Funding to benefit vets

Maine and Utah have about the same number of military veterans, but the tiny East Coast state's ability to let veterans know about their benefits has far surpassed Utah. Now Utah is catching up.

The 2007 Legislature last week easily passed a handful of military-related bills.

But the buzz among Utah veterans is HB426, which changes the name of Division of Veterans Affairs to Department of Veterans Affairs. While the name change may be more symbolic than anything, there is a chunk of new state funds that come with it.

The new name and related funding are developments that veterans say should elevate the emphasis on their plight.

"It sends a powerful message," said Terry Schow, director of the Utah Division of Veterans Affairs. "It says that, 'We support you."'

Pending Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s signature, the bill will provide support in the form of about $250,000, part of which will go toward hiring someone to get the word to Utah's estimated 160,000 veterans about health-care benefits and compensation or pension monies.

Schow said that in Utah about 16.6 percent of veterans, or 26,000 people, are enrolled in some kind of a health-care program through the VA. In Maine, which has about 150,000 veterans, those numbers are closer to 24 percent, or 34,000 veterans.

Only 9.1 percent of Utah vets, Schow added, are taking advantage of the compensation and pension benefits available through the federal government for vets with "service connected" disabilities. That amounts to about $150 million in pension and compensation monies for Utah veterans. But in Maine, the percentage is 13.3 for about $287 million, Schow said.

In the past, Utah's annual outreach budget for veterans has been about $75,000, compared to about $600,000 a year in Maine, which Schow said also devotes more offices and personnel to helping veterans.

But at least some of the disparity here is due to Utah's population of homeless veterans, which number in the neighborhood of 1,600. Without a mailing address, some homeless vets who may qualify for benefits are missing out.

Schow said another problem in Utah is that unless veterans are accessing services through the VA, no one knows who they are — and that makes contacting them about benefits difficult. Schow hopes that will change in the future as the VA gathers information from the state driver license division. The sharing of information assumes that as people fill out their license renewal form, veterans will check a box that identifies themselves as veterans.