Peoria County has more than 9,000 military veterans, according to the Census, and hundreds seek help with issues ranging from disability benefits to housing. The county’s Veterans Assistance Commission advocates for them while maneuvering a new federal law providing more opportunities for vets, and a new state law giving them more power and money but mostly removing counties’ elected officials from the process.

Changing challenges include not just greater eligibility for veterans who served in Afghanistan and other conflicts, but serving vets referred from elsewhere — meaning Peoria taxpayers underwrite those cases, too.

“We get referrals from all over — Chicago, out of state — and I ask them to at least try their local offices if they have one,” said Peoria VAC Superintendent Michael Brooks. “But we won’t turn away veterans.”

There may be an increase in VAC work starting this month, when the federal PACT Act takes effect, expanding benefit eligibility for veterans of Vietnam, the Gulf War and post-9/11 service for Agent Orange, burn pits or other toxic exposures.

Census data show Peoria County vets eras as: 108 from World War II and Korea, 630 from just Korea, 748 from Korea and Vietnam, 2,893 from Vietnam alone, 1,992 between Vietnam and the Gulf War, 1,478 from the Gulf War (1990-2001), and 1,162 from service since.

Peoria County veterans have median incomes about 41% higher than non-veterans, the Census says, but they also have needs non-veterans don’t, and VACs’ mission is to help veterans get benefits, provide emergency relief to indigent veterans, and support them. Whether aiding with utility bills, burial plots, counseling, or substance abuse, the VAC’s tasks can take detective work, looking for links between vets’ service and symptoms, a bad discharge and back pay, insomnia and adjustment disorders.

“We’ve learned from our experiences,” says Brooks, who served on an aircraft carrier from 1998-2002, “with the military and, afterward, with bureaucracy.”

Made up of more than 20 delegates appointed by local, congressionally chartered veterans groups such as the Marine Corps League and American Legion posts, such county commissions are in charge, but superintendents such as Brooks are responsible for operations and staff, who aren’t County employees.

Peoria’s VAC, which shares a County building on Dries Lane, has a staff of seven veterans, up from two in 2013 and growing to nine this year.

Peoria’s VAC last year reported meeting with some 1,700 clients and arranging $6.6 million in new benefits, part of a total of $39 million for veterans. Through this August, it had more than 600 active VA claims awaiting decision and 202 waiting on appeals, and has managed payments to veterans of $4.5 million and VA compensation of $30.3 million, VAC said.

The most common client is an Army veteran, says Brooks, who’s been with Peoria’s VAC for 18 years. Although benefits are “entitlements,” that doesn’t mean they’re gifts any more than Social Security or Medicare are charity, of course. Eligible people are authorized to receive the benefits; their experience earns it.

Still, Brooks says, “Older veterans are more reluctant to apply for what they can get. But stubborn doesn’t get you anything. So I’ve asked them, ‘Well, what about your spouse, your family?’

“Younger vets are less hesitant — and better informed,” he adds. “They know how to file for PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] and about the NPRC [National Personnel Records Center].”

Brooks has interacted positively with groups including Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army and United Way, and veteran-focused efforts, from Peoria’s Vets Center to the U.S. Veterans Administration, which he says “is understaffed, but with some amazing people.”

All this takes money. For years, Illinois’ VAC’s have been financially supported by a portion of county property taxes or general funds, and the local VAC’s budget in recent years has hovered around half a million dollars. But this year it will be up 63%, from $565,000 in 2022 to $922,000, necessitated, Brooks says, by an anticipated workload increase, raises and two additional employees. “They earn their pay,” he said, “and we’re all going to be busy.”

Peoria County funding had been from a levy of $.015 per $100 of Equalized Assessed Valuation, but under Illinois’ new law 102-0732 — passed unanimously in April and signed by Gov. Pritzker on May 6, also taking effect this month — it’s now a minimum of $.02 and maximum of $.03 per $100 of EAV.

In amending the Counties Code, the law also deletes a previous line that funding must be “approved by the county board,” and will “now mandate county boards to levy whatever their local VAC requests,” the Peoria County Board said in its budget primer for 2023. “The legislation does not require the county’s VAC to provide a justification.”

Peoria County Board’s Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Board member Steve Rieker (R-Dist. 15), had discussed placing the VAC funding as a separate line on property-tax bills like the airport, Illinois Central College, etc. But Rieker said legal counsel said they can’t since the VAC is not an elected body.

Meanwhile, Woodford County veterans made up about 5% of the Peoria VAC’s service, but Tazewell veterans have been more than five times as frequent: 28% in 2018, 27% in 2019 and 25% in 2020, with comparable numbers in recent years, Brooks said.

“Not every [county] VAC has been doing disability claims,” Brooks explains. “Tazewell [VAC] hasn’t been doing disability claims. We’re holding claims training with Tazewell.”

Counties statewide are still adapting, Rieker says. “There is a concern, and with other counties,” he told The Community Word. “It seems to take a tax levy [subject] away from the county to a non-elected body. Maybe a lot of counties weren’t giving [VACs] what they could, so it’s forcing the hand of some counties. But Peoria has been one of the top three counties” in funding VACs.

Peoria County continues to fund services for hundreds of out-of-county VAC clients, and it’s had discussions with lawmakers about adjusting the law. But the bottom line, Rieker says, is “more support and services to veterans.”

If another reform occurs or not, Brooks says he’s committed: “I couldn’t do anything else.”