Call made to boost tax break for town’s disabled vets

Johnston Sun Rise ·

Johnston’s disabled veterans could soon find themselves exempt from property taxes if a local veterans group’s efforts on their behalf are successful.

During Monday night’s Town Council meeting, Commander H. Jake Tarkasian of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Lymansville Memorial Post 10,011 in North Providence made an impassioned plea to council members seeking tax relief for the 38 Johnston veterans who are 100-percent disabled.

According to Tarkasian, this group of veterans currently receives a $290 property tax exemption each, compared to $1,126 exemption received by seniors in the town.

“I ask you to sponsor an ordinance to give our disabled veterans a 100-percent tax exemption. Let’s not leave these disabled veterans by the roadside,” Tarkasian told the council during public comments. “Isn’t it time that we respect our totally disabled veterans and our partially disabled veterans? They have been wounded in combat, blown up by IEDs, suffered from traumatic brain injuries, lost their arms and their legs, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, given unknown medications from chemical warfare, sent into the black of the oil well fires, and had illnesses that the military cannot or will not identify.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) assigns disability as a percentage, ranging from zero to 100. To qualify for disability compensation, one must have a disability the VA determines was “incurred or aggravated as the result of” military service, and thus deemed to be “service connected.”

The VA also uses service connection to determine entitlement to other benefits, including health care and vocational rehabilitation. A medical examination must be completed in order to evaluate and assess the severity of disability before a rating can be determined based on the VA’s disability rating schedule.

“We take care of our illegal aliens better than we take care of our disabled veterans. I ask you, do our totally disabled veterans deserve better treatment than an illegal alien?” Tarkasian said. “Can we not give our veterans an increase in their property exemption? I ask the Town Council to look at our disabled veterans and our returning veterans and give them a hand up.”

Tarkasian noted that Cranston had recently applied a tax emption ordinance that would implement a tax reduction for approximately 112 disabled veterans in that city. He also estimated that the total exemption cost to Johnston for its 38 veterans under such a proposal would be about $100,000 per year.

Councilman Anthony Verado suggested that because such an action would have a fiscal impact on the town, the proposal be taken under advisement and a committee be formed. Council President Robert Russo spoke in support of that course of action.