Senate committee advances plan to create special fund to back crime‑victim services amid VOCA shortfalls

Saint Paul — The Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, took up Senate File 852, a bill that would create a special revenue account to support crime‑victim services in Minnesota and identify new state revenue sources to replace dwindling federal grants.

The proposal, introduced for consideration by Senator Umu Verbentin, received an author’s "A5" delete‑all amendment and a later technical fix to an allocation line. After testimony from statewide victim‑service advocates and organizational leaders, the committee adopted the amendments by voice vote and laid the bill over for possible inclusion in the policy and budget bill.

Advocates said the change is urgent because federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding has dropped dramatically since its 2018 peak. "Federal crime victim services funding has been trending towards an all time low," said Bobbie Holtberg, executive director of the Minnesota Alliance on Crime, pointing to federal VOCA levels that advocates told the committee fell from about $58,000,000 in 2018 to a projected $7,000,000 this year. Holtberg said Minnesota would need substantial one‑time and ongoing state funding to prevent program closures.

The bill’s sponsor and testifiers described a proposal that would pull revenue from multiple…