Disabled Veteran Benefits in Wyoming

Wyoming's veteran exemption is set by statute at $6,000 of assessed value a year. The disabled-veteran route needs a compensable service-connected disability certified by the VA or a branch of the armed forces, which in plain terms means a rating that pays. You must have been a Wyoming resident for at least three years when you claim.

The exemption for real property applies only to your principal residence. The state revenue department also says it can be applied to your motor vehicle registration instead. You file a sworn claim with your county assessor by the fourth Monday in May, and you contact the assessor again every year.

Veterans who do not have a disability rating can still qualify through service: the state lists honorably discharged veterans of World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and anyone honorably discharged who earned the armed forces expeditionary medal or another campaign medal for a conflict abroad.

The fishing license starts at 50%. A resident veteran who receives 50% or more service-connected disability compensation can apply for a lifetime fishing license with no fee. The same 50% cut-off earns the Lifetime Veteran's Pass, which covers free day use and camping for life at Wyoming state parks. The pass is a hangtag that works in any vehicle while you are present.

At 100%, an honorably discharged resident veteran also gets free lifetime bird, small game and fish licenses, valid as long as you stay a Wyoming resident. The statute lists bird, small game and fish licenses only. It does not list big game.

Purple Heart recipients who are Wyoming residents get the same free lifetime bird, small game and fish licenses, whatever their rating.

A disabled veteran who receives 50% or more service-connected disability compensation, and who is a Wyoming resident, may apply for distinctive disabled veteran plates for a passenger car, pickup truck, motorcycle or multipurpose vehicle. State law also exempts that veteran from the registration fees on one vehicle that qualifies for the plates. Apply at your county treasurer at least 30 days before your registration expires.

The plates do not give you disabled parking. You need a separate handicap placard for that.

Below 50% there is still the standard veteran plate: anyone with at least one period of honorable service and a DD 214 can order it for $50. Wyoming also adds a Veteran designation to a driver license or ID card if you show documentation of an honorable discharge.

When a public department scores applicants before interviews, a veteran gets a 5% advantage over any nonveteran, and a veteran with a service-connected disability of 10% or more gets a 10% advantage. If the department does not use scores, it must give an advantage that reasonably approximates the same thing.

"Public department" is broad: the state and its agencies, counties, municipalities, school districts, community college districts and the University of Wyoming. You must be honorably discharged and have lived in Wyoming for at least a year at some point before applying.

The preference applies to initial employment only. It does not go to a veteran who already works for a public department.

The state benefit is the Overseas Combat Veteran tuition benefit, and it has no disability-rating requirement. It is for an honorably discharged veteran who was a Wyoming resident for at least one year before entering active service and who earned the armed forces expeditionary medal or another campaign medal for service in a conflict abroad. Vietnam veterans who received a Vietnam service medal are covered under their own definition.

What you get is tuition at the University of Wyoming or a Wyoming community college, for up to eight semesters. The community college commission says newer participants get tuition only, within an eight-year window, not fees.

Spouses and dependents are covered only when the veteran's death was service-connected, the veteran died later of an injury or disease from service, or the veteran is listed as a prisoner of war or missing in action. A living veteran's dependents are not named in the statute.

The Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery in Evansville takes every veteran with any discharge other than dishonorable. There is no charge for the burial plot and the cemetery provides a grave vault at no charge for casket burials. Families pay their own funeral director and transportation costs.

The Veterans' Home of Wyoming in Buffalo has an assisted living community and a skilled nursing community. Applicants must be unable to earn a living or have no adequate means of support, and the home gives preference to veterans first and their dependents second. The admission criteria do not name a disability rating, and residents' fees are based on ability to pay.