VETERANS CEMETERIES MAY BE DELAYED

In an effort to provide a greater share of federal money for construction of veterans cemeteries, the federal government has overlooked one important consideration: more money to pay for this largess.

It is a situation that needs immediate correction, or cemeteries like the one planned for Bloomfield in Southeast Missouri will face unnecessary delays.

A law signed on Veterans Day by President Clinton allows the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to fund 100 percent of construction and initial equipment costs for new state veterans cemeteries. Previously, states paid half the cost, and the federal government paid the other half.

But when Congress doubled the VA's financial burden for the state veterans cemeteries, it didn't increase the appropriation for the cemeteries.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has only $10 million a year for construction of veterans cemeteries, a meager amount considering the need for additional cemeteries across the country. Missouri is one of the few states that have sought the money, because it is willing to pay half of the costs of planning, acquiring land and building the cemeteries.

You can bet now that the federal government can pay the entire cost of the cemeteries, many more states will be seeking federal funds, and the $10 million won't go nearly as far as it has in the past, considering one cemetery can costs millions of dollars.

The Missouri Veterans Commission is in the process of developing four veterans cemeteries. Sites were chosen so 90 percent of the state's veteran population would live within 75 miles of a veterans cemetery. Last summer the commission announced plans to build cemeteries in Bloomfield and at Jacksonville in Randolph County. Each will cost $5 million, and applications for funding this year will be submitted by the state this spring. The other two cemeteries were funded under an old federal program and are unaffected by the changes.

The solution to the dilemma is for the federal government to immediately allocate more money for the program and follow through with its intentions to fully fund cemetery construction. If it does so, Missouri's two cemeteries rightfully should be first in line for full funding since the state has made it clear it is willing to pay half the costs of cemeteries to meet the needs of its 569,000 veterans.