Nevada Accepts the Federal Disability Determination for Every State Benefit

This entry exists because the provision is easy to miss and it settles arguments in every other entry in this file. NRS 417.0187, in full as to its operative parts: "Notwithstanding any provision of state law to the contrary, for the purpose of determining the eligibility for any benefit, program or assistance provided by the State or a local government to a veteran, or a business owned or operated by a veteran, with a service-connected disability: 1. The veteran shall be deemed to be a veteran with a service-connected disability to the extent determined by the Federal Government; and 2. A certificate from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Department of Defense which indicates that the veteran has incurred a service-connected disability and which indicates the total percentage or compensation of that disability is sufficient evidence: (a) That the veteran has incurred a service-connected disability; and (b) Of the total percentage or compensation of the service-connected disability." Four things follow, and each of them is worth having at hand. It binds local government as well as the State. County assessors administer the property tax exemptions and the Department of Motor Vehicles administers the vehicle exemptions. A county that wants its own medical evidence, or its own view of a rating, is overridden by the opening words "notwithstanding any provision of state law to the contrary". It settles the standard of proof. A VA benefit summary letter or a Department of Defense certificate showing the disability and its percentage is "sufficient evidence". Not evidence to be weighed, sufficient evidence. A veteran does not need a physician's statement, a re-examination or a county form completed by a doctor to establish a service-connected disability for a Nevada benefit, however much a local form may appear to ask for one. The words "or compensation" do real work. Subsection 2 accepts a certificate showing "the total percentage or compensation of that disability". A veteran paid at the total rate through individual unemployability has a letter stating the compensation level rather than a 100 percent schedular percentage, and that letter is within the section. Nevada's benefit sections do not mention unemployability anywhere, so this is the provision that brings it in. It reaches veteran-owned businesses. The section covers "a business owned or operated by a veteran, with a service-connected disability", which connects it to the service-disabled veteran-owned business provisions in chapter 338 that NRS 338.13843 defines terms for, and which chapter 284 borrows for its employment preference. Where the section is cross-referenced expressly, the effect is clearest. NRS 502.072 conditions the disabled veteran hunting and fishing licence on satisfactory proof "subject to the provisions of NRS 417.0187". NRS 482.377, subsection 4 requires evidence of disability "subject to the provisions of NRS 417.0187". Chapter 284 folds it into the definition of a veteran with a service-connected disability. Where it is not cross-referenced, it still applies, because it says notwithstanding any provision of state law to the contrary. That includes NRS 361.091, whose subsection 5 sets out a list of documents the assessor "shall require". Read with NRS 417.0187, the VA certificate route in paragraph (c) of that subsection is sufficient on its own. The one place the two provisions pull against each other is the counting rule. NRS 361.091, subsection 7 directs that where documentation shows percentages for more than one permanent service-connected disability, the exemption be based on "the total of those combined percentages, not to exceed 100 percent", which reads as addition. NRS 417.0187, subsection 1 deems the veteran disabled "to the extent determined by the Federal Government", which points at the VA combined rating. The disabled veteran property tax entry records that conflict; the resolution is not settled and the difference is a tier. The section was added in 2017 and has not been amended.