TAMPA, Fla. — A slew of new laws in Florida take effect July 1st, including one designed to provide more resources to veterans searching for work.
The law designates the Florida is for Veterans, Inc., more commonly referred to as Veterans Florida, to serve as the initial point of military transition assistance.
Troy Underwood is one of the countless veterans who have relied upon Veterans Florida for assistance. He and his wife now operate Tampa Steel and Supply and Urban Metals, a business venture made possible through their services.
"We've been here a long time and successful, but I don't think we'd be as successful as we are now, able to endure some of the downturns that we've had the last few years without those resources in place," Underwood says.
The Underwood's went through the Veteran's Florida program to help their business out.
"When I purchased the business in 2014, I made a phone call to Veterans Florida. I said, 'Hey, I'm a veteran, I want to register my business'. And they walked me through exactly what I needed to do.
Troy continued, "So it was simple. I just went online, registered my business. And then they said, we have all these options that you can do from hiring veterans to going through entrepreneurial courses, those types of things."
He adds that help came at the perfect time.
"I decided to go through an entrepreneurial course, just because I wanted to understand business better, even though I had been running the business for a while. And it came at a great time because my course ended right when COVID was hitting."
He continued, "So I was able to apply a lot of the pivots that we talked about in the coursework, including creating metal art, to be able to weather, you know that downturn, and be able to continue to make the business strong, and to have that opportunity for other veterans in Florida or people that are retiring from the military, and looking to start their own business or by a business."
Alan Suskey, a board member for Veterans Florida, sees the boost coming from the state as a catalyst for bolstering service members' return to everyday civilian life.
"When you get ready to separate, there's a lot of information that's thrown at you. There's a lot of family decisions that have to be made, especially for folks who've been in, you know, 10, 15, 20 years. This is the life they've known. And so they're really trying to acclimate and decide the best place for their family," he explained.
Suskey worked to get the new legislation passed. He heralds one of the biggest changes now in effect.
"We are statutorily allowed to include spouses and all the work that we do for veterans, as we know when those veterans are either getting out of service in Florida, want to stay here, or, more specifically, if they're moving to Florida from a base, you know, somewhere around the country, around the world, their families are coming with them, and the spouses have jobs and careers," he said. "This allows us to work with them and our job training grants, our entrepreneur training and all the other things that we already do at Veterans Florida for veterans."
Suskey said this would especially help place those veterans and their spouses in high-wage, in-demand jobs like aerospace manufacturing, agriculture, and entrepreneurship.
"We're seeing a lot of veterans getting out of service and really wanting to start their own businesses or buy a business and grow it. And so this funding really allows us to help them more, help their families more, and really focuses in on working with those entrepreneur partners around the State to fund all the training that we know veterans need on how to grow a business and run a business to make sure that they're successful," he added.
Underwood is proud of the changes, saying he wants to see a return to more veteran-focused businesses.
"It was a funny statistic. At the end of World War II, like over half the businesses in the U.S. were veteran owned businesses, and now that's diminished. I think it's, you know, well under 10% single digits," Underwood said.
He even shared his own familial experience with coming out of service and searching for work.
"I grew up with a military veteran. When my dad retired from MacDill Air Force Base, they didn't have those type of opportunities. He ended up taking a job in Connecticut, which moved us away, which was I was a senior in high school," he explained. "I think had he had those resources like I had, his journey would have been a little bit different as well."
The new law also increases Veterans Florida’s board of directors from nine to 11 members, with the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives each appointing one from their presiding body to serve as ex officio, nonvoting members.
The amendment revises the Veterans Employment and Training Services Program to:
- Match the target market with target and secondary industry businesses and grants;
- Encourage entrepreneurship and grow veteran-owned small businesses;
- Authorize prioritizing of grant funds for training, certification, and licenses;
- Provide that a participating business may also receive a grant under any state program; and
- Authorize Veterans Florida to assist state agencies in recruiting veteran talent into their workforce and maximize veteran access to benefits, services, training, and education.
It also opens the door to allow the team to conduct marketing and outreach to its target market. U.S. Armed Forces servicemembers with 24 months or less until discharge, veterans with 36 months or less since discharge, members of the Florida National Guard or reserve, and their spouses or surviving spouses who have not remarried are the target market.
The law also:
- Creates a fee exemption on hunting and fishing license fees for honorably discharged veterans with a service-connected disability percentage rating of 50 percent or more.
- Increases the membership of the Advisory Council on Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries from 16 to 18 members to add two members who are veterans who have or have had brain injuries, or their family members.
- Requires public school instruction on the history and importance of Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day.
- Creates and funds the Major John Leroy Haynes Florida Veterans’ History Program to record the stories of Florida’s veterans and preserve them for future generations, and appropriates one position and $91,207 in recurring funds to implement and administer the program.
You can find more information about the program here.
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