Members of NY National Guard
will receive expected benefits

According to New York state Assembly-man Charles Nesbitt (R,C-Albion), legislation has been passed that will allocate $300,000 to fund the state's National Guard college tuition program.

"Nearly 300 members of our National Guard have not received the benefits we promised. We simply can't allow that to happen," said Nesbitt, the deputy Assembly Republican leader.

The funding will be provided to the State Division of Military and Naval Affairs to support ongoing tuition assistance benefits and to ensure that nearly 300 members of the state National Guard receive their expected benefits. Under the state's Recruitment and Retention Incentive Program, which is offered by the Division of Military and Naval Affairs, tuition assistance is provided to more than 1,500 members of the National Guard per semester to attend college.

The program promises $3,400 a year, the equivalent of full-year tuition at a State University of New York campus, to guardsmen. The state budget allocates $3 million a year for this program; however, more people qualified for assistance this year than the program could afford, leaving 295 of the 1,648 accepted without the tuition promised to them by the state.

"This is important legislation. The New York National Guard tirelessly serves not only our state, but our country as well. We owe them the benefits of comprehensive education that we have pledged to them," said Nesbitt, a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who served in the Vietnam War.