Background & source documents |
Also quite informative is the legislative history for HB07-1251. CLICK to download that 33-page resource.
Colorado recognizes sacrifices of our totally disabled veterans, awarding a partial property tax exemption to 100 percent totally and permanently disabled veterans. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has two types of 100% disabled veterans – (1) vets with a 100% disability (2) vets with a total disability rated “Total Disability for Individual Unemployability” (TDIU.) VA benefits for the two types are identical, but Colorado’s TDIU veterans are unfairly denied the exemption
Background & source documents |
a) a single service connected disability rated at 60% or more, or but which, in fact, is totally disablingb) the result of 2 or more service-connected disabilities where the total rating is 70% and at least one disability is 40% or more and, in fact, are totally disabling.
"Who qualifies for the tax reduction? Homeowners who have served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces and are rated 100-percent permanently disabled by the federal government due to a service-connected disability qualify for the tax reduction in Referendum E. Colorado National Guard members injured while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces also qualify."
• Veterans are rated 100-percent permanently disabled when a line of duty mental or physical injury makes it impossible for the average person to hold a job and the disability is lifelong.
• Similarly, veterans are rated TDIU when an unusually severe mental or physical line of duty injury makes it impossible this specific veteran to hold a job and the disability is lifelong.
"(1.5) For purposes of this section, "disabled veteran" means an individual who has served on active duty in the United States armed forces, including a member of the Colorado national guard who has been ordered into the active military service of the United States, has been separated therefrom under honorable conditions, and has established a service-connected disability that has been rated by the federal department of veterans affairs as one hundred percent permanent disability through disability retirement benefits or a pension pursuant to a law or regulation administered by the department, the department of homeland security, or the department of the army, navy, or air force.
"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.
(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,
"Who qualifies for the tax reduction? Homeowners who have served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces and are rated 100-percent permanently disabled by the federal government due to a service-connected disability qualify for the tax reduction in Referendum E. Colorado National Guard members injured while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces also qualify. Veterans are rated 100-percent permanently disabled when a mental or physical injury makes it impossible for the average person to hold a job and the disability is lifelong.Nationally, less than one percent of veterans have a 100-percent permanent disability rating. About 2,200 veterans are expected to qualify for the property tax reduction in Colorado."The first version of HB07-1251's description of qualified veteran was exactly as per Article X Section 3.5 of the constitution as it remains today:
(1.5) For purposes of this section, "disabled veteran" means an individual who has served on active duty in the United States armed forces, including a member of the Colorado national guard who has been ordered into the active military service of the United States, has been separated therefrom under honorable conditions, and has established a service-connected disability that has been rated by the federal department of veterans affairs as one hundred percent permanent disability through disability retirement benefits or a pension pursuant to a law or regulation administered by the department, the department of homeland security, or the department of the army, navy, or air force.The next version of HB07-1251 ("Engrossed" version) made the changes in definition of qualified veteran. Those changes remained static thereafter until signed by the governor.
(3.5) "Qualifying disabled veteran" means an individual who has served on active duty in the United States armed forces, including a member of the Colorado National Guard who has been ordered into the active military service of the United States, has been separated therefrom under honorable conditions, and has established a service-connected disability that has been rated by the United States department of veterans affairs as one hundred percent permanent and total disability pursuant to a law or regulation administered by the department.
(Simply dropped from the final statute was the last phrase of the constitution., "through disability retirement benefits or a pension pursuant to a law or regulation administered by the department, the department of homeland security, or the department of the army, navy, or air force.")CONCLUSION: