Veterans Muster For Budget Battle
Last year the VSO logged more than 10,000 cases from veterans seeking assistance, Weeks said, and that total doesn’t count repeat office visits. It’s common, he said, for a single case to produce three or four visits to their office for follow-up assistance.
“I don’t know of any other agency that could absorb what we’re doing,” said Stacy Lowry, director of Mecklenburg’s Community Support Services department, which includes the VSO.
Mecklenburg County has about 55,000 veterans and the only other local support for claims assistance and services is the North Carolina Division of Veterans Affairs district office in Charlotte, which is staffed by one person who supervises six counties.
Since 2000, the local VSO has helped process myriad claims that have returned more than $640 million to veterans in Mecklenburg County, Lowry said. Last year, the total dollars returned to Mecklenburg veterans from claims the VSO helped process topped $104 million.
Closing the local VSO could jeopardize that revenue, according to Charles Smith, director of the NC Division of Veterans Affairs.
“Eventually, the revenue received by veterans in Mecklenburg will be drastically reduced,” he wrote in a letter to Jones, encouraging the county manager to keep the VSO operational. “If at a later date, Mecklenburg County decides to reestablish a County Services Office Program, it will take years to return to the level of service now provided.”
Every VSO counselor is required to complete a one-year training program and maintain annual certification training, Weeks said. The VSO has consistently met or achieved its performance goals on the rating system that county leaders use to gauge program effectiveness and, in a cruel twist of irony, the agency last year received a National Association of Counties Achievement Award for its work to raise awareness and bring benefits information and services to veterans throughout Mecklenburg County.
“A few years ago, they were told they needed to increase their outreach to local veterans,” Davis said, “and they’ve done an excellent job at it. They’ve let veterans know there’s help out there for them, and now the county’s saying it’s going to leave them hanging out to dry.”
Mecklenburg General Manager John McGillicuddy, a member of the county manager’s executive team that recommended eliminating the VSO, did not return a phone call for comment on the funding recommendation.
Commissioner Bill James, a Republican who has a son attending the U.S. Naval Academy, said he recognizes the benefit the VSO provides in both delivering valued support for veterans and as a return on investment of county dollars. But given the fiscal realities Mecklenburg faces – the latest projections call for at least a $95-million budget shortfall – deep cuts to the VSO might be unavoidable.
“If the county manager’s recommendation to the board includes eliminating the VSO, we need to find a way to add back at least some portion of its funding, even if that means taking [money] from some other program,” James said. “We owe our veterans more than to put them at the bottom of the pile.”
If it ultimately comes down to eliminating the VSO’s budget, James said he would recommend exploring whether the agency could charge a fee, maybe to include some percentage of revenue of any successful claim it helps process, as a way to keep it operational.
Davis, the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, said local veterans are already gearing up for a fight to save the VSO, with “operations briefings” in preparation for a rally at Marshall Park on May 18, followed by a march to the government center where Jones will be unveiling his recommended budget.
“All veterans are asked to report back to duty,” Davis said of the march on the government center. “We need to protect the services the VSO provides.”
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