Should Lexington County’s veterans services be controlled by the state or the local legislative delegation?

County Republican lawmakers Sen. Katrina Shealy and Rep. Chip Huggins are sponsoring bills to give the state Department of Veterans Affairs secretary William Grimsley sole authority to hire or fire county veterans affairs officers.

Other Senate and House bills would return that power to county legislative delegations.

SC lawmakers in 2019 created the SCDVA to help the state’s 405,000 veterans, many of them aging and with financial and health problems.

Sen. Shealy said her bill would “make sure somebody’s in the office, somebody who’s qualified.”

Rep. Chip Huggins, R-Lexington County, has co-sponsored a House bill similar to Sen. Shealy’s bill.

Critics contend that rural counties struggle to give adequate resources to their Veterans Affairs Offices.

The services veterans receive is largely decided by the county office to which they go for help, the critics say.

By creating the new agency, county legislative delegations lost their sole power to fire their county veterans’ af fairs officers.

Now some lawmakers want their firing power back.

SCDVA secretary Grimsley has asked lawmakers for $6.5 million more a year – 2 times larger than the $2.7 million his department now receives.

$4 million would go to salaries and benefits of all 46 county CVAOs.

Grimsley’s request also calls for $1,041,770 to hire 11 new employees.

Read the full article at https://www.lexingtonchronicle.com/news/lawmakers-differ-over-veterans-aid.

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve. Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org.