Recession brings cuts to veterans' service groups

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The wail of bagpipes at Memorial Day events honoring servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan rang hollow for some military veterans this year.

In Michigan and elsewhere, once-sacrosanct veterans' programs are no longer safe from the knife as tax revenues continue sliding in the recession.

In a recent budget-cutting order, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and legislators slashed $1 million, or 25 percent, of funding for 11 groups that help veterans through a maze of paperwork and bureaucracy to get disability and pension benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The cut is forcing layoffs and likely will be carried over to the next budget, too.

"It's a travesty," said Daniel Crocker, Michigan service director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which had to eliminate four jobs. "The greatness of a nation will be judged by how it treats its veterans."



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