{"id":9210,"date":"2009-11-11T07:02:52","date_gmt":"2009-11-11T14:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=9210"},"modified":"2009-11-11T07:02:52","modified_gmt":"2009-11-11T14:02:52","slug":"video-veterans-services-secretary-worried-about-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/11\/video-veterans-services-secretary-worried-about-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Veterans services secretary worried about cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Mexico Secretary of Veterans Services <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvs.state.nm.us\/cab-secretary.html\">John Garcia<\/a> says he doesn’t want across-the-board budget cuts to state agencies “laid on the back of my veterans.”<\/p>\n<p>He spoke with NMPolitics.net in Washington, D.C. during a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/wordcab.blogspot.com\/2009\/10\/boss-lift-flight-heads-to-nations.html\">“Boss Lift”<\/a> trip to the nation’s capitol, which was sponsored by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esgr.org\/site\/\">Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/khoLqTd1Qxk&hl=en&fs=1&\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/khoLqTd1Qxk&hl=en&fs=1&\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Garcia, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam,\u00a0said he believes cutting back on outreach to homeless vets and reducing veteran business development would be a disservice to the more than 200,000 veterans who live in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia said when he took over the department, which was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.governor.state.nm.us\/press\/2004\/feb\/022804_1.pdf\">elevated to a cabinet level post<\/a> in 2004 and has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvs.state.nm.us\/field.html\">17 field offices<\/a>, its budget was less than $2 million. After administrative expenses, including salaries for 20 accredited and certified veteran service officers, there was$200,000 left for veterans, or $1 per vet.\u00a0 That budget has since quadrupled, but he said it still only provides $4 per veteran.<\/p>\n<p>“With the recent war in Iraq and Afghanistan I’ve got an influx of new veterans — a new generation of veterans — and it’s tough to find them,” Garcia said. “Veterans just don’t walk into our office and say, ‘I want my benefits.’ We’ve got to find them. I don’t want them to wait 30 years, like I did and many Vietnam vets did. We have to be very proactive and do our outreach of services.”<\/p>\n<p>Garcia said Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.governor.state.nm.us\/index2.php\">Bill Richardson<\/a> told him, shortly after the special session last month, that he was disappointed that the agency was included in cuts approved by the Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>“It’ difficult when you’re talking about a budget cut and my veterans are on the firing line between the legislative body and the executive,” Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>The governor has until Thursday to act on bills approved in the special session.<\/p>\n<p><em>St. Cyr is a contributing writer for this site and\u00a0a\u00a0reporter at <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.770kkob.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none\"><em>770KKOB.com<\/em><\/span><\/a><em>. He can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"mailto:peter.stcyr@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none\"><em>peter.stcyr@gmail.com<\/em><\/span><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Mexico Secretary of Veterans Services John Garcia says he doesn’t want across-the-board budget cuts to state agencies “laid on the back of my veterans.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-9210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}