Ohio County Veterans Service Commissions

Revised Code chapter 5901 puts a veterans service commission in every one of Ohio's 88 counties (section 5901.02). It is not optional and it is not a charity: the county must fund it. Who runs it. Five county residents, each an honorably discharged veteran, appointed by a judge of the court of common pleas for five-year terms from lists put forward by the American Legion, the VFW, the DAV, AMVETS, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America or the Korean War Veterans Association. A county of more than 500,000 people may add up to six more members when the commission's budget request grows past set limits (5901.021). The commission employs veterans service officers, who must themselves be veterans and keep their accreditation, to help veterans, service members and their families claim federal and state benefits (5901.07). How it is paid for. Each May the commission sets the amount it needs for assistance and for the office, and the county commissioners appropriate it and levy up to five-tenths of a mill on the county's assessed value (5901.11). The commission may ask for a hearing before the county board on its budget. Financial assistance. An applicant must be a veteran, an active-duty member, or the spouse, surviving spouse, dependent parent, minor child or ward of either, and a bona fide county resident for at least three months (5901.08). For this purpose a veteran is someone who served on active duty and was discharged under honorable conditions, so a general discharge qualifies, and who served on active duty for reasons other than training, or was disabled on active duty for training with a service connection VA or the Defense Department recognizes (5901.01(B)); certain merchant mariners count too. No disability rating is needed. The applicant gives a statement of household income and property, the commission decides the allowance and may change or stop it at any meeting (5901.09, 5901.14), and the application, statement and interview are confidential and not public records. Amounts, categories and limits are each commission's own policy, so they differ county to county. Immediate assistance. Every commission must have rules for immediate help, financial or otherwise, and must extend it to a member of the Ohio National Guard, Ohio military reserve, naval militia or a reserve component called to active duty by the President or Congress, and to the member's spouse and dependents, until military pay and benefits arrive (5901.15). Other duties. Section 5901.03 has each commission arrange regular transportation to and from the VA medical centers serving the county. As amended by Senate Bill 179 from September 23, 2026, it also lets a commission fund outreach at a veterans treatment court and help jails identify incarcerated veterans. Burial. On application, with the family's approval, the commission must contract with the family's chosen funeral director to bury or cremate a veteran, or a veteran's parent, spouse or surviving spouse, who died without the means to pay, in any cemetery that is not a pauper's ground (5901.25). The county's contribution may not exceed $1,000 and the family or friends pay the rest (5901.26); the commission must first satisfy itself that the family cannot pay (5901.27). The county also applies for the government headstone (5901.32). For burial the statute uses the general definition in 5901.01(A), a veteran with "an honorable discharge or honorable separation", not the wider test in 5901.01(B) that governs financial assistance, so a commission may treat a general discharge differently for the two. Find the county office through the Department of Veterans Services directory.