Letter to the Editor: Supporting Veterans Assistance Funding

“Freedom is not free”.  Preserving our enumerated rights has come with a cost.  We civilians take these rights for granted, every single day.  Whether you are a “Tea Party Patriot” or a “99 Per-Center” or somewhere in between, someone you know or maybe related to, answered a call to service by our Nation.  They were willing to bear arms in support of America and defend America.   Veterans Day was chosen as the day to honor that sacrifice and the service performed by our citizen brothers/sisters, many doing so in harm’s way. 

Locally, we have, as a county voted by referendum to recognize that service, to keep the promise to those county residents who have served.   In 2006, by majority consent, we created a Special Tax Levy, providing needed funding for the Veterans Assistance Commission (VAC) of Kendall County. We said, we’ll not forget and we will be there for our citizen brothers/sisters once they come home from serving our country.

The Veterans Assistance Commission (VAC) of Kendall County is staffed and is run by veterans for veterans. Whether it is a returning Afghanistan or Iraq Vet that needs help finding a job and readapting to civilian life, or the WWII Vet on continuous Kidney Dialysis, the Kendall VAC is there to help these individuals who answered the Call.  It is a true need, especially for those whose bodies and/or minds have been damaged by stressful armed conflict.  Only someone who has served, who has been tested under very stressful conditions can understand and empathize with what his brother/sister veteran has gone or is going through.   With the pending Iraq withdrawal and the winding down in Afghanistan, its common sense that we will have more returning Vets that will need VAC services. 

Why is it every year, year in and year out, our veterans on the Kendall VAC Board of Directors must continually fight the Kendall County Board to receive the funding the Veterans Assistance Commission (VAC) of Kendall County is rightfully entitled to and was approved by us voters in Nov. 2006?  These resourceful and adaptable individuals know how to fight, were never afraid to fight, yet annually must continue to labor against the yoke of micromanagement by the mighty Kendall County Board.

These Vets know how to take orders, they also know when it is time to draw the line and stand pat.  It is a labor of love.  They do it for their peers in need, young or old alike, it doesn’t matter, if you served our country, this band of brothers who served us will always care for their own.  The annual VAC budget battle continues. 

Some Kendall County Board Members want even more VAC cuts.  We voted, it was decided, yet the KCB still persists and continues this unnecessary battle for control.  Stand with those who served, tell the KCB, Give the Kendall VAC their full tax levy, keep our promise.  Please recognize 11-11-11 and Honor Veterans Day for all who have served our great country. 

Todd Milliron
Yorkville area resident and County Board candidate

Editor's note: County Board members are discussing not increasing the tax levies as much as the tax cap law allows. For the Veterans Assistance Commission, that would mean $3,763 less in potential tax revenue, Milliron said. Commission leaders would adjust for that revenue loss by cutting the Friday bus trip to the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, leaving just four bus trips there a week for local veterans, Milliron said.