Miscellaneous

How Missouri Pays for Veterans Homes and Cemeteries

The Veterans Commission Capital Improvement Trust Fund is funded by casino admission fees. It sits third in a waterfall out of the gaming commission fund and then takes one hundred percent of the residual, so capital funding for the homes and cemeteries tracks riverboat gambling receipts.

Also called: 42.300, 313.835, Veterans Commission Capital Improvement Trust Fund, gaming commission fund, admission fee, riverboat, service officer grants, waterfall.

For: Veteran or service member.

Where it applies

Written for the jurisdictions listed here.

MissouriState

This entry describes a funding structure rather than a benefit, because in Missouri the structure determines what the benefits are worth. Section 42.300 creates the Veterans Commission Capital Improvement Trust Fund and says in its first sentence that the fund "shall consist of money collected under section 313.835". Section 313.835 is the gaming commission fund, which holds the licence fees, penalties, administrative fees, operator reimbursements and excursion gambling boat admission fees collected by the Missouri Gaming Commission. The waterfall in section 313.835 works like this. Total revenues for the preceding fiscal year are compared with total expenditures and transfers. The first five hundred thousand dollars of remaining net proceeds goes on a per capita basis to cities and counties for community neighborhood organisation programmes. Then, for fiscal year 2013 and each year after: the first five million dollars to the Access Missouri financial assistance fund for student aid; the second three million to the Veterans Commission Capital Improvement Trust Fund; the third four million to the Missouri National Guard trust fund; and then, subject to appropriation, one hundred percent of all remaining net proceeds to the Veterans Commission Capital Improvement Trust Fund. So the veterans fund is third in line for a fixed three million and then takes the entire residual. Its size in any year is a function of how much Missourians gambled on excursion boats, less the commission's own administration and the two prior claims. No other jurisdiction in this catalog ties its veterans capital programme this directly to a single volatile revenue stream, and the consequence is that a downturn in gaming admissions is a downturn in the veterans homes' capital budget with no general revenue backstop. What the fund pays for, under section 42.300.1, is: construction, maintenance, renovation or equipment needs of the veterans homes; construction, maintenance, renovation, equipment needs and operation of the veterans cemeteries; transfers to the Missouri Veterans' Homes Fund as necessary to maintain the solvency of that fund; specified transfers for World War I memorials and museums in the two largest cities; matching fund grants for veterans service officer programmes; the cost of the medals, medallions and certificates programmes; and the administration of the commission itself. The service officer grants are worth naming. Section 42.300.1(5) makes one million five hundred thousand dollars available annually in matching grants, issued each July, to any federally chartered veterans organisation or municipal government agency certified by VA to process claims, provided the organisation has maintained a veterans service officer presence in Missouri for the three years immediately preceding the grant. That is how the county and organisation service officers outside the commission's own staff are paid, and it is why a service officer network in Missouri depends on casino revenue as well. Two protections. Interest accruing to the fund stays in it, and notwithstanding section 33.080 the balance at the end of a biennium is not transferred to general revenue. The fund cannot be swept. Laws 2026 H.B. 2593 amended section 42.300, principally to broaden the medals paragraph. It previously named particular conflicts; it now covers medals, medallions and certificates "in recognition of service in the Armed Forces of the United States for any conflict, war, operation, or similar incident identified under this chapter", and it provides that funds remaining from the medals programmes are not transferred to any other fund and may only be used for future medals. The change matters because the same act created three new medallion programmes. Section 42.010 ties the cemeteries to the same money: the commission applies to the federal government for grants under 38 U.S.C. 2408, and establishes cemeteries "subject to appropriation by the general assembly from the veterans' commission capital improvement trust fund". The cemeteries are solely for the burial of veterans and eligible dependents as defined by the Department of Veterans Affairs, so eligibility there is the federal standard rather than a Missouri one.

Thresholds

Thresholds for How Missouri Pays for Veterans Homes and Cemeteries
Gate	Rule
The fund consists of casino money, not general revenue	Section 42.300.1 says the Veterans Commission Capital Improvement Trust Fund consists of money collected under section 313.835, the gaming commission fund.
Third in the waterfall for $3,000,000, then one hundred percent of the residual	Section 313.835(2): five million to Access Missouri, three million to the veterans fund, four million to the National Guard trust fund, then all remaining net proceeds to the veterans fund subject to appropriation.
$1,500,000 a year in matching grants for veterans service officer programmes	Section 42.300.1(5), issued each July to a federally chartered veterans organisation or a municipal government agency VA-certified to process claims, which has maintained a service officer presence in Missouri for the three preceding years.
The fund cannot be swept into general revenue	Section 42.300.2: interest stays in the fund and, notwithstanding section 33.080, the end-of-biennium balance is not transferred to general revenue.
Cemetery eligibility is the federal standard	Section 42.010 limits the state veterans cemeteries to veterans and eligible dependents "as defined by the Department of Veterans Affairs or a successor federal agency", and conditions establishment on federal grants under 38 U.S.C. 2408 and appropriation from this fund.

Sources

Legislation

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SS SCS House Bill 2593 (2026) Created a second veteran procurement preference, raised paid military leave, imported the SCRA into state active duty, and stopped offsetting the GI Bill against the Guard tuition waiver

Catalog reconciledEnactedFigure moved Program created Scope changed

Signed 2026-07-09Takes effect 2026-08-28

Introduced Done, 2025-12-29, step 1 of 6
In committee Done, 2026-01-08, step 2 of 6
Passed one chamber Done, 2026-03-02, step 3 of 6
Passed both chambers Done, 2026-04-27, step 4 of 6
Signed by the governor Done, 2026-07-09, step 5 of 6
In effect Done, 2026-08-28, step 6 of 6

Expands benefits Adds a veteran-owned business preference, raises paid military leave to 160 hours and ends the GI Bill offset.

Repealed thirteen sections and enacted twenty-four. Four changes move figures or gates in this catalog. New Mo. Rev. Stat. 34.069 gives a three-point bonus preference and a three percent goal to any honorably discharged veteran-owned enterprise, alongside the existing service-disabled preference in 34.074, and both sections now bar a business from taking points under one after taking them under the other, so the two are mutually exclusive rather than cumulative; both bind every political subdivision as well as the state. Section 105.270 raised paid military leave for state, county, municipal, school district and other public employees from 120 to 160 hours per federal fiscal year for federal service, leaving state-call duty uncapped. Section 40.490 gained two subsections extending all Servicemembers Civil Relief Act rights to Guard members on state active duty for more than thirty consecutive days, which the federal Act does not itself reach, and giving the member a private right of action alongside attorney general enforcement. And section 173.239 struck "GI Bill educational entitlements" from the list of aid applied before the National Guard tuition and fee waiver, so a Guard member holding Post-9/11 entitlement now keeps the waiver on top of it. The act also broadened the medals paragraph of 42.300 from named conflicts to any conflict identified under chapter 42 and created three medallion programmes at once. Tracked because published guidance still prints the 120-hour leave figure, and because the GI Bill offset deletion is invisible from the current statute text.

Sponsor

Touches Mo. Rev. Stat. § 34.069 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 34.074 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 40.490 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 105.270 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 173.239 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 42.300

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Official record

Updated

Last updated 2026-09-29.

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Disclaimer

VetTOC is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense. Information is for reference only and is not an eligibility determination. Verify with VA, the relevant state or territory, or an accredited VSO.