All 88 Ohio counties have a veterans service commission, appointed by county judges based on recommendations from veterans groups such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and the American Legion. They meet at least once a month and are funded through property taxes. The offices help veterans with emergency assistance, and aids them in accessing state and federal benefits.
MAP: Wide gap in aid for Ohio veterans, county records show
“For years and years and years, our commissioners had been paid well below what other county veteran services were getting with like-size populations,” said Greene County VSC Director Chris Chrystal.
The I-Team surveyed other area county VSCs and found Greene County is still among the lowest paid, though it also provides less emergency assistance than other similarly sized counties.
Greene County has an estimated 16,919 veterans, the 13th-largest veteran population in the state. But it gave aid to only 76 people last year. That was much fewer than similar counties. The three counties with the next-smallest vet populations — Warren, Clermont and Licking — gave aid to 774, 1,228, and 1,081 veterans, respectively.
Greene County spent $105,760 on aid to veterans last year — less than 70 counties, and the least it has spent since at least 2012.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Wide gap in aid for Ohio veterans, county records show
But when Greene County does give assistance, there is no limit to how much it can give. Veterans often get thousands of dollars in aid at a time, while other counties place limits on aid.
Chrystal said many Greene County veterans are retirees from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and tend to be less needy than those who didn’t serve long enough to retire.
Programs vary
State numbers show that a wide disparity persists from one county to the next on how much aid is available for veterans — for things such as rent, groceries and utilities — and the accessibility of that aid.
Each veterans service commission sets its own rules, meaning veterans who served in the same unit in Vietnam or Iraq have different access to help depending on where they live.
RELATED: Agencies struggle to find vets who need help
Montgomery County’s VSC recently studied how nine large and local counties determine emergency aid. Some counties, such as Clermont, Cuyahoga and Warren won’t give aid for medical expenses, the study says. Others will. Counties differ in whether they help veterans with internet bills, school supplies and so on.
Montgomery County Veterans Service Commission President Ashley Webb said the county is looking to revise how it does emergency aid next year.
“The over-arching goal is to do less giving out of fish, and providing resources so folks can fish on their own,” he said. “We have a lot of folks who their emergencies really have to do with budgeting skills, and not having sought benefits afforded to them through the VA or other programs.”
Thirteen counties — including Champaign and Preble — provided assistance to every veteran who asked for it in 2015, while Hamilton County and four others denied a quarter or more of applications.
The amount of assistance also varied widely, with some counties setting limits. Butler and Greene counties were among 18 that gave more than $1,000, on average, per veteran who got help. Twelve counties gave less than $200, on average.
‘Very beneficial’
Statewide, Ohio’s veterans service commissions doled out less cash assistance last year than the year before despite an increase in the number of veterans seeking help, according to an I-Team analysis of state data.
Regional AMVETS Director Tim Sherman said eligibility for aid should be the same from one county to the next, perhaps with veterans commissioners given leeway to grant more assistance in unusual circumstances.
“I think every county should have the same type of qualifications for veterans needing assistance,” he said. “That should be across the board; it doesn’t matter whether they live in Cuyahoga County or Scioto County.”
Sherman said the services provided by these county boards are invaluable.
“It is very beneficial to have 88 counties with 88 veterans service offices our veterans can go to to seek educated and good advice for the benefits they’ve been entitled to by the United States,” he said.
He also noted long-standing concerns about how the county boards are funded with property taxes, meaning poorer counties have less money available even if they have a larger veteran population than more affluent counties.
No standard salary
Officials with the Ohio Department of Veterans Services said there has been little discussion of standardizing how veterans boards operate. And area veterans service commissioners strongly believe that local veterans are best served by boards that are locally controlled.
This includes how much veterans service commissioners are paid, which is determined by county commissioners, not the veterans service commissioners themselves. And it varies widely.
Warren County pays its commissioners $1,000 a month, the highest in the area.
Clark County veterans service commissioners automatically get a pay hike at the beginning of each five-year term; one commissioner will get a 10 percent raise if reappointed next year. Butler County veterans service commissioners used to give automatic raises before voting in September 2015 to freeze their pay until at least 2019.
“We felt like sooner later it’s going to just start being … $12,000 a year. We just felt like we needed to have a cutoff,” said Butler County VSC board president Tom Jeffers. “We just thought it was the fiscally responsible thing to do.”
Source: Ohio Department of Veterans Services
*No data reported for Meigs County
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Access to veteran emergency aid varies by county (2013 map)
Continuing coverage
Our I-Team monitors how your tax dollars are spent. We will continue to write about veterans service commissions and how they serve our veterans.
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