Article XI-F(2) of the Oregon State Constitution

In this post, we look at Article XI-F(2) of the Oregon State Constitution.  This Article is entitled "Veterans' Bonus" and talks about the WWII Veterans' Compensation fund.  This Article has 10 sections.  The purpose of this is to create a fund that provides a certain bonus to veterans who served in World War II.  It should be noted that this was written as if it was an act of law.  However, given the prohibitions on lending the credit of the state, this had to be a constitutional amendment or else, the government would have had to fund it out of the general funds generated by income taxes, etc.

Section 1

This section provides for the issuance of bonds by the State to fund a bonus to veterans of World War II.  The amount of bonds to be issued is limited to 5% of the value of all property in the state.

Section 2

This section provides definitions for "domestic service", "foreign service", "husband", "wife", "child", "parent" and "veteran".

Section 3

This section defines how to calculate the bonus, a one-time payment based on time served, which is capped at $600.00 per veteran.

Section 4

This section defines that if the veteran has died due to their service, the survivors of the veteran are eligible to be awarded or split the $600.00 award.

Section 5

This section disqualifies certain types of service such as medical or chaplain, or if they had to serve time in military prisons.  Essentially, they want this bonus to go to front-line soldiers.

Section 6

This section defines who gets priority for the bonus awarded to deceased soldiers.

Section 7

This section defines that the bonus cannot be assigned or paid to someone else.  Further, it cannot be seized due to some civil claim nor is it to be taxed.

Section 8

This section assigns the responsibility for executing the payout of the bonus to the Director of Veteran's affairs.

Section 9

This section sets a time limit for people to make application to two years.  Further it specifies what kind of information has to be in the application and what papers have to be provided.

Section 10

This section directs the director of veterans' affairs to provide forms for free and upon request to those who want to fill them out.