Four States Unite in Plea for Passage of Veterans Finance Bill

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Posted at 8:15 AM on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 by Legislative

Governors of
ALASKA - CALIFORNIA - OREGON - WISCONSIN
have issued this joint letter to Senators.

December 18, 2007

The Honorable Max Baucus
Chairman
Committee on Finance
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Chuck Grassley
Ranking Member
Committee on Finance
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Chairman Baucus and Senator Grassley:

We write to ask you to pass the restored version of H.R. 3997, the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2007 as soon as possible. We were surprised when a provision of such great importance to our states was dropped from the version ofH.R. 3997 passed out of the Senate on December 12. This provision allows our states to offer low-interest home loans to veterans in appreciation of their service to the nation through the sale of voter approved, tax-exempt Qualified Veterans' Mortgage Bonds (QVMB). The House has restored this provision to H.R 3997 and we ask that you retain it as this legislation passes through the Senate again.

For California, the bill repeals the requirement that veterans receiving loans financed with Qualified Veterans' Mortgage Bonds must have served before 1977 and reduces the eligibility period 10 25 years (rather than 30 years) following the release from the military service. For Alaska, Oregon, and Wisconsin, the bill increases the annual limit on Qualified Veterans' Mortgage Bonds that can be issued in years after 2009 to $\00 million. For 2008 and 2009, the $100 million is phased in by applying the present-law applicable percentages for those years (60 percent and 80 percent respectively).

Since World War 1, it has been common practice for states to give its returning service members certain benefits in gratitude for serving their country. Those benefits differ among states and range from wartime bonuses to educational assistance. For over 60 years Alaska, California, Oregon, and Wisconsin chose to provide home loan programs financed through the sale of QVMB. In 1984, the federal government limited the authority to issue QVMB bills to the states already issuing these bonds.

Your support for the inclusion of these provisions will provide us with the ability to continue providing the home loan benefit to veterans who have served in the Global War on Terror. With the mortgage market in a crisis and housing prices fluctuating, offering low-interest home loans to today's veterans is as important, if not more so, as it was to earlier generations.

On behalf of the over 5 million veterans living in our states, we thank you in advance for retaining this provision in H.R 3997.

Sincerely,

Sarah Palin
Governor of Alaska

Ted Kulongoski
Governor of Oregon

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor of California

James Doyle
Governor of Wisconsin

cc: The Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader

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