WAKULLA COUNTY, FL (WTXL) — Wakulla County's contingency plan for property tax loss includes a proposal that could transfer — or ultimately eliminate — the county's Veterans Services Office, and local veterans are speaking out against it.
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The Veterans Services Office serves as an advocate for local veterans and their families in Wakulla County. According to the contingency plan, the VSO is funded through the general fund, costing the county around $36,000.
The plan outlines 2 options: transfer the VSO to the local VFW and/or American Legion posts, with $10,000 allocated to them — but only if an agreement is reached. If no agreement is reached, the office will be eliminated by the end of the 2026/27 fiscal year.
Sopchoppy native and Marine Corps veteran Zach Barton has been speaking out at commission meetings against the proposal.
"At the end of the day, it's a lifeline to veterans," Barton said.
Barton says keeping the VSO within county government is about accountability.
"When you're dealing with local government, you have recourse. You can go to a commissioner meeting. You can email your commissioner. Somebody's losing your paperwork, including your medical records or your Social Security information; you can go to somebody and say, 'Hey, look, you know, this is this is kind of jacked up. I'm losing all my stuff, and waiting for 20, 30 years to get help,'" Barton said.
Barton also pushed back on how the VSO has been grouped with other county services in budget discussions.
"We've looped our veterans in with the Veterans Service, with the animal shelter and the library, for Christ's sakes," Barton said.
Army veteran Zach Gurr agrees, and says the VSO officer should actually be upgraded to a full-time position rather than cut.
"We need to get him the pay that he needs to be fully available. We need to get those volunteer resources and those other organizations to work with him, not to replace him, because we still want to get government accountability," Gurr said.
Gurr echoed Barton's concerns about losing that government accountability if the office is handed off to a nonprofit organization.
"Our government at all levels should be held accountable for that as opposed to, you know, losing that accountability and passing it on to a non-profit organization," Gurr said.
Barton added that having a designated county person for veterans to turn to makes finding resources easier. He noted that a qualified, knowledgeable and committed VSO made a direct difference in his own experience — one he says he did not find when seeking help from offices in Tallahassee.
"Because I had somebody who was qualified, knowledgeable, and committed to the process of making sure that I was going to be helped, that was not an option for me when I went to Tallahassee to these other offices for help, and so that's that's the big important thing for me and how it impacted me," Barton said.
While both veterans say the VFW and American Legion can do good work for veterans, they agree that keeping the VSO within the county is the better option. Both are urging the county to reconsider the proposal.
The county says there are no plans as of now to act on the contingency plan, and nothing in it is set in stone.
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