A couple of months ago, I was musing about the Assembly Veterans' Affairs Committee. After all, California doesn't have its own army (the possibility makes me shudder). From the OC Register:
Q: Veterans of World War II are dying faster than new veterans are being created. How about decreasing the staff of the Department of Veterans Affairs correspondingly?
- Wilbur Bolton, Los Alamitos
A: With roughly 2.6 million veterans living in California, don't look for the state Department of Veterans Affairs to stand down anytime soon.
No cuts are proposed to the staff of 1,959. In fact, the department soon will build five new veterans' homes using at least $100 million of state money - about half from Proposition 16 in 2000.
"The fact is, the World War II veterans are dying at a high rate," said Andy Kotch, a spokesman for the department. "But we also have the Korean, the Vietnam, the Desert Storm and all of the other veterans along the way. The numbers are still there."
The budget proposed by Davis for the department in the next fiscal year is $328 million. Of that, the state general fund will provide about $62 million, or $900,000 less than this year.
Posted by Justene Adamec at February 22, 2003 11:49 AM