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Endorsement: We owe it to disabled combat veterans to approve amendment No. 6

Orlando Sentinel - 9/21/2020

It’s not always easy being married to a member of the U.S. military. Just ask about 1.5 million Floridians.

That’s how many veterans live in the state. Florida provides them a lot of benefits, like property tax exemptions, fee waivers for various licenses and in-state rates for all honorably discharged service members and their families.

Honorably-discharged veterans with permanent, combat-related disabilities also are entitled to a homestead property tax discount. The amount is determined by the severity of their disability.

When a disabled veteran dies, however, the discount goes with him or her. It does not transfer to the spouse.

Amendment 6 would extend that discount to the widow or widower who owns the home and lives in it. They would keep it until they remarry or sell the property.

It’s hard to come up with a reason why they don’t deserve such a benefit. Military service is a shared experience.

Military spouses leave family and friends to start new lives. Spouses sacrifice their careers to move all over the world.

The nomadic life makes it much harder to hold any job. The unemployment rate for active-duty spouses is about 25%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A lot of military families must live on one income. And a soldier’s or sailor’s income is typically not much.

“I cringe when I see people piling up debt that is going to impact their entire lives,” Holly Petraeus told Stars and Stripes.

She’s a former assistant director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the wife of retired Army Gen. David Petraeus. In her husband’s 37 years of active duty, she saw the many hardships of being married to the military.

Wives or husbands spend months alone, acting as a single parent while spouses miss birthdays, anniversaries and even the births of their children. They send their loved ones off to war, never knowing if they’ll see them again.

There are almost 1.2 million wartime veterans in our state, according to the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs.

It’s unclear how many live with combat-related injuries that allow them a property tax break. What is clear is when the veteran dies, his or her spouse deserves to keep that break.

Vote yes on Amendment 6.

Election endorsements are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, which consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick, David Whitley and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Sentinel Columnist Scott Maxwell participates in interviews and deliberations. Send emails to insight@orlandosentinel.com.

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