Counties and lawmakers press state after recalculation cuts veteran service grants

County veteran service officers and several state representatives pressed the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) and the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency (MVAA) at a House subcommittee hearing after a department recalculation reduced the projected county veteran service grant fund and forced counties to amend or resubmit grant budgets under a self-imposed 5 p.m. amendment deadline.

The discrepancy arose after the DMVA recalculated available fund balances for fiscal 2025. Counties said they received allocation letters in May and were not told those allocation numbers were projections; a later recalculation communicated on Feb. 18 reduced the available pool to about $5.1 million, leaving a shortfall counties and advocates identified as roughly $3.66 million compared with earlier figures counties had been using in planning.

The difference had immediate consequences for local veteran services. Amy Pocan, director of the Ingham and Clinton County Department of Veteran Affairs, told the committee: “At that point in time, no information was provided to us that…