This week 11 Veterans related pieces of legislation were heard in five committees throughout the legislature. And another bill was approved by the full House of Representatives.

On Monday, the House of Representatives met in full to consider HF 375 authored by Rep. Chris Swedzinski. This bill would authorize counties place a Veterans memorial anywhere in the county. Current law says that Veterans memorials have to be built in the county seat. The final vote was 125-0. The Senate will now need to act on this bill before it heads to the Governor.

The Veterans Affairs Division also met on Monday and considered five bills:

• HF 1059: Authored by Rep. Jeff Howe, this legislation would eliminate the annual application for recipients of the homestead exclusion. It was approved and re-referred to the tax committee.
• HF910: Authored by Rep. Debra Hilstrom, this bill would extend and increase the credit for the homestead exclusion. It would allow Veterans that have a temporary 100% service connected disability to qualify for the maximum benefit, instead of just total and permanent disabled Veterans. It also increases the maximum benefit to $400,000. It was passed and re-referred to the tax committee.
• HF 728: This bill is also authored by Rep. Hilstrom. It is intended to be a bill that fills in the gaps for Veterans services. It provides more funding for Veterans courts, honor guards, mental health and substance abuse treatment, domestic abuse prevention and funding to prevent homelessness among Veterans. It also provides a tax credit for Veterans who are on a waiting list in one or more Minnesota Veterans homes and living in a nursing home for up to $30,000. The bill was passed and re-referred to State Government Finance.
• HF 79: Rep. Greg Davids is the author for this legislation that would give approval and begin the steps to build a new Minnesota Veterans Home in Fillmore County. It was approved and re-referred to State Government Finance.
• HF 755: This bill would authorize $250,000 in funding for the Minnesota Medal of Honor memorial on the Capitol grounds. Rep. Dettmer is the author. The bill was approved and re-referred to State Government Finance.

The House Tax committee heard HF 16 which is authored by Rep. Sheldon Johnson. This bill would expand the eligibility for past military service. This bill would increase the income level at which the credit begins to phase-out from $30,000 to $50,000, with no credit allowed for incomes of $57,500 or higher. It would also expand eligibility by extending the credit to all disabled veterans who have a compensable service connected disability. It was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus tax bill.

The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Legacy Finance committee heard SF 706 authored by Sen. Michelle Benson. This bill would appropriate money for the Minnesota Humanities Center for their programming including Veterans' Voices. It was laid over for possible inclusion in the Legacy bill.

The House Commerce and Regulatory Reform committee heard HF 368 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 Civil Law committee.

The Senate Veterans and Military Affairs committee heard three Veterans related bills:

• SF 450 seeks to give military and disabled Veterans free state park passes. The bill was tabled for future consideration by the committee. This is the companion bill to HF 685 which had already been approved by the House Veterans Affairs Division and awaits action in Environment and Natural Resources.
• SF 484 is a Veterans jobs tax credit. It would give employers incentive to hire either unemployed Veterans or disabled Veterans. There were amendments to give the credit to companies that hire a Veteran who is eligible for unemployment insurance, rather than collecting UI and expand it to homeless Veterans that are on the homeless Veteran registry that is administered by MDVA. This is the companion to HF 270 which has already been laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus tax bill. The House did not have similar amendments to expand the scope of the bill. There are about 200 Veterans on that list throughout the state. The bill was approved and re-referred to Senate Taxes. 
• The last bill was SF 325. This would exempt permanent 100% service connected disabled Veterans from certain fees and taxes related to vehicles including wheelage tax, tab fees, plate fees but excludes personalized plates, vehicle titles and transfers and the motor vehicle sales tax. The bill was passed and re-referred to Transportation Finance. 

Next week the House Veterans Affairs Division will hear five bills on Monday at 1pm in Room 5 of the State Office Building. The bills that are scheduled are HFs 936, 965, 1096, 1109 and 1209.

On Thursday the House State Government Finance committee will hear HF 505 at 1pm in Room 10 of the State Office Building.

The Senate Veterans and Military Affairs committee will meet at 8:30am in Room 1100 of the Minnesota Senate Building.

More Veterans related legislation will likely to be added to committee agendas.