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The proposal of a 0.04-millage increase will be placed on the Nov. 4 general election ballot, in hopes of bringing in more than $1 million to pay for additional staff to help more veterans.

“We’ve been suffering drops in revenues - and as everyone else in the country has been, we’re also suffering from incredible increases in health care costs,” Macomb County Board of Commissioners Chairman William Crouchman said. “That has led to deficits and the veterans group has suffered a bunch of cuts.”

For a county resident with a home valued at $200,000, the annual property tax increase with the passage of the millage would be a little more than the cost of a latte at Starbucks.

“It adds up to about $4 a year - a little over a penny a day,” Crouchman said. “I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

Currently, the Veterans Services Department operates on an annual budget of $637,000. The millage would bring in just more than $1.2 million each year. Crouchman said that would then become the budget for the Veterans Services Department and the money normally allotted for that department would be placed into the general fund for the next five years.

Trained and licensed counselors at the Veterans Services Department help veterans maneuver through the red tape and paperwork so veterans can find benefits for which they qualify, fill out the correct forms and file the forms with the federal government to receive available aid.

“The federal government provides a lot of benefits, but the government makes it difficult to identify these benefits,” Crouchman said.

Due to the county’s budget cuts, Crouchman said the number of counselors on staff went from three or four down to one - at the same time the number of veterans needing services has increased. The millage would provide funding for a total of five counselors and one additional clerk.

“Because of the actions of this office, last year Macomb County veterans received around $57 million in benefits,” Veterans Services Director Kermit Harris said. “That’s all tax-free dollars, by the way, coming into the county.”

Veterans Services had 384 contacts with veterans or survivors in June, mostly regarding new or existing claims, or federal burial benefits. Because of the decreased staff, veterans now have to wait several weeks for an appointment.

“If you’re like me and you’ve got tinnitus, a hearing problem, that’s an inconvenience - but if you have someone with cancer or a serious condition, four to six weeks is unreasonable,” said Kermit, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. “With this millage, we should be able to get that down to one week.”

Estimates suggest more than 100,000 veterans live in Macomb County - an increase from the 75,000 veterans living in the county eight years ago, according to the 2000 U.S. census. That can be attributed to the current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Harris said.

“Helping veterans obtain benefits obviously helps them, but it also helps our local economy,” Harris said. “In 2008, our department helped 2,646 veterans obtain more than $2.5 million in federal benefits.”