Michigan Veterans Say Governor Has Gone Too Far This Time

Some Veterans Say the Governor Has Gone Too Far This Time
WLUC TV6 - Marquette,Michigan
By Diana Fairbanks
Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 2:27 p.m.


The state is facing a major budget shortfall. The Governor recently announced hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts that will affect every department.

Some of the biggest cuts are $53 million dollars from community health and more than $15 million from State Police.

The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is slated to lose more than $2.2 million dollars.

That has some veterans speaking out and taking action.

The details in tonight's Fact Finder Report.

Larry Butcher earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam, but his latest fight is just heating up as news of state budget cuts made the way to his office.

Butcher says, "I looked at it and my blood started to boil."

Of the more than $2 million dollars the state is cutting from the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, about half will come from veterans service organizations. The American legion will lose 226,000.

Butcher says," Veterans are veterans and veterans come first."

While it's up to individual organizations to decide how to implement the cuts, Larry Butcher, President of the Grand Traverse Area Veterans Coalition says it will directly impact service officers like Pat Kline.

Kline says, "my job is to help veterans file claims and get the benefits are due to them."

Kline is a veteran who lives in Petoskey. He now drives about 800 miles a week, criss-crossing the state helping veterans find their way through a bureaucratic maze.

Kline says, "the paperwork on a typical claim can be 25-30 pages. For the average veteran to go through, that can be very scary."
go here for more
Some Veterans Say the Governor Has Gone Too Far This Time