BILL NUMBER: AB 1209	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Cook
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Fletcher, Jeffries, Logue, Nielsen,
Silva, and Wagner)
   (Coauthors: Senators Berryhill, Correa, Lieu, and Rubio)

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2011

   An act to add Section 972.3 to the Military and Veterans Code,
relating to veterans, and making an appropriation therefor.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1209, as introduced, Cook. County veterans service officers.
   Existing law allows the board of supervisors of each county to
appoint a county veterans service officer, whose duty is to
administer the aid for veterans, as specified.
   This bill would appropriate the sum of $11,000,000 from the
General Fund to the Department of Veterans Affairs for disbursement
to the counties to fund the activities of the county veterans service
officers.
   Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) The current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating an
entirely new generation of veterans who may be eligible for federal
benefits because of their war service and their physical and mental
condition. Californians make up to 10 percent of the military forces
being used in these conflicts.
   (b) The California National Guard, as well as reserve forces in
California, are providing significant force levels to these wars.
   (c) Most of these returning California veterans are not aware of
the federal and state benefits that are available to them.
   (d) Additionally, it is estimated that in California there may be
over two million veterans and their widows or widowers, who are
unaware that they may be eligible for pensions from the federal
government based upon their past military service in World War II,
Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, or the current conflicts in the Middle
East.
   (e) In 1997, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed Senate
Bill 608, enacted as Chapter 318 of the Statutes of 1997, that
amended Section 972.1 of the Military and Veterans Code. Chapter 318
requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to annually determine the
amount of new or increased monetary benefits paid to eligible
veterans by the federal government that were attributable to the
assistance of county veterans service officers and requires the
Department of Finance to consider an increase in the annual budget
for county veterans service officers, in an amount not to exceed five
million dollars ($5,000,000), if justified.
   (f) In 1997, through the efforts of county veterans service
officers, new or increased federal veterans' benefits had risen to
eighty-eight million dollars ($88,000,000). From 1997 until 2006,
these new and increased federal veterans' benefits had risen to over
one hundred seventy-seven million dollars ($177,000,000) as a result
of the State of California providing annual subvention funding to
county veterans service officers of up to two million three hundred
fifty thousand dollars ($2,350,000).
   (g) From 2007 until 2010, the annual subvention was increased to
two million six hundred thousand dollars ($2,600,000), and by 2010,
the annual federal benefits attributable to county veterans service
officers had risen to three hundred five million dollars
($305,000,000).
   (h) In 2009, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed Senate
Bill 419, enacted as Chapter 183 of the Statutes of 2009 that
amended Section 972.1 of the Military and Veterans Code. Chapter 318
found and declared that 50 percent of the amount annually budgeted
for county veterans service officers is approximately eleven million
dollars ($11,000,000). The Legislature further found and declared
that it is an efficient and reasonable use of state funds to increase
the annual budget for county veterans service officers in an amount
not to exceed eleven million dollars ($11,000,000) if it is justified
by the monetary benefits to the state's veterans attributable to the
effort of these officers.
   (i) County veterans service officers provide valuable services to
California's veterans and to the state and its counties by assisting
veterans in obtaining federal and state benefits to which the
veterans are entitled.
   (j) County veterans service officers also contribute to increased
revenues and significant cost avoidance for the state and its
counties far in excess of the amount of state general funding
provided to them.
   (k) Since 1995, at a cost to the state of thirty-three million
dollars ($33,000,000) from the General Fund, the county veterans
service officers have obtained two billion nine hundred seventy-eight
million dollars ($2,978,000,000) in federal veterans benefits for
California veterans and their dependents, thereby garnering the state
an 88-fold increase on its investment.
   (l) In 2010, the Governor implemented, and the Legislature
approved, Operation Welcome Home, a statewide campaign to connect
with every returning veteran to determine his or her needs and
connect the returning veterans with the services to assist in the
successful transition from the battlefront to the homefront.
   (m) Each year, since the current conflicts began, 30,000 military
men and women are discharged from military service in California and
it is beneficial and cost effective to the state to provide these new
veterans assistance in navigating the myriad of federal, state,
local, nonprofit, and private sector service provider benefits and
services for which they are eligible.
   (n) The goal of Operation Welcome Home is to reduce veterans'
homelessness, decrease veterans' unemployment rates, increase
participation in federal veterans programs, such as federal
unemployment benefits, compensation, and pension programs, increase
the number of veterans in California colleges and universities,
increase early detection of mental illness, such as post-traumatic
stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, and divert veterans from
the criminal justice system.
   (o) The goals of Operation Welcome Home necessitate an increased
utilization of the county veterans service officers, who are the
interface between the state and counties with the veteran's
community.
   (p) As a result, the Governor's budget proposed to increase local
assistance to Operation Welcome Home and the county veterans service
officers from two million six hundred thousand dollars ($2,600,000)
to eleven million dollars ($11,000,000), the full amount allowed by
Senate Bill 419.
   (q) The Legislature approved an increase in local assistance from
two million six hundred thousand dollars ($2,600,000) to seven
million six hundred thousand dollars ($7,600,000) in recognition of
the fact that county veterans service officers not only fulfilled the
moral obligation of assisting our veterans but also that in the last
15 years, the county veterans service officers have brought three
billion dollars ($3,000,000,000) in new, unencumbered federal moneys
into the state for a modest expenditure by the state of thirty-four
million dollars ($34,000,000) in local assistance.
  SEC. 2.  Section 972.3 is added to the Military and Veterans Code,
to read:
   972.3.  Notwithstanding any other law, eleven million dollars
($11,000,000) is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the
Department of Veterans Affairs for disbursement to the counties in
accordance with the existing procedures established under Section
972.1 of the Military and Veterans Code.