MorgueFile

AUSTIN, Texas — Scott O’Grady was five miles above the earth when a missile sheared the cockpit off his F-16 fighter during a 1995 mission over Bosnia.

The ejection impact and subsequent injuries from parachuting into hostile territory eventually required spinal-fusion surgery.

The surgery saved him from life in a wheelchair, but O’Grady still goes to therapy, saying his ribs “aren’t where they’re supposed to be.” 

Still, the Dallas entrepreneur knows plenty of other disabled veterans who are in worse shape, and that knowledge inspired O’Grady to take on a new mission: winning property tax exemptions for severely disabled vets, some of whom might well be unable to continue paying for their homes without a break. 

“If any group deserves tax relief, it’s our veterans,” said O’Grady, 51. “This is not a partisan issue.”

O’Grady is working to build support for a bill in the state Legislature, which if adopted, would authorize a constitutional amendment allowing voters to give veterans who are 80 percent or more disabled an exemption on homestead property taxes equal to their VA disability rating. 

At present, disabled Texas veterans with a 60 to 90 percent VA disability rating receive a $12,000 reduction on their property’s appraised value, but O’Grady calculates that is worth less than $300 per year per person.

Texas does give 100 percent disabled veterans a complete exemption on homestead taxes. 

And disabled veterans who receive donated houses by bonafide charities receive a property tax break equal to their VA rating.

Yet there are more than 58,000 Texas veterans who are severely disabled, but don’t own a donated house or who aren’t 100 percent disabled.

“This is the group that needs the most help,” said P.J. Putnam, an attorney who drafted House Bill 3002, and who is himself a 100 percent disabled Air Force veteran. “I can’t think of a more noble cause.”

O’Grady personally knows four Texas vets who are 80 or 90 percent disabled, and “in financial straits,” he said, “looking to have to leave their homes,” without some relief from spiraling property taxes.

One, a 90 percent disabled Navy veteran who saw combat in Afghanistan and Europe, said he and his family face unreimbursed medical costs that could force them to rent out their home and move to cheaper quarters in a district with worse schools.

His injuries, “absolutely affects my pay,” said the veteran, who spoke anonymously to ensure that terrorists don’t track him to Texas. 

Without having to pay $400 a month in property taxes, he could afford some “good-quality health care,” and not sweat the doctors’ co-pays, the veteran said. 

It’s those stories that motivate O’Grady to push for the legislation.

He calls the previous tax breaks that Texas has extended to severely disabled veterans a “great thing,” and said state Rep. Rick Miller’s SB 3002 has picked up a number of co-authors and joint authors. 

The next step is getting the bill to the full House. 

“There isn’t one state representative who won’t vote for this on the floor,” O’Grady said. 

And while the push is on in Texas, O’Grady is taking fight to extend property tax exemptions for severely disabled veterans elsewhere: Pennsylvania, Idaho, Montana and Utah, for starters.

“I’m going to lobby until every state implements them,” O’Grady said. “As Texas goes, other states will follow.”

John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com