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PHOENIX — The new $10.6 billion state budget set for adoption this week includes a bit of help for families of some soldiers who are wounded or killed.

A provision in the package provides up to $1 million a year that could be tapped by relatives who want to visit family members being treated at military hospitals but lack the funds to make the trip.

This new fund also would provide grants to the widows and widowers of those killed in action to help with living expenses. That includes up to six months' worth of mortgage payments or rent, utilities and other basic living expenses.

Cash for both programs would come from donations to the fund.

But the real key is how the state is encouraging donations: Those who contribute beginning next year would be able to get a dollar-for-dollar credit on their state income taxes, up to $200 for individuals and $400 for couples.

That, in essence, means the money really is coming out of the state treasury, reducing the amount of cash available for other programs.

The problem, said Senate Minority Leader Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox, is the military provides little help for family members of soldiers brought back to the states for treatment of major wounds.

She said most of these soldiers wind up at hospitals in Washington, D.C., or Texas.

Arzberger said the military provides "very limited" funds for family travel.

She cited one instance of a soldier from Fort Huachuca who is in a coma at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after suffering a head injury in Iraq.

The senator said the military did agree to provide enough money for the soldier's mother to visit for 10 days.

"But he's not married and he has two children," Arzberger continued. "His physician wanted the children to be able to come in hopes that his little girl's voice would wake him out of that coma."

The bigger need, the senator said, is for soldiers in the National Guard which, unlike regular active duty military, provides no family travel funds at all.

This new law would set up a special commission that would include survivors of deceased veterans, wounded vets, family members of wounded vets and military retirees. The panel would first set up eligibility criteria for grants and then review applications.

Arzberger was forced to cap the total tax credits at no more than $1 million a year to prevent the fund from becoming a drain on the state budget.

That will be enforced by having the Department of Veterans Services, which will administer the fund, provide receipts for donations and keep track of the tally. But the commission can accept funds from others who are willing to give without getting that credit.

At this point, the tax credits would last five years — what Arzberger said she believes would be the maximum length of having U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But she conceded that could prove optimistic.

"I wrote that before things got worse," she said.

The commission actually would stay in existence for another two years after that, using any cash left over to fund remaining requests. And Arzberger said anything that remains at the end of that time would be transferred to the Arizona Department of Veterans Services.

The legislation allows that state agency to keep up to 5 percent of what is donated each year for administrative expenses. It also provides $100,000 immediately up front to get the program started.