort Bragg an incident on the rifle range left him totally deaf for days. He was seen at the base medical clinic but the damage was done: he gradually regained most of his hearing after a week of rest, but then year after year, the ears "rang" louder and louder as Paul's tinnitus developed. And so did his bilateral hearing loss worsen. A lot! 
 
This was a half century ago. Specialist-5 Paul Hansen was a traditional Army reservist, serving his initial six months of Active-Duty, but without full-time active duty after that to qualifying him as a "veteran" per the law; nothing that would leave him eligible for VA care or any other benefits. Paul did his six year military obligation and began the rest of life's complicated journey in earnest.

Paul moved between Tokyo and California while I bounced around the country with my civilian and military careers. Once, after I left the Army to fly for the California Air National Guard, I was able to take Paul on a flight with me to Massachusetts for his aunt's funeral. Because we kept in touch and visited occasionally plus weddings and funerals, I noticed Paul's advancing hearing loss and urged him to file a disability claim at the VA.

In fact, around 2014 I even filled out his VA claim for him! But Paul is the reigning world champion of procrastination; the application lay somewhere, ignored, then trashed or perhaps shuffled into some unrelated pile of documents never to be seen again. Okay, I'm a nag. Phone call after phone call, "how ya doin" was followed by reminding him to file with the VA. It never happened.

Paul's hearing loss was significant, but the real goal was for him to establish veteran status with VA. This would entitle him to hearing aids but also vital health care for a multitude of other problems. The disability compensation of his claim was an insignificant concern  – in poor health, twice-widowed and living alone, Paul needed the wide range of VA benefits due disabled veterans but he'd never be a veteran, much less a disabled veteran, without getting around to submitting his claim.

It got to the point that we both realized a claim just wasn't going to get done in our lifetime or before the sun burned out. With Paul's permission I used his power of attorney and applied to the VA for tinnitus and hearing loss disabilities. The initial obstacle of getting Paul to file finally accomplished, we next moved to finding proof of his Army rifle range problem. I filed a request with the Army's personnel records center in St. Louis and the vital proof of injury medical records were promptly sent to us. 

Then there had to be an effective argument that even though he was a traditional Reservist over fifty years back, Paul's injury should entitle him VA care and benefits. Usually VA will only consider problems a year after discharge, probably not Paul and more than half a century later! Paul wasn't even a statutory veteran per the law because he'd never been on active duty after basic training. 

I have a medical background and I also remembered a key detail: The law provides that Reservists and National Guard troops, if they have a disabling injury during their training, the requirements for full veteran status are met. Further, because Paul's training was during the Vietnam War he'd have a wider range of important coverages as a wartime veteran – but only if he succeeded in his claim. 

I also wrote a lengthy report about the Army's poor history of troops' hearing injuries in the years before earplugs were even permitted on a rifle range. I quoted similar VA disability claims from other veterans who won their claims, even years later like Paul. Because of Paul's age and health, his claim needed to be approved on our first pass, not rejected for correction or appeal. Too often, claims have flaws that delay the process a year or even longer for an appeal. At best, we hoped that Paul would get a small 10% disability award for his tinnitus and hearing loss but also worried about any delays for this increasingly frail man.

This week, VA notified him it approved the claim on the initial application. Paul Hansen thus became our newest honored disabled veteran. 40% disabled, not just 10% as first hoped. Two other major health issues are still under consideration and we're hoping it will put Paul over 50% disability, at which point all his medical care is provided free. Other benefits he can get now:

• Benefits for Veterans 40-50% Disabled, plus compensation
  • Preventive care.
  • "Level 2" VA medical priority group
  • Inpatient (hospitalization) services.
  • Military PX and commissary use.
  • Care in the Community
  • Ancillary services.
  • Mental health care.
  • Geriatrics and extended care.
  • Medical equipment/prosthetic items and aids.
  • Old age, low income pension (income-based.)
  • Medical travel.
  • Veteran-Directed Care program, a budget to help with activities of daily life.
  • Medication/supplies
    

The VA decision on his application also made his disability retroactive to December 2020, the date VA received his claim. Paul, faced with many health issues, is finally entitled to VA hearing aids and so many other benefits. Paul isn't poor but the VA check will be useful.

