Attention All Tennessee Veterans
The annual Tennessee Veterans (TNVET) "Veterans Day On The Hill" will be on Feb 1, 2023 in Nashville. This is your chance to help talk with your legislator(s) on bills that affect veterans in the state.
Some ask what and why is TNVET doing this. Here are some things that have happened due to TNVET fighting for state vets:
1. If you were a disabled vet that was receiving the property tax exemption, you know that it was reduced from $175K to $100K and had income limits placed on the amounts you could get of the $100k in 2015. TNVET is the organization that fought a two-year battle to restore the full amount. The income limits were eliminated in 2016 and full restoration back to $175K was accomplished in 2017.
2. If you had a veteran member that died with Covid and the death certificate did not list the contributing causes from military service, you know you may have lost financial benefits. In addition, you had to fight a lengthy battle with local/state government officials and the VA to correct the death certificate to restore those benefits. TNVET fought and got state law changed in 2022 so veteran families can get the proper notations on the death certificate from the start.
3. In 2019, TNVET fought for and was successful in getting legislation to ensure dependents of active duty members who are accepted to Tenn. Universities maintain in-state status if military member is transferred between acceptance and admittance. Thus, saving potentially thousands of dollars in school costs.
4. In 2017, TNVET fought for and was successful in having state law changed so private employers could give hiring preferences for Veterans, spouses and widows/widowers.
5. In 2021, TNVET was success in its fight for legislation which created a medical leave policy for state employees who are 30 percent or more disabled veterans to attend VA appointments.
These are a few of the 16 legislative actions that TNVET has accomplished in its 6-year history ( https://tnvet.org/legislative-success/past-legislative-success/ ). We would compare our success against any other individual veteran organization. The secret to our success is simple..... there is more political power when veteran organizations unite and speak as one. TNVET is made up of 10 state veteran organizations united under one umbrella for state legislative purposes.
If you or your veteran organization wants to be part of this success, then attend "Veterans Day On The Hill" on Feb 1, 2023. Want to know what items TNVET is battling to accomplish for veterans this year? (Hint - one is legal prescriptions of medical cannabis) Go to: https://tnvet.org/legislative-success/2023-legislation/
Want to attend "Vet Day" to meet the legislators that will decide these issues, then sign-up at: https://tnvet.org/veteran-day.../information-on-attending/
If there is an ag/farm bill that would aid veterans let me know and we can work on it. The legislative websites for ag/farm bills can be found at:
Agriculture : https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/subjectindex/BillsBySubject.aspx?Primarysubject=0075&GA=113
