Bonus program for Ohio veterans moving forward

By MARC KOVAC

news@vindy.com

COLUMBUS

State officials are moving forward with plans to distribute voter-approved bonus payments to veterans of recent and ongoing military conflicts in the Middle East.

The Ohio Department of Veterans Services has filed rules with the Ohio Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, outlining how the program would be administered. Officials also have asked the state Controlling Board for more than $4 million in spending authority to cover startup costs.

Director Bill Hartnett said applications could be available to veterans in late summer or early fall, depending on how quickly the rules and startup costs are approved and the bonds are issued to cover the bonuses.

Hartnett said, if the process goes as planned, families of veterans who were killed or missing in action could begin receiving checks in September, with others starting in November.

“We’ll be sending checks out for two or three years,” he said.

In November, voters passed a constitutional amendment allowing the state to borrow up to $200 million to pay cash bonuses to Ohio military men and women who served in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq — those serving in current conflicts in the area, plus those involved in Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s.

That would include those who served from Aug. 2, 1990, to March 3, 1991; since Oct. 7, 2001, in Afghanistan; and since March 19, 2003, in Iraq.

Veterans will be paid $100 per month, up to $1,000, for time served in those areas or $50 a month, up to $500, for those serving in the military at the time in other locations. Families of veterans who died in action will be eligible for a $5,000 death benefit. Similar cash bonuses were approved by voters and paid to veterans of other wars and conflicts, dating back to World War I.