Disabled Veteran Benefits in Alaska

Alaska law exempts the first $150,000 of assessed value of a home that a resident disabled veteran owns and lives in as a primary residence. To count, your disability must have been incurred or aggravated in the line of duty and be rated 50% or more by your branch of service or the VA.

The state veterans office says property tax exemptions are at the discretion of the municipality. The statute lists this one under required exemptions. What a municipality may do is go beyond $150,000 in cases of hardship, and it may pass an ordinance requiring that you also be eligible for a Permanent Fund Dividend. The exemption can pass to a widow or widower who is at least 60.

You apply in writing to your local assessor, by the deadline your municipality sets, with proof of your disability rating. Only one exemption is granted per property, and a property conveyed to you mainly to get the exemption does not qualify.

A veteran with a combined service-connected rating of 50% or more can register one motor vehicle without charge and get a disabled veteran plate. The DMV lists the plate at $0 for the initial plate and the renewal. You send the DMV a VA notice showing the combined rating.

There are two versions. The plate without parking privileges needs only the VA notice. The plate with parking privileges also needs the DMV's Form 861, which shows you meet the permanent disability requirements; the VA rating alone does not carry parking privileges.

At any rating, a retired veteran or one discharged under honorable conditions can ask for a Veteran designation on a driver license or ID card by showing a DD Form 214 or similar proof. Regular veteran plates require proof of service, such as discharge papers.

Alaska gives resident disabled veterans a complimentary permanent identification card for hunting, sport fishing and trapping. You must be certified 50% disabled or greater, meet Fish and Game's residency definition, and be physically in Alaska to apply. You apply online and send Fish and Game your letter of disability certification.

The card also saves you stamps: holders do not have to buy the king salmon stamp or the Alaska state conservation stamp for waterfowl. If you plan to fish a fishery with an annual harvest limit, carry the free Sport Fishing Harvest Record Card.

Residency is the catch. Fish and Game lists what disqualifies you, including a resident hunting or fishing license in another state, being registered to vote in another state, and a homestead property tax break elsewhere. If you stop being an Alaska resident, the card is void.

State law requires the parks division to issue disabled veterans a free developed-campsite pass. You show proof of a service-connected disability in person at the Anchorage or Fairbanks DNR office, or call one of those offices if you cannot go in person. It covers individual campsites, not group camping areas, and the veteran must be at the site each night.

It is a camping pass only: there is no veteran pass for boat launch or day use. The pass now being issued is the 2023-2027 one.

On the water, a veteran with a service-connected disability can get a reduced fare pass for Alaska Marine Highway ferries: half the regular passenger fare for you and an attendant if a physician requires one, between Alaskan ports, year-round. It does not cover vehicles or staterooms.

State law gives eligible veterans a 25% discount on the purchase price of state land sold for anything other than commercial or industrial use. It needs no disability rating: you must be 18, have lived in Alaska at least a year, and have 90 days of active duty with an honorable or general discharge, unless a service-connected disability shortened your service. You get it once in a lifetime.

Read the fine print. The discount applies to the land itself, not to survey, road or utility costs the state charges back. The veterans office still lists 20%, but the statute and the land office both say 25%.

Alaska Housing Finance Corporation's veteran program gives qualified veterans a 1% interest rate reduction on the first $50,000 of a loan, with income limits. You ask the bank handling your loan to apply it, and the reduction cannot be combined with the Veteran's Mortgage Program.

State law gives a disabled veteran or former prisoner of war who meets a job's qualifications an opportunity to interview, and the state applies that to all open competitive vacancies. Where applicants are scored numerically, extra points are added to a passing score instead. For this law a disabled veteran is one entitled to VA compensation; it names no rating.

Other veterans get consideration, but an interview is not required. None of it counts in recruitments limited to current state employees.

If you start a business, the state business license costs $50 a year, but only $25 if you are a sole proprietor and a disabled veteran. That section does not name a rating. The state job centers also give veterans priority service.

Alaska's Veterans' Dependent Tuition Waiver covers all undergraduate tuition and fees at the University of Alaska system, but only for the spouse and dependents of Alaska-resident service members who died in the line of duty, are listed as prisoners of war, or were killed in action. A disability rating is not one of the ways to qualify.

The help the state's page lists for a disabled veteran's family is federal. The VA's Survivors' and Dependents' Education Assistance program gives a spouse or dependent of a veteran who is permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected disability up to 36 months of education benefits.