Kansas House of Representatives
Volume 2012, Issue 20: August 10, 2012
In This Issue
- Drought Relief for Leavenworth Farmers
- Where do KS Lottery Veteran Scratch Off Ticket Proceeds Go?
- Keep in Touch
Drought Relief for Leavenworth Farmers
Leavenworth County has been designated a "contiguous disaster county"
because of the current drought, making our agricultural producers
eligible for federal disaster relief. In addition, the US Department
of Agriculture has approved haying on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
acres designated as CRP25. Hay is in short supply because of the
drought and being able to hay approximately 726,000 more Kansas acres
will provide immediate relief to livestock producers. The State has set
up a website, www.drought.ks.gov, to provide easy access to drought
information and links to state and federal resources for farmers and
ranchers, small businesses, Kansans, and cities and counties.
Where do KS Lottery Veteran Scratch Off Ticket Proceeds Go?
Since 2003, the profits from the Kansas Lottery's Veteran Scratch Off
Ticket game have been used to directly fund designated veterans
programs. This year's budget distributes the profits from the tickets
to fund the Kansas Veterans Home Fee Fund, the Veterans Enhanced Service
Delivery Program, and the state's National Guard Education Assistance
Program.
Many do not know this, but Kansas has its own state run Soldiers and
Veterans homes. These facilities are located in Fort Dodge and
Winfield Kansas. The Veteran Home at Winfield was established in 1997
on the grounds of the former Winfield State Hospital and Training
Center. As the renovation was completed, the Home opened for residency
and the first residents were admitted in 2000. In its first ten years
of operation, it has been home to 600 veterans and eligible dependents.
To be eligible to live there, a veteran must have served on active duty
and has either a service connected disability, or was a prisoner of war,
a Veteran of the Mexican Border Period, or a Veteran of World War I. If
space is available, a spouse or surviving spouse may also qualify.
The Veterans Enhanced Service Delivery Program is a set of 3 mobile,
fully equipped and handicapped accessible "offices on wheels" that
travel throughout Kansas to make applying for VA benefits more
accessible to Kansas veterans and eligible family members. Without the
mobile office, Veterans and their families would have to travel to
Topeka, Leavenworth, or Wichita to be able to speak to a Veteran Service
Officer face to face. These offices set up shop at designated locations
in your community or attend special events such as fairs, parades and
festivals throughout the State of Kansas educating veterans and
assisting them in getting the benefits they have earned, but may not
even know about.
Forty percent of the veteran lottery ticket profits go to the National
Guard Education Assistance Program. This program provides scholarships
to cover the cost of tuition and fees for members of the Air and Army
National Guard to attend eligible post-secondary schools. Legislators
and the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs expressed concern this
past session, that with the new expanded GI Bill, Kansas scholarships to
National Guard members may actually duplicate available federal
benefits. If true, the State money could be diverted to other veteran
services that are not duplicated by federal programs. A Legislative
Post Audit was requested to investigate this concern and the results
were made available in July.
According to the audit, there is some overlap of federal and state
educational assistance but federal dollars would not be able to fully
replace state benefits. The federal Post 9-11 GI Bill is available to
members of the guard who have served at least 3 months of eligible
active duty and the amount of benefits depends on the amount of time
served on active duty. To qualify for 100% of the GI Bill benefits, the
servicemember would have had to serve 36 months active duty. Very few
would qualify for the full benefits. Further, diversion of state money
from the education assistance program would have a large impact on
members of the Air Guard. The Army Guard is eligible for federal
tuition assistance through the Army, so they use the state funds as
secondary funding to cover any remaining costs. The Air Guard uses the
state funds as their primary source and actually use 90% of the
program's funding.
Keep in Touch
I am privileged and honored to be your voice in the Kansas Capitol. You
can track my activities on my website www.meier4kansas.com, my Facebook
page www.facebook.com/Meier4Kansas, and Twitter
www.twitter.com/melaniemeier.
If I can ever be of assistance to you, please feel free to contact me at
home or in Topeka. My office in Leavenworth is at 309 Cherokee St. My
Topeka office address is Kansas State Capitol, Topeka, KS 66612. You can
also reach me at the legislative hotline, 1-800-432-3924 or e-mail me at
melanie.meier@house.ks.gov.
If you need to directly contact a particular agency in state government,
you can find useful telephone numbers online at
http://da.state.ks.us/phonebook.
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