To the Editor,

The City of Cranston’s discrimination of National Guard Personnel with regard to property tax exemptions:

Why are the City of Cranston and its officials discriminating against its National Guard property owners in regard to obtaining a property tax exemption? As a class of veterans who have served and are given the right by R.I.G.L 44-3-4 to claim this exemption, individuals are being told that they do not qualify. The Director of Veteran Affairs for RI, the RI League of Cities and Towns and the RI Association of Assessing Officers are in agreement as well as the two sponsors of the latest revision to the law in the last year’s assembly session that National Guard personnel are veterans and qualify under this law. For the mayor, the tax accessor or any city official to intimate that a National Guard person is not a veteran is a travesty of their fiduciary responsibility to serve the citizens of Cranston. To impose a restriction of the necessity of possessing a DD214 (not all National Guard veterans are given one) is an erroneous interpretation of the law. Under the law, one has only to serve and be honorably discharged. This blatant attempt to disenfranchise those who chose to serve and even lay down their lives for us should not be allowed to continue. Dum vigilo curo.

John Johnson

Cranston