AUGUSTA – A pair of bills that would give Maine veterans better access to benefits received public hearings before a legislative committee on Wednesday.

One bill, sponsored by Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, calls for $15,000 a year in state money to help pay operating costs of the Disabled American Veterans transportation network, which provides rides from veterans’ homes to the Togus Veterans Administration Hospital in Augusta.

Another bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Carey, D-Lewiston, would provide funding for two veterans’ service officers, who would help veterans sign up for the benefits owed to them.

The bills are widely supported among legislators, but they may not make it past the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which is charged with balancing an $800 million biennial budget gap.

“It’s like many other things: There aren’t sufficient federal funds to provide transportation to allow veterans to take advantage of services being offered,” Arnold Leavitt of Auburn, the legislative director of the Maine Veterans Coordinating Committee, told the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee. “There’s nothing like being able to directly get the medical help that is needed.”

Bill Henshaw of Sabattus, the Maine adjutant of the Disabled American Veterans, the national organization that provides the transportation service, said Maine contributed about $15,000 to the program in each of the past two years.

“We have 30 drivers assigned to the transportation network and 12 vans running on roads daily, from Caribou down and from the south up,” Henshaw said.

Donald Simoneau of Fayette, former state commander of the Maine American Legion, said Maine veterans appreciate and need all the help they get.

“I know how mysteriously the appropriations table is at the end of the session and I pray this gets funded,” Simoneau said.

Carey’s bill, which would restore two veterans’ service officer positions, one to serve the Portland area and one to travel throughout the more rural portions of the state, would cost $172,000 during the next fiscal year and $165,000 the year after that.

Carey said the financial benefits of paying for the workers would outweigh the direct expense.

“Veterans are due pensions based on service or injuries incurred, as well as health care coverage,” he said. “These veterans’ service officers ensure veterans gain access to these two benefits and these make a huge difference to the veterans and members of their family and community. The two officers would bring down an estimated $14 million a year in pensions to veterans.”

Carey said he spoke with Health and Human Services Commissioner Brenda Harvey about estimating how much MaineCare savings are realized when veterans move off the state’s health care rolls and onto federal programs.

“I have some optimism that we might be able figure this out this year,” Carey said. He suggested studying the impact of increased spending in the state economy that would exist if more veterans signed up for pension benefits.

Last year, the Legislature authorized funding for a traveling veterans’ service officer, who began work in October 2008, but is leaving the position April 1.

As of March 15, the officer helped veterans file 49 new claims and re-opened 33 claims, according to Peter Ogden, director of Maine’s Bureau of Veterans’ Services.

Sen. Nancy Sullivan, Senate chairwoman of the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee, said she was frustrated by Gov. John Baldacci’s failure to include funding for the two proposals in his biennial budget recommendation.

“I am very angry at this point in time,” she said. “We have some people who have given their life and others have really had their life affected. I think that goes above and beyond politics.”

David Farmer, Baldacci’s spokesman, said the governor had to find ways to cut more than $200 million from his last budget proposal.

“We were under tremendous pressure,” Farmer said. “In order to keep the cuts from being too draconian in any one place, we tried to spread them out. You have to have the money to spend the money. There are lots of good ideas out there that we weren’t able to fund.”

Baldacci would look forward to hearing possibilities for funding the proposals, Farmer said.

The committee is scheduled to hold work sessions on the bills on April 3.

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