(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), there is appropriated, beginning with the fiscal year ending September 30, 1998, to the state department, for old age pension purposes, out of the proceeds from the levy of the one mill tax for the relief of needy Confederate soldiers and sailors and their widows, a sum not to exceed $20,773,500 annually of the surplus or residue from the tax after the payment in full of the pensions to the widows of Confederate soldiers and sailors, other charges against the fund set out in the laws authorizing the payment of the pensions to the widows, and annually to the Department of Revenue, as a first charge against the proceeds of the one mill tax, funds for the annual costs of the Department of Revenue for administering the tax. In making this appropriation, it is declared to be the legislative policy that the Department of Human Resources shall expend its portion of the surplus or residue hereby appropriated and all moneys received by it from the federal government as matching funds for all funds expended for Confederate pensions or as matching funds for the surplus or residue hereby appropriated under this section, for old age pension purposes exclusively insofar as is possible under existing laws and the rules and regulations of the federal government and of the Department of Human Resources in regard thereto, before any part thereof may be expended for any other purposes of the Department of Human Resources.
(b) Beginning with the fiscal year ending September 30, 1997, all of the remaining surplus or residue from the tax provided in (a) above, after deducting the amounts appropriated to the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Revenue under the annual appropriations act for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1997, and under subsection (a) of this section for each year thereafter, is hereby appropriated to the State Veterans' Assistance Fund to be expended for veterans' programs approved by the State Board of Veterans' Affairs, including expenditures for emergencies and needs in the state's veterans' nursing homes.
Last modified: May 3, 2021