Missouri is on track to let our 100% disabled veterans down yet again | Opinion

I spent a career finding bombs before they found us. I learned to move toward problems most people run from, because lives depend on it. That mindset does not turn off when you hang up the uniform. It is why I cannot stay quiet about Missouri House Joint Resolution 115 and what it says about Missouri’s priorities.

I am a retired Navy Special Operations bomb technician. I have multiple combat deployments and the kind of injuries that do not show up in a handshake. Like thousands of others, I came home, built a life and chose where to put down roots. Missouri likes to call itself a state that supports veterans. The record tells a different story.

For eight years, Missouri’s legislature has had the chance to do something simple and right: to provide full property tax relief for veterans who are 100% disabled. Eight years of inaction. Eight years of excuses. Eight years of watching other states step up while Missouri stalls.

At least 22 states in this country already offer full property tax exemptions to 100% disabled veterans. Kansas offers significant exemptions up to the first $350,000 of a home’s appraised value. Look at a map. Every state that touches Missouri has figured it out. They have decided that the men and women who gave the most should not keep paying for the privilege of living in the country they defended. Missouri stands in the middle and shrugs.

There are fewer than 15,000 veterans in Missouri who would qualify. Let that number sink in. This is not a massive budget line. This is not a policy that will break the state. It is a choice. And the choice, year after year, has been to do nothing.

So I have to ask the question plainly: Is Missouri so poorly managed that it cannot survive without collecting property taxes from its most severely disabled veterans? Is that really the hill our elected officials want to stand on?

I have seen what real sacrifice looks like. I have seen young Americans lose limbs, vision and pieces of themselves that they will never get back. Many of them come home and try to build something stable for their families. A home is not a luxury in that equation. It is a lifeline.

Property taxes on that home are not just another bill. They are a reminder that their state sees them as a revenue source instead of a responsibility.

H.J.R. 115 will not pass again this year — that is the expectation in Jefferson City. Another year, another quiet failure, another press release about “supporting our troops” while nothing changes for the ones who need it most.

Members of the Missouri House and Senate should be embarrassed. Not because this is politically difficult, but because it is not. This is one of the clearest, most defensible policies a state can pass. Other states have proven it over and over again. The only thing missing in Missouri is the will.

To the people of Missouri, this is where you come in. Lawmakers respond to pressure. They respond to attention. They respond when voters decide something matters enough to act on it. Call them. Write them. Ask them why Missouri is falling behind. Ask them why disabled veterans here are treated differently than in neighboring states. Ask them what exactly has been done for eight years besides delay.

I spent my career dealing with threats that did not care about politics or convenience. You either handled the problem or people got hurt. This is not that kind of danger, but it is still a test of character.

Missouri is failing it.

And until that changes, every lawmaker who lets this die quietly owns that failure.

Craig Jungers is a retired Navy Special Operations bomb technician with multiple combat deployments who served from 2005 to 2025. He is a native of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.