Sen. DiDomenico supports bill to boost benefits, modernize services and promote inclusivity for veterans

Senate builds on and approves historic commitment to people who have served

On June 13, 2024, Senator Sal DiDomenico joined his colleagues in the Massachusetts Senate to unanimously pass legislation that will boost support for hundreds of thousands of individuals across the state who have served in the United States military, including nearly 30,000 women veterans and thousands of LGBTQ+ veterans. The comprehensive legislative package, H.4671, An Act honoring, empowering and recognizing our servicemembers and veterans (HERO Act), would increase benefits for disabled veterans, bolster support for businesses that hire veterans, update the definition of a veteran, expand the scope of the Veterans Equality Review Board and codify medical and dental benefits.

“I am proud to support this significant investment into benefits and services that will improve lives for Veterans in my district and our state who have sacrificed so much for our country,” said Senator DiDomenico. “The HERO Act demonstrates our support for Veterans from all backgrounds by expanding our health care benefits and support services for service members and their families as well as encouraging businesses to hire veterans across the state. I am grateful for Senate President Spilka and Senator John Velis for bringing this essential package to the floor and moving it swiftly through the legislative process.”

H.4671 builds on the historic legislative package filed by the Healey-Driscoll Administration by including additional provisions which would:

• Require a public school district to provide support services to a military-connected student when a parent or guardian is called to active duty
• Create a military spouse liaison to help military spouses with obtaining employment and child care, and deal with other issues facing military spouses
• Allow Gold Star Family spouses to remarry without the penalty of losing their annuity benefit

Some highlights of H.4671:

Benefit expansion

• Behavioral health treatment: allows veterans to be reimbursed for visits to outpatient behavioral health providers.
• Disabled veteran annuity: increases the annual annuity for veterans with a 100% service-connected disability, surviving spouses or Gold Star Parents from $2,000 to $2,500.
• Vet-hire tax credit: increases to $2,500 a tax credit for small businesses hiring chronically unemployed or low-income veterans. Eligible veterans include those receiving SNAP benefits, chronically unemployed veterans and unemployed service-connected disabled veterans.
• Active-duty buyback program: lengthens the time frame for veterans in public service to participate in the active-duty service buyback program and allows retroactive participation for veterans who missed the buyback opportunity. This program will enable veterans to purchase up to four years of active-duty service time toward their state retirement.
• “COLA Cliff” prevention: ensures that a cost-of-living adjustment in Social Security benefits will not affect veterans’ eligibility for Chapter 115 benefits in the middle of the state fiscal year.
• Veterans property tax exemptions: creates two separate local options. The first allows municipalities to double the veteran property tax exemption without doubling all other exemption clauses. The second ties the annual property tax abatement amount to inflation, allowing exempted property tax amounts to increase with inflation.
• Specialty license plates for veterans: waives specialty license plate fees on specialty veteran license plates and creates a new woman veteran license plate decal.
• Municipalities allowed to increase the property tax exemption of a veteran in exchange for volunteer services.

Commitment to inclusivity and greater representation

• Aligns the Commonwealth’s Chapter 115 program definition of a veteran with the United States Department of Veteran Affairs definition. This change allows more veterans to be eligible for annuity, Chapter 115 benefits, access to the Massachusetts Veterans Homes and other state-provided benefits. This only applies to Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans’ Services (EOVS) programs and does not affect any other agency or entity.
• Expands the scope of the Veterans Equality Review Board beyond “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” discharges to include discharges related to military sexual trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, mental health conditions or HIV discharges
• Expands the Chapter 115 definition of “dependent” to support more dependents based on the Family Court definition.
• Updates dependent residency requirements to align with current practices

Modernization of veterans services

• Ensures that veterans receive essential dental care by codifying dental benefits for Chapter 115 recipients
• Provides consistent care to veterans by codifying medical assistance benefits
• Ensures proper management and care of veterans’ cemeteries by codifying the authority for EOVS to continue administering and maintaining the state’s two Memorial Veterans Cemeteries
• Revises Chapters 115 and 115A to ensure gender-neutral and inclusive language while removing antiquated references
• Allows municipalities to deliver Chapter 115 benefits by direct deposit
• Establishes a working group to study the potential benefits of alternative therapies, such as psilocybin, in treating veterans suffering from mental health disorders.

Separate versions of the bill having been passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives; the chambers will now move to reconcile the differences before sending the bill to the Governor’s desk.