Legislators balk at further funding veterans home, say feds may not pay state back

After receiving $4.5 million in 2005 for an Ogden veterans' nursing home, veterans were on Capitol Hill, looking for more.

Johnnie Janes, the chairman of Utah's Veterans Advisory Council, said the federal government is supposed to fund the bulk of the project.

He explained that the federal government usually spends around $100 million per year on veteran's projects. But the Ogden home is not high up on the waiting list and, he estimated, four years will pass before the federal government helps out.

Janes wants the Legislature to tap into the budget surplus and front all of the $17 million to $19 million it would cost to build the home, with the expectation that the federal government would later reimburse Utah for two-thirds of the cost.

He explained that the longer construction is delayed, the more expensive the project will become.

With only two days left in the session, securing funding for the home doesn't seem likely.

"It's not going to happen," Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, said. "We've done everything we know how to."

Jenkins said lawmakers would like a firm promise from the federal government that the state will be paid back.

At this point, Jenkins explained, the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee would have to set aside the money.

The Senate's budget chairman, Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said the committee is reluctant to fully fund the project because of concern that the federal government won't come through with its share.

Jenkins said he will start looking at ways to come up with the money for next year's legislative go-round.

Rep. Curtis Oda, R-Clearfield, who has been a vocal supporter of veterans' care issues, said the federal government should do its part to help Utah's veterans. He called the lack of federal money "a black eye."

"They need to take care of these guys," Oda said.

Meanwhile, Janes is holding out hope. "There's always a shot," he said.

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