State closing five veterans centers
Thursday, November 12, 2009
By Timothy McNulty and Tom Barnes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The state is quietly shutting down a program, nearly 3 decades old, that aids veterans statewide, mostly in rural areas.

The Rendell administration is closing the state's five Governor's Veterans Outreach and Assistance Centers, which were started by Gov. Dick Thornburgh in 1981. The centers help veterans with paperwork for health claims, job placement, education and other services, at locations outside the usual Veterans Affairs and veteran service organization offices across the state.

The offices -- including branches in Erie and Greensburg -- are set to close by the end of December, though some have been shuttered already.

State officials say the centers duplicate services already available in government offices in each of the state's 67 counties, not to mention those offered by the American Legion and other service groups. Many of those working in the five outreach offices are not officially certified to file the complicated forms necessary for obtaining federal benefits, meaning the paperwork has to be reviewed a second time after a veteran files them at the outreach centers.

It is still a layer of help that veterans will miss, especially in bad economic times, American Legion leaders said yesterday. "If it helps veterans, it doesn't matter who is guiding them" to the aid, said Kit Watson, Pennsylvania Department of the American Legion adjutant.

"You're eliminating aid to veterans by closing these offices, especially with an influx coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq," said Steve Dennison, service officer for the Legion's Pittsburgh office.

The state "is not cutting services to veterans. Our mission is to provide work force services that allow veterans to access education, training and employment programs," said Troy Thompson, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industry, which oversees veterans services.

Employment aid can be better administrated by the state's CareerLink locations, he added, which have experts in veterans services.

While Rendell administration officials downplayed any negative effects from closing the veterans centers, state Rep. Douglas Reichley, R-Lehigh, was upset. He said he understands "strains on the state budget," but he also favors using state revenues "for funding certain vital services," such as those for veterans.

"Countless veterans have come to my district office to consult with GVOAC officers to apply for veterans benefits, obtain service records or to apply for lost medals and recognitions," he said, adding that veterans should "contact the governor or their state legislators to demand that this vital service be restored."

Chuck Ardo, a spokesman for the House Democratic Campaign Committee, retorted that Republicans "are all for less taxes and smaller government until the painful cuts needed to meet their demands are made."

State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, who chairs the Senate panel on veterans affairs, plans to take a wait-and-see approach to eliminating the outreach centers.

She and other legislators plan to meet with groups such as the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans "to review what kind of hole this [elimination of GVOAC] will put in veterans' programs and how it will affect some of the rural, underserved areas."

She said the program used $900,000 in federal funds, but that loss will be offset by the use of $1.68 million in state funds for veterans services.

She said she wants "outreach services to veterans to move forward. We can't remember veterans just on Veterans Day. We have to remember them every day."