Gillibrand urges permanent tax credit for hiring vets

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Wednesday called on Congress to make permanent a tax credit for businesses that hire recently discharged military veterans.

The current version of the Veterans Work Opportunity Tax Credit expires Dec. 31. Gillibrand wants to eliminate the need for Congress to reauthorize the bill each year.

She said she finds it "extremely disturbing for men and women to come back from Iraq and Afghanistan and not have jobs."

The bill gives employers a maximum tax credit of $2,400, equal to 40 percent of the first $6,000 earned by a qualified veteran. The program is limited to veterans who were discharged within five years of the date of hire.

While the existing version of the bill limits eligibility to veterans who received four weeks of unemployment benefits in the previous year, the new version of the bill would eliminate that restriction.

The proposed bill preserves a requirement that veterans must have served a minimum of 180 days of active duty, or must have been discharged with a service-connected disability. The new version would also require the Defense Department to educate exiting veterans about the credit.

Gillibrand did not immediately have available an estimate of the number of veterans on Long Island who would qualify for the program. She said there are about 12,000 unemployed veterans overall on Long Island.