Lawmakers differ over veterans' aid

Who will help veterans in poorly-served counties?

Posted 3/14/21

By RICK BRUNDRETT

Special to the Chronicle

Should Lexington County's veterans services be controlled by the state or the local legislative delegation?

County Republican lawmakers Sen …

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Lawmakers differ over veterans' aid

Who will help veterans in poorly-served counties?

Posted
By RICK BRUNDRETT
Special to the Chronicle
Should Lexington County's veterans services be controlled by the state or the local legislative delegation?
County Republican lawmakers Sen Katrina Shealy and Rep. Chip Huggins are sponsoring bills to give the state Department of Veterans Affairs secretary William Grimsley sole authority to hire or fire county veterans affairs officers.
Other Senate and House bills would return that power to county legislative delegations. 
SC lawmakers in 2019 created the SCDVA to help the state's 405,000 veterans, many of them aging and with financial and health problems.
Sen. Shealy said, “The premise of my bill is to keep everyone on the same playing field. All of our veterans aren’t getting the same services.”
She said some counties “might not have anybody in their office at all unless somebody calls them.” 
Her bill would “make sure somebody’s in the office, somebody who’s qualified.”
She said if CVAOs do "a good job, they don’t have anything to worry about.”
No CVAOs have been fired since Grimsley has been the agency head.
Rep. Chip Huggins, R-Lexington County, has co-sponsored a House bill  similar to Sen. Shealy's bill.
Critics contend that rural counties struggle to give adequate resources to their Veterans Affairs Offices.
The services veterans receive is largely decided by the county office to which they go for help, the critics say.
By creating the new agency, county legislative delegations lost their sole power to fire their county veterans’ affairs officers.
Now some lawmakers want their firing power back.
Until the mid-1970s, legislative delegations governed counties and their tax money. 
The 1976 Home Rule Act gave counties more control over their own affairs but didn’t end lawmakers’ influence over school districts or other local matters.
Legislative delegations, for example, appoint county transportation committees which decide what local road projects get state gas tax money.
SCDVA secretary Grimsley has asked lawmakers for $6.5 million more a year – 2 times larger than the $2.7 million his department now receives.
$4 million would go to salaries and benefits of all 46 county CVAOs, whose annual salaries would be set at up to $70,674. 
Grimsley's request also calls for  $1,041,770 to hire 11 new employees at $47,734 to $85,995 yearly to join his present 27 employees. 
Grimsley is now paid $139,085.
Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve.. Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org. 
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veterans, sc, Katrina, Shealy, Chip, Huggins

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