Kansas veterans agency briefs committee on budget, new veterans home and rising claims

General Turner of the Kansas Office of Veterans Services told the Committee on Veterans and Military that the agency is managing rising demand for benefits and long-term care while advancing construction documents for a new state veterans home.

“$16,300,000 that we receive in SGF represents roughly about a third of what our total overall budget is,” General Turner said, describing the mix of State General Fund (SGF), State Institutional Building Fund (SIBF) and federal dollars that support the agency. He told the committee the state has $17,200,000 appropriated in the SIBF account for a new veterans home and is applying for a federal grant that would cover roughly 65% of the project cost.

The nut graf: the agency said rising claims after the federal PACT Act and an increased census at veterans homes are driving higher workloads and costs; the Legislature’s SIBF appropriation has put the state in position to apply for federal construction funds but the federal grant list is long and timing is uncertain.

Turner said the new home has a preliminary budget target of about $49,000,000, with the state’s $17,200,000 representing the 35% cash match needed to apply for a federal grant of about $32,000,000. He told the committee the project is about 90% complete on design and construction documents and that staff are completing value-engineering to keep costs near the $49 million target.

“The more that we can be precise in what we’re doing now, we’ll limit the change orders and the other things that may be required,” Turner said, describing preparations before the design is “put on a shelf” pending federal funding and possible later execution.

On service delivery, Turner and deputy Eric Rolliter said claims activity has climbed (the agency reported a roughly 16% increase in claims transactions over the last fiscal period) and that the veterans homes census is up about 14% compared with the lows during COVID. Turner said Winfield’s veterans home has been rated five stars for 10 of the last 11 quarters.

Turner described the agency’s field footprint as 23 federal veteran service representatives in 16 field offices across the state (locations cited included Colby, Dodge, Atchison, Independence, Overland Park and Kansas City). He said those staff and partner veteran service organizations bring in substantial federal dollars to Kansas veterans — Turner referenced roughly $2.3 billion in federal compensation and benefits flowing to veterans in the state and showed compensation-and-pension payments rising from about $1.09 billion to $1.185 billion year over year.

On veterans cemeteries, Turner said the four state-operated veteran cemeteries performed about 458 interments last year, up from roughly 370–380 earlier in the COVID period, and noted two cemeteries received recognition for operational excellence from the National Cemetery Administration. He said 19 people work across the four cemeteries.

Turner reviewed revenue streams that support homes and services: SGF, SIBF for capital projects, federal grants (including a roughly $1,000,000 federal grant to expand Winfield Cemetery capacity), state lottery dollars (about $1.2 million split across programs), VA per diem rates (agency figures cited: $144/day standard, $62/day domiciliary, $492/day prevailing rate for 70% service-connected residents), Medicare/Medicaid and private-pay maintenance fees (the presentation cited a $111/day private-pay maintenance fee).

On timing and federal funding, Turner said the agency is working with the federal delegation and planned visits to Washington, D.C., to press for grant funding. He told the committee there is no firm federal projection for when grant dollars would be allocated, and that the federal construction grant program only funded a small portion of the nationwide backlog in the current cycle.

Committee members asked about project inflation, timelines and operations. Turner said the team has run multiple value-engineering iterations, is tracking construction-cost risk and would return to state decisionmakers if the grant ask or project scope requires additional state funds. He also reported recent outreach successes and a cancelled adjudication event tied to federal scheduling/funding decisions that the agency is trying to reschedule.

The presentation concluded with a request that legislators and staff refer veteran constituent concerns to the Kansas Office of Veterans Services; Turner said the agency tracks constituent issues to resolution and will coordinate with state and federal partners when needed.