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!

Briefing Package – Problems with Colorado's Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption, & Recommended Solutions

Background & source documents

We have summed up the issues with HB07-1251, Referendum E, and Article X Section 3.5 of the Colorado Constitution...CLICK to download the complete briefing packet.

Also quite informative is the legislative history for HB07-1251. CLICK to download that 33-page resource.

Paris reaches out to Brussels – Je suis Bruxellois

Je suis Bruxellois

VA Unemployability Disability Ratings (TDIU) – a little background for Colorado

There are two kinds of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs– 100% and TDIU; both are total and permanent disability ratings that should be recognized for Colorado's disabled vet property tax exemption – but aren't!

VA has 100% rating for total disability for unemployability...and also total and permanent disability individual unemployability (TDIU) or often in print, just IU.  

The Individual Unemployability Benefit is equal in every way to a 100% Schedular rating. The compensation is 100% and that dollar amount is equal to both ratings.  This VA permanent disability rating of TDIU meet Colorado's constitutional requirements for the disabled veteran property tax exemption.

(Note: VA has a temporary version of 100%, which is not eligible for the exemption as it is temporary, not permanent as the Colorado constitution and HB07-1251 require.)

This is the rating CDMVA should reject, not the permanent TDIU. All TDIU ratings are permanent, unless the veteran’s health improves and VA determines employment is possible.

If the veteran is VA-rated as 100% Schedular, he or she may work at any job they are capable of doing. The TDIU veteran is proven unable to hold "gainful employment." Nationwide, about 330,000 disabled veterans are rated TDIU. The IU veteran completes a yearly VA Form 21-4140 to verify that there has been no employment in the previous year. 

More about TDIU:

If awarded, this benefit allows the veteran to receive the total disability rating if he/she is proven unable to secure any gainful employment but only for reasons of very serious line-of-duty injuries worse than standard VA tables anticipate. Frequently state or VA experts will evaluate veterans using Certified Rehabilitation Specialists.

For TDIU, VA specifies basic disability ratings that reach the following levels:

a) a single service connected disability rated at 60% or more, or but which, in fact, is totally disabling

b) 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.

This type of claim is automatically considered by the VA Regional Office whenever the Veteran’s service-connected impairment ratings reach the above levels. 

Should TDIU disabled vets qualify for Colorado's disabled veteran property tax exemption? Yes, we believe so, based on several points:

     1. Referendum E's Blue Book analysis clearly included veterans made unemployable due to line-of-duty injuries, and was overwhelmingly approved by the voters.

"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." 

The Blue Book described totally disabled veterans eligible for the benefit:

• 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. 

But note that the same description, those same qualifications can apply to TDIU vets:

• 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. 

 

Nationally, less than one percent of veterans have a 100-percent permanent disability rating. About 2,200 veterans were expected to qualify for the property tax reduction in Colorado.

     2. Article X Section 3.5 in the Colorado constitution describes the qualifying points of a veteran's disability for the tax exemption, and VA Veterans Benefits Administration confirmed that VA's TDIU rating has the same qualifiers:

 "(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. 

"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.