Vermont Veterans' Fund

Title 20, section 1548 creates the Vermont Veterans' Fund, administered by the Military Department and paid out in grants on the recommendation of a nine-member committee. The committee is worth listing because it explains what the fund does. It is the Adjutant and Inspector General or designee, the Vermont Veterans' Home Administrator or designee, the Commissioner of Labor or designee, the Secretary of Human Services or designee, the Director of the White River Junction VA medical center or designee, the Director of the White River Junction VA benefits office or designee, and three members of the Governor's Veterans' Council appointed by that Council. Two of the nine seats belong to the federal VA, which is unusual for a state fund. Grants go to individuals and to organizations, for five purposes named in the statute: the long-term care of veterans, aiding homeless veterans, transportation services for veterans, funding veterans' service programs, and recognizing veterans. Grants to organizations are the point that gets missed. This is the fund a Vermont nonprofit running a transport service or a homeless outreach applies to, not only the fund an individual veteran applies to. It is a different thing from the Veterans Assistance Fund in this catalog, which pays up to $500 to an individual for a critical need. Section 1548(d) defines veteran narrowly for this fund: a resident of Vermont who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces or the Vermont National Guard or Vermont Air National Guard and who received an honorable discharge. Residency and an honorable discharge are both required here, which is tighter than the veteran tax credit and tighter than the Green Mountain Passport. The money comes from a checkoff. 32 V.S.A. 5862e requires individual income tax returns to carry an opportunity to designate funds to the Vermont Veterans' Fund, deducted from the taxpayer's refund or overpayment. If the payment with a return is not enough to cover both the tax owed and the designated contribution, the tax is paid first and only the balance goes to the Fund. The Commissioner of Taxes is required to explain the account's purpose in the return instructions and to say how to get the Fund's annual income and expense report. That report is the practical thing to ask for. A fund whose income is voluntary taxpayer designations varies year to year, and its published income and expense report says what is actually there. No disability rating is involved.