MARVIN MANDEL, Governor                           1449

9. (35) (a).

The dwelling house and the lot or curtilage whereon the same is
erected, of any citizen and resident of this State now, or hereafter
honorably discharged or released under honorable circumstances
from active service in any branch of the armed forces, who has been
or shall be declared by the United States Veterans' Administration
or its successors to have a service-connected disability from total
blindness, [or from paraplegia or permanent paralysis of both legs
and lower parts of the body resulting from traumatic injury to the
spinal cord or brain, or from the amputation of both arms or both
legs, or by reason of amputation, ankylosis, progressive muscular
dystrophies or paralysis of both lower extremities, such as to pre-
clude locomotion without the aid of braces, crutches, canes or wheel
chair, or who has qualified and received a grant for specially
adapted housing under the requirements of the Veterans' Ad-
ministration.] or other cause which has been evaluated as 100 per
cent disabling, and such disability has been determined by the
Veterans' Administration or its successor to be permanent in charac-
ter. To meet the requirements of permanency it must be affirmatively
shown that the 100 percent disability is reasonably certain to con-
tinue throughout the life of the veteran, provided that no such
exemption shall be granted for any disability which was caused or
incurred through the misconduct of the veteran concerned. It shall
be incumbent upon the veteran to furnish a suitable certification of
the Veterans' Administration or its successor showing the character
of the disability which is 100 percent disabling. The details of the
certification shall not be open to public inspection, except by the
veteran, or by officers of the State and/or any city or county affected
thereby. In the event of the veteran's death, the spouse of said veteran
shall retain the exemption for such time as he or she, as the case
may be, remains unmarried and remains the owner and resident of
the property in question. The dwelling house and the lot or curtilage
whereon the same is erected of any blind person shall also be exempt
from taxation, up to an assessed valuation of $6,000, in any instance;
and for the purpose of this subsection a person shall be considered
blind if he has permanent impairment of both eyes of the following
status: central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye, with
corrective glasses, or central visual acuity of more than 20/200 if
there is a field defect in which the peripheral field has contracted to
such an extent that the widest diameter of visual field subtends an
angular distance no greater than twenty degrees in the better eye.
Such exemption shall be in addition to any other exemption of such
person's real and personal property which now is or hereafter
shall be prescribed or allowed by the Constitution or by law, but
no taxpayer shall be allowed more than one exemption under this
subsection.

Sec. 2. And be it further enac