Ohio veterans are paid less — but why?

Ohio veterans are paid less — but why?
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Apr 12, 2008 16:17:15 EDT

CLEVELAND — Ohio ranked second-to-last in compensation for disabled veterans, and federal lawmakers are looking at why cases in other states collect thousands of dollars more.

More than 85,000 veterans in Ohio receive disability payments, and they routinely trail their peers from other states, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs survey from 2006. Only Indiana’s disabled veterans earned less.

“The veterans living in Ohio sacrificed as much as veterans living elsewhere,” said Rep. Zack Space, a Dover Democrat who is pushing for the VA to have a national standard for payments. “There is no reason that a veteran here should receive less than veterans in other states.”

But veterans in Ohio receive as much as $4,800 less than those in New Mexico. Veterans in Oklahoma receive $4,185 more than their Ohio peers, and those in West Virginia earn $3,857 more.

Space and his colleagues on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs are looking into the disparity. Part of the reason for the gap is that each state’s veterans’ system sets its own standards for disability.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_ohiovets_041208/

My state would ask for less, and accept less.