The Veterans Affairs Division heard four bills along with presentations from Helmets to Hard Hats, AMVETS and the Minnesota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.

The following are the bills heard on Monday:

• HF375 is authored by Rep. Chris Swedzinski. It would allow counties to build Veteran memorials in any part of the county. Current law says that memorials must be built in the county seat. The bill was passed and re-referred to the General Register. The next action will be a vote by the full House of Representatives.
• HF270 is a bill that would provide a tax credit for hiring qualified Veterans. The credit equals 10% of the wages paid to the Veteran and the maximum credit is $3,000 for each disabled Veteran that is hired. It also would create a credit of $1,500 for each unemployed Veteran that is hired. This bill is authored by Rep. Keith Franke. It was passed and re-referred to the Tax Committee.
• HF368 is authored by Rep. Matt Bliss. It seeks to protect Veterans from entering into an agreement with a lender that seeks to use Veterans benefits as payment that violates federal law. Essentially, this bill gives the State of Minnesota an enforcement mechanism for a federal law to protect Veterans from getting scammed. The bill was passed and re-referred to the Commerce and Regulatory Reform Committee.
• HF555 seeks to give Congressionally chartered Veteran Service Organizations a reduced property tax rate of about 33%. This would lower the tax burden on American Legion and VFW posts, among others around the state. It was passed and re-referred to the Tax Committee.

The Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Committee heard five bills on Thursday:

• SF394 is a bill that would appropriate a $700,000 grant to the Veterans Defense Project. The Veterans Defense Project must use the money to support education, outreach and legal assistance for Veterans who are involved with the criminal justice system. The bill is authored by Sen. Roger Chamberlain. It was laid over for possible inclusion in the Veterans and Military Affairs omnibus bill.
• SF322 is authored by Sen. Michelle Fischbach. The bill would provide an appropriation for de-escalation training for safety personnel. It was approved and re-referred to Judiciary and Public Safety.
• SF 205, 71 and 84 are three bills that all deal with the homestead market exclusion. They were all passed and re-referred to the Tax Committee. SF205 authored by Sen. Chuck Wiger eliminates the eight-year limit on the spouse of a diseased Veteran use of the exclusion until the spouse sells, transfers or disposes of the property. Sen. Andrew Lang is the author SF84 ends that same limit and it also makes the exclusion available to surviving spouses who meet certain conditions. Finally, SF71 authored by Sen. Greg Clausen establishes a sliding-scale formula so the amount of the exclusion that a disabled Veteran can take is $300,000 times the Veteran's disability rating percentage. For instance, a Veteran with an 80% service connected disability would receive $240,000.

All of these bills that were heard can be found on the most recent update to the /mdva/news/legislative-updates/state-bill-tracker/index.jspbill tracker.