State veteran benefits · MO
Missouri Veteran Benefits
Missouri caps tuition at every public college and university at $50 per credit hour for post-9/11 combat veterans under the Returning Heroes Act.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Missouri adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Missouri itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Property Tax Credit for 100 percent disabled veterans
Missouri's circuit breaker credit (Form MO-PTC) refunds part of property tax or rent to qualifying 100 percent disabled people, including veterans: up to $1,100 for homeowners and $750 for renters, scaled by income and tax paid. Veterans who are 100 percent disabled from military service check Box B, and 100 percent service-connected veterans do not count VA payments in the household income test, which qualifies far more of them than the raw income limits suggest.
SOURCE: Missouri Department of Revenue · retrieved 2026-07-10
Military pensions are fully subtracted from Missouri income
Taxable military pension income is subtracted in full from federal adjusted gross income on Form MO-A, Part 1, Line 10 (for tax years before 2021 it was claimed as an exemption on Part 3, Section D). VA disability compensation is never taxed, by Missouri or federally.
SOURCE: Missouri Department of Revenue · retrieved 2026-07-10
Returning Heroes Act: $50 per credit hour tuition
Public institutions must limit tuition to $50 per credit hour for combat veterans who are eligible to register to vote in Missouri or are current Missouri residents and were discharged under honorable conditions; a 2019 amendment removed the old post-9/11 date restriction. The veteran must hold a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5 on a 4.0 scale, and eligibility runs 10 years from the last discharge for undergraduate study and 20 years for graduate programs, where institutions must limit tuition to no more than 30 percent of tuition and fees.
SOURCE: Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development · retrieved 2026-07-10
Seven state veterans homes, 1,238 beds
The Missouri Veterans Commission operates skilled nursing homes in Cameron, Cape Girardeau, Mexico, Mt. Vernon, St. James, St. Louis, and Warrensburg, totaling 1,238 long-term care beds with secure memory care units at every home. The 2026 monthly rate is $2,773, covering 24-hour nursing, physician care, on-site therapies, medications, and transportation to VA appointments.
SOURCE: Missouri Veterans Commission · retrieved 2026-07-10
Five state veterans cemeteries
Missouri runs state veterans cemeteries at Bloomfield, Fort Leonard Wood (Waynesville), Higginsville, Jacksonville, and Springfield, with precertification available so eligibility is settled before the family ever needs it.
SOURCE: Missouri Veterans Commission · retrieved 2026-07-10
Hero Hunts and conservation permit exemptions
Missouri's Hero Hunt program gives eligible veterans free managed deer hunts with lodging, meals, and guides, with 20 annual spots at Mark Twain Lake and 15 at Crowder State Park, and the Department of Conservation maintains permit exemptions for qualifying disabled veterans.
SOURCE: Missouri Veterans Benefits and Resources Portal · retrieved 2026-07-10
Missouri’s best benefit is aimed at a specific person: the combat veteran heading back to school. At $50 per credit hour, a full 15-hour semester at Mizzou or Missouri State costs $750 in tuition, which turns the Post-9/11 GI Bill into a different tool entirely. Instead of burning Chapter 33 months on a cheap undergraduate degree, a Missouri combat veteran can pay the capped tuition out of pocket or with the housing allowance math working in their favor, then save federal entitlement for graduate school, where the Returning Heroes cap still limits tuition to 30 percent. Almost nobody sequences it that way, and the 10-year clock from discharge plus the 2.5 GPA floor are the only strings.
Property tax is where Missouri underdelivers relative to its neighbors. There is no exemption for a 100 percent P&T homeowner, only the circuit breaker credit, capped at $1,100 and income-tested. The saving grace is buried in the instructions: a 100 percent service-connected veteran excludes VA payments from the income calculation, so a veteran whose only income is VA compensation and a modest pension often qualifies even when the sticker income limits look disqualifying. Renters at 100 percent can claim up to $750, one of the few state property benefits anywhere that reaches veterans who do not own. Former POWs with total service-connected disability have a separate full homestead exemption noted on the state benefits portal.
The pension subtraction is clean and total, worth real money against Missouri’s income tax, and the state’s institutional network is bigger than its reputation: seven homes and five cemeteries is more physical infrastructure per veteran than most states carry. The $2,773 monthly home rate is the figure to remember, a fraction of private skilled nursing costs in Kansas City or St. Louis.
What veterans most often miss here is precertification at the state cemeteries. Missouri lets you settle burial eligibility in advance with a simple application, which spares your family the document hunt later; pair it with a read of the federal burial and memorial benefits that stack underneath. Missouri does not hand out one big headline number, but a student veteran or a modest-income 100 percent household can quietly assemble a strong stack.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through Missouri Veterans Commission or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Missouri will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.