Chris Graham: The other side of the bargain
I always thought that the deal was – the men and women in our nation’s military put their lives on hold and on the line to protect ours, so when they return from the battlefield, no matter what their situation was, we got their back.
And then you read about how it’s been getting tougher and tougher for veterans back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to deal with the overburdened Veterans Administration, and you realize – we’re not doing our part. Read more
Helping disabled veterans
Column by David Cox
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As the General Convention goes about its business in Richmond, it’ll take up a matter that everyone voted for last time. Before they do again, I hope they’ll look at a better way of meeting their objective: helping disabled veterans.
Last winter, the House and Senate passed unanimously a constitutional amendment that would exempt veterans, who because of their service to the nation were 100 percent disabled according to the Veterans Administration, from paying local property tax. As a proposed amendment, it gets another reading this winter, and if passed again would go to us voters in November.
At the time I groused about it as still yet another unfunded mandate by which the state, which usually insists local governments pay for some duty, in this case cuts into the revenues of localities: property taxes are among the few funding sources for cities and counties. I noted that all politicians oppose unfunded mandates…then all our Assembly politicians voted for one. Read more
VA selects site for Staunton clinic
Staff Report
The VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network and Salem VA Medical Center announced today that a site has been selected for the establishment of a Community Based Outpatient Clinic in Staunton.
The clinic will be located at 1002 Natasha Way in Staunton. VA will lease space within a building that will be constructed on the property. When completed, the facility will provide 7,500 net usable square feet of clinic space. Read more
A simple solution on health-care reform
Column by Robert Dean Banta
With all the details and sideline deal-making of the current health-care reform efforts it seems the answer of how to pay for health care must be much simpler than the tangled spaghetti Congress now twirls their forks around.
In imagining what I want out of health-care reform I have come up with the following idea, which does everything Congress and the president are now trying to do, but just through a much simpler plan. I will call my plan, The Banta Plan, after my last name and with more than a little fun poked at myself. Read more
