Michigan Lays Out Initiatives To Benefit Veterans

LANSING (WWJ/AP) - Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson has announced her support to establish special identification cards for the state's 670,000 military vets.

Johnson says  this will be a great help to veterans when they come home.

"You can get any where from retail discounts, hotel discounts, to help with education, home loans, medical," Johnson said. "And we want to make sure that people don't have to carry all their paperwork, D-D 214's which are the discharge papers with them."

Johnson told WWJ Newsradio 950's Zahra Huber they're also working on a new fundraising license plate.

"People will be able to buy those license plates and the money from those special plates, the extra money will go to helping our veterans," she said. "We have our branch offices, now working with the Military Veterans Affair Agency to be able to get the benefit information into the hands of Michigan veterans."

The veteran's identification plan was recently introduced in a bill by lawmakers and Johnson said her office will work with them to see that it is written into law.

While Michigan has the nation's 11th highest population of veterans, and the state ranks dead last in federal money spent per person on services provided through the U.S. Veterans Administration.

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