Thousands of Napa County veterans could have access to low-interest home loans under recent legislation coauthored by state Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill this month that will place the Veterans Bond Act of 2008 on the Nov. 4 statewide ballot. The bond act would aid veterans trying to buy homes and farms through the state’s CalVet Home Loan program by providing $900 million in general obligation bonds.

This money will fund approximately 1,300 low-interest loans.

The bond would not affect the state’s General Fund because veterans would repay the bond costs through their mortgages. The initiative will appear as Proposition 12.

“The Veterans Bond Act will help California’s veterans achieve the American dream of homeownership,” Schwarzenegger said. “I’m asking voters to say yes in November so that veterans who risked their lives in places like Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan will be eligible to join the more than 420,000 others who have bought a home with a CalVet loan — at no expense to taxpayers.”

Since 1922, CalVet has helped more than 420,000 wartime veterans buy homes and farms. More than 13,000 veterans have active loans through the program.

Jerry Jones, chief of legislative and public affairs for the California Department of Veterans Affairs, said the program is expected to see even more applications due to new federal regulations.

Under previous federal law, only veterans who served at least one day of active duty prior to 1977 and who applied for a loan within 30 years were eligible for the CalVet program. This effectively limited the use of these bond funds to Vietnam-era veterans, and the 30-year time limit resulted in a rapidly declining pool of eligible applicants.

Recent federal legislation eliminated the 1977 eligibility date and extended the CalVet Home Loan program to veterans who served in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Napa County, the number of new wartime veterans now eligible under the new federal legislation could reach as high as 5,000, according to Jones. The total number of veterans in Napa County is more than 10,000, he said.

With so many new veterans now eligible for assistance through the program, Jones said additional funds from the upcoming November bond act are needed to provide aid to qualified veterans.

Since 1921, the voters in California have approved approximately $8.8 billion of general obligation bond sales for the home loan program. The last bond measure approved for the CalVet Program was in November 2000 in the amount of $500 million.

To date, approximately $102 million worth of these bonds is unsold. However, the Department of Veterans Affairs projects the bonds will be depleted in 2008.

Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs anticipates a surge in the number of applications for the CalVet loans increasing from veterans who are returning to California from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This legislation allows for continuation of the CalVet Home Loan program, which is at risk of running out of money, something which could force us to turn veterans away,” said Wiggins, who is a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. “Preserving this important program is a small gesture for us to make on behalf of the men and women who have fought so bravely and heroically to protect our state and our country.”

The CalVet program has historically been fully funded by participating veterans. If their payments do not fully cover principal and interest payments on the bonds, because general obligation bonds are backed by the state, the difference would come from the General Fund, according to Wiggins’ office. This has not been necessary since the inception of the program, a spokesperson for Wiggins said.

Jones said CalVet bond measures have passed each of the 26 times they have appeared before voters.