The proposals aimed to dictate qualifications for executive directors, allow non-veterans to serve as service officers, and change funding for 13 national veterans service organizations.
RELATED: Vet boards protest state’s attempt to dictate to them
State Reps. John Rogers, D-Mentor On The Lake, and Robert Sprague, R-Findlay, erased the proposed provisions. The Ohio Senate and governor must still agree with the entire spending plan.
Veterans Board President Chuck Weber penned the letter and also mentioned that Tansill made a comment about local vet boards not using all their millage to help veterans. That is true — here the budget is generally $2 million each year — but the veterans have access to approximately $3.4 million from the general fund. The unspent funds revert to the county general fund.
Executive Director Caroline Bier said that reference was a reminder to the state that they have no input on how the local counties spend their money.
“The veterans service commissions are county agencies, they are county funds that currently the state has no control over,” Bier said. “The veteran service commissions want to keep it that way.”
The vet board has been trying everything it can do to reach the estimated 26,000 veterans in the county and have said they would love to spend every penny of the millage helping veterans and their families. They recently approved almost $100,000 on advertising to get the word out. Bier told this news agency previously the money is there to help many more veterans, but she can’t tap into it without a concrete need.
“That’s another $1.5 million out there that we have at our disposal,” she said. “But I have to be able to justify it.
Dave Ridenour, past president of the Veterans Service Commission Association said there has been a loud outcry from his organization and others and they have been fighting the changes “tooth and nail.”
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