Editorial: Help all veterans, not just wartime ones

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Connecticut has done a lot of good work helping veterans transition back into society by ensuring the state has services and programs in place and on the drawing board to help many vets make the necessary adjustments.

But while the state offers services and programs for a diverse group of veterans ranging from health care at the Veterans Hospital in West Haven to a domicile in Rocky Hill for homeless veterans, there is a group of veterans among the state’s estimated 350,000 it has forgotten about — or rather, is aware of but has been hesitant to offer the same benefits enjoyed by wartime veterans.

They are the veterans who served during peacetime: The men and women who entered the military from 1955 through 1961 and 1975 through 1990, who essentially get no benefits and do not enjoy the same tax exemption as wartime veterans.

Connecticut follows federal guidelines, which state that only veterans who have 90 days of wartime service, including the Merchant Marines, are eligible for a $1,500 exemption for property tax purposes. Veterans have the option to choose to use this exemption on their real estate or automobile tax.

And while the amount of the exemption can be different in every city and town in the state, most cities and towns exceed the $1,500 allowance and some provide an exemption up to $10,000 for disabled veterans. The state also recently passed a law that would allow 100 percent disabled veterans to be excluded from paying property taxes.

But it may be time for Connecticut to revamp its policies and benefits to include all veterans.

Joseph Viscount, who is among Milford’s 6,000 veterans, certainly thinks so and is on a campaign to see that every veteran receives equal treatment when it comes to tax exemptions and other benefits.

Viscount has written Gov. Dannel P. Malloy asking him in part to “convene a blue ribbon, ad hoc, impartial panel, at the earliest possible opportunity ... charging them to provide property tax relief to all state veterans and in particular those whom are currently ­and unfairly ineligible for property tax relief.”

Viscount believes veterans should not be penalized because they served during peacetime.

So far, legislators have stumbled over the question whether to offer peacetime veterans benefits. Each year, legislators propose a bill to offer peacetime veterans “limited state veteran benefits,” which would include burial in the state veterans cemetery, a veterans ID card that gets military members discounts at restaurants and other places and the property tax exemption.

But each year, the bill is defeated, leaving many veterans out of the loop.

As a nation, we call on men and women to serve and protect, help spread the message of democracy around the world and uphold American values and traditions.

The high price of doing this and protecting America and its people are visible in the images we see every day as men and women who were called to duty try to readjust to society without limbs, suffering from PTSD and struggling to pick up the pieces of their lives. And while peacetime veterans were fortunate to escape the horror of war, when men and women stand ready, they should not be forgotten simply because their number wasn’t called.

The debate may continue as to whether peacetime veterans should be eligible for the same services and benefits as wartime veterans. But what should not be a debate is that the men and women who served during an absence of conflict should not be penalized and stripped of basic benefits. They have at least earned the right to receive limited state benefits while the debate rages, thereby being recognized with the United States official stamp of “veteran.”