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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: What is happening to the AZ Military Family Relief Fund ?
From: "Robert Stelling" <azdemvetmaricopa@azdemvetmaricopa.com>
Date: Thu, May 28, 2009 1:16 pm
To: "Ann Wallack" <annwallack@cox.net>
Cc: <elaminess@dnc.org>
To All Arizona Democratic Veterans:
I received the following from Kathleen O'Brien. I talked to Matt Capalby and we have in the planning stages a Veterans Rally on the Capitol's steps tentatively scheduled for next week. More information will be forthcoming.
Bob Stelling
Dear Bob,
(Let me begin by telling you that I sent a similar email out last night to a few folks who I hoped would be impressed by this article from The Guardian. I didnÂ’t have your email addresses until today.)
The Arizona Guardian posted a story (see below) on Sunday that really annoys me. I know for a fact that there are dozens of returning Vets who need the kind of help that the $1 mil+ in this fund could provide. The good citizens of Arizona who donated to the Military Family Relief Fund should be outraged but how many of them read the Arizona Guardian?
There is something rotten in the Arizona Department of VeteranÂ’s Services. Surely they canÂ’t be this incompetent.
This is a story and an issue that Democrats need to run with and SOON! IÂ’ve heard through the grapevine that Matt Capalby is aware of this story. I understand that Matt is considering a press conference. Can either of you help move this along? Can our Republican legislature be so lame as to let a bill that would have expanded the scope of this program die in committee? Geez, guys! Come on!
I have reached out to Rueben and Cole hoping that they would contact the VeteransÂ’ Caucus to rally the troops (literally).
While we are all sitting around patting ourselves on the back for the terrific Supreme Court nomination today, there is a lot of work to do in Arizona.
Please reach out to anyone you know who has standing on this issue.
Peace and Courage,
Kathleen OÂ’Brien
State Committeeperson
LD6
602-862-0078
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By Patti Epler" <pepler@arizonaguardian.com
More than $1 million collected last year to help military families whose loved ones have been killed or injured in combat is still sitting in the state's bank account.
Less than $20,000 from the Military Family Relief Fund has been passed out, and that's gone to only four people. Four others who applied were turned down because they didn't qualify, according to officials with the Arizona Department of Veterans' Services.
Director Joey Strickland says the law is too narrowly written to help many of Arizona's military families.
"It's been a personal concern of mine," he said.
Now, Sen. Russell Pearce is sponsoring legislation that would greatly expand the pool of people who could qualify.
"It's giving them a little more flexibility to help," Pearce said last week. "It's a good organization trying to do good things and I'm happy to help them."
The fund was established in 2007 by the Legislature and soon began collecting donations, mainly from residents who gave small amounts. A few corporate sponsors, primarily Bashas' grocery store chain which sponsored a fund drive, also helped out.
The legislation provided a tax credit up to $1 million per calendar year, so when the total was reached in December 2008, veterans' officials turned away tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from people who had expected a credit.
Since then, more money has come in for this calendar year and the fund is up to about $1,118,000, according to department records.
A 12-member board oversees the fund, reviews applications and makes the awards. Russell Pearce's sister, Kathy, who also heads the military family assistance group Heroes to Hometowns, is one of the members.
Under the current law, the money is available to members of the Army or Air National Guard and their families. Active duty members of the regular branches of the services generally have support through their units, so the legislation is envisioned help those reservists who returned from combat to civilian life.
The law also specified that the assistance go to families of military personnel who were deployed from an Arizona military base to Iraq or Afghanistan.
That cuts out a lot of Arizona residents who are in the Guard but are not stationed in Arizona or deployed from the state, Strickland said. For instance someone who is sent overseas from a training center would be excluded.
The four cases that have received money, according to a summary provided by the veterans' services department, are:
-- A soldier who came back from Iraq to find his wife had left him and taken their children. He was unemployed and facing homelessness. He was granted $9,490 for rent and utilities.
-- The parents of a soldier who was killed in action. They were given $5,000 to travel to Arlington National cemetery to attend the burial of their son.
-- A wife whose husband was being treated in Tucson for post-traumatic stress disorder. She was given $2,100 for travel expenses and to pay for a hotel so she could be with him during treatment.
-- A veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who was losing his home. The fund paid $2,550 in back rent directly to the landlord and $482 directly to SRP and the city of Mesa so utilities wouldn't be shut off.
Strickland and Dave Hampton, the agency's spokesman and legislative liaison, said they would like to see more people apply for the money, but that so far the number of people who might qualify has been limited.
There have been 22 Arizona residents killed in action in Iraq or Afghanistan since June 2007, when the legislation was passed, Hampton said. Not all of those were Guard troops deployed from Arizona, so it's not clear how many would have qualified.
The agency also doesn't track how many Guard members have been seriously injured since the fund was put in place. While the legislation was being debated, lawmakers considered that 120 Arizonans had been killed in action and more than 600 others had been wounded, Hampton said.
Stickland, who was head of the veterans department in Louisiana before being tapped by Gov. Janet Napolitano to run Arizona's agency about seven months ago, said other states have similar funds and they allow money to go to a broader range of people and needs.
He'd like to see the money eventually be used to help pay costs for any family who needs help paying the rent, for instance, while the husband or wife is deployed overseas.
Agency officials estimate about 1,100 Arizonans have been deployed this year and just from the Army National Guard. About 5,000 troops have been sent overseas since 2001.
SB 1176 doesn't go so far as to open it up to families who are struggling while a family member is away. But it does expand the law in a number of ways.
It would allow the fund to be used for families of military members who are Arizona residents deployed outside the state, even if they weren't deployed from an Arizona base.
The proposed legislation also would allow the money to be used to help families if the military member is hospitalized with a serious illness, such as a heart attack or cancer or other sickness that was contracted while deployed. It also would allow assistance for those injured in non-combat incidents.
And it would allow parents of single service men and women to apply for money from the fund.
Similar legislation was approved by a wide margin last year by both the Senate and the House but died without a final vote in the last days of the session.
The bill hasn't gotten a hearing this year because Senate President Bob Burns has refused to allow his members to work on bills until they pass a 2010 budget.
But Pearce, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and is intimately aware of progress on the budget, believes the bill and others will still make it through the session this year.
Strickland and Hampton are also hopeful.
"It's a work in progress and I think it will eventually get there," Strickland said.
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