California has some property tax exemptions and other benefits, mostly kicking in at a 100% disability. We'll have to see if Paul's remaining issues are going to be service-connected.

Here, I'll take a firm grasp on myself and control the urge to tell Paul what his disability checks would have totaled (over $35,000) if HE'D ONLY DONE AS I SUGGESTED SEVEN YEARS AGO. I've helped vets with their VA claims but just one other went back over half a century like Paul's. That was for Bob Edwards, church friend and former Navy officer for whom we got a total disability based on World War II injuries 63 years earlier.

A note: Paul's dad's Coast Guard leather bridge coat (he's wearing it in the top photo) saved my life, quite literally, sometime around 1967 in Riverside, California. But that's another story.

THE REST OF THE STORY: The Brief Life & Sudden Death of Colorado's Gold Star Wives' Tax Exemption

Not about to waste a perfectly good opportunity to turn virtually every veterans' wrath against them, yesterday the Colorado Senate Veterans Committee killed HCR21-1002. 

Ever budget-conscious, the committee's discussion indicated they felt it terribly unwise to "waste" $94,000 permitting widows of active-duty troops the same very modest property tax break now given widows of our 100% disabled veterans. Colorado has 140 widows of active-duty troops, all denied the small exemption because the awkward wording of the 2014 legislation restricted the exemption to widows of a veteran already getting the exemption.

Get it?

a) Die on active duty = no widow's tax exemption, or

b) Die after active duty as a disabled vet = widow gets exemption.

Troops call this kind of situation "bass-ack-wards." 

The rest of the story? After a unanimous House vote for HCR21-1002, it was killed because some senators might to do "something" next year to go to the voters in 2023 for some relief for the widows in 2024.

"Something" apparently being a larger overhaul of the entire property tax exemption issue that costs $150,000,000 each year. Gold Star Wives  (mostly elderly of World War II, Korean Conflict and Vietnam eras) would have added 0.00062 to that $150M.

I think the House could have chosen a better approach to the Gold Star Wives, something easier than the constitutional amendment HCR21-1002 required. The legislature took it on themselves to include widows of 100% disabled vets who were receiving the exemption by HB14-1373, not an amendment which is more difficult. 

All the House had to do was use 21 new words refine the definition of "qualifying veteran" to include "or a member of the Armed Forces of the United States who died in the line of duty on active service" in a  new statute.

Here's what it took to include survivors in the original 2014 bill:

39-3-203. Property tax exemption - qualifications. (1.5) (a.5)

FOR PROPERTY TAX YEARS COMMENCING ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2015, FIFTY PERCENT OF THE FIRST TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS OF ACTUAL VALUE OF RESIDENTIAL REAL PROPERTY THAT AS OF THE ASSESSMENT DATE IS OWNER-OCCUPIED AND IS USED AS THE PRIMARY RESIDENCE OF AN OWNER-OCCUPIER WHO IS THE SURVIVING SPOUSE OF A QUALIFYING DISABLED VETERAN WHO PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED AN EXEMPTION UNDER PARAGRAPH (a) OF THIS SUBSECTION (1.5) IS EXEMPT FROM TAXATION.

Here's the redefined "qualifying veteran":

SURVIVING SPOUSE OF A QUALIFYING DISABLED VETERAN WHO PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED AN EXEMPTION or a member of the Armed Forces of the United States who died in the line of duty on active service UNDER PARAGRAPH (a) OF THIS SUBSECTION (1.5) IS EXEMPT FROM TAXATION.

And that's "the rest of the story!" 

Here's the Colorado Bar Association's statement:

"Gold Star Wives, survivors of active-duty servicemembers, are denied the exemption because the state constitution (Amendment X Section 3.5) allows the exemption to survivors of veterans already in receipt of the benefit. Colorado legislators apparently did not consider the issue of active-duty deaths. Loss of the servicemember on active duty precludes the 'already in receipt of the benefit' requirement. Proposed is a redefinition of a qualified recipient to include survivors of active duty servicemembers who die in the line of duty."