Monterey County's Military and Veterans Services Office is being asked to shave off a sixth of its budget.

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... I have a close friend who works for the California DVA.  He tells me, "When it comes to cuts, you ain't seen nothing yet!  The programs could be gutted."  Click the link for more Sign of the Times articles.

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Veterans services faces budget cuts
http://www.montereyherald.com/local
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Disabled troops would lose programs, staff member

By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer

Monterey County's Military and Veterans Services Office is being asked to shave off a sixth of its $450,000 budget, or about $75,000, for the next fiscal year.

The cut will eliminate "nice-to-have" programs, but should allow essential services to continue, said military and veterans services officer Richard Garza.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet at 1:30 p.m. today to review a long list of departmental budgets, veterans' services among them.

The reduction involves laying off one of his staff of six, Garza said. Overall, the county is expected to lay off up to 17 of its approximately 4,000 employees.

"I'm a little more worried than most because of our size," he said. "What we lose is our flexibility; there's no one to back up my representatives except me."

Other than personnel costs, Garza said, the Military and Veterans Services Office has about $19,000 in its budget, and cutting into that would eliminate the van program for transporting disabled veterans to the Palo Alto VA Hospital for treatment, among other programs.

Cuts may occur with the "welcome home troops" program and civilian re-entry briefings for troops nearing discharge.

Garza said he expects his department to take its budget cut lumps along with all the others as the supervisors try to trim the budget.

"The county doesn't have luxury programs," he said. "Everything the county does is important."

"The cuts could not come at a worse time," said Abel Quinones of
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Pacific Grove, a member of the county Military and Veterans Advisory Committee and the county's United Veterans Council.

Troops coming home suffering from service-related illnesses, and physical and mental disabilities are going to need assistance with getting benefits and adjusting claims with Veterans Affairs.

"We're going to need more service officers than we've got now," he said.

The Military and Veterans Services Office "helps veterans through a maze of paperwork and bureaucracy to get benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs," Quinones said. "This cut forces the layoff of a staff member beginning 1 July, and most likely to be carried over beyond next fiscal years' budget."

He and Garza noted that in 2008, veteran benefits in Monterey County were $65 million, including benefits for surviving spouses, and the office brings in approximately $2 million to $3 million in new veterans' benefits annually.

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, California budget, veterans services