Senate panel backs new consumer restitution account, limits annual payouts to $1 million

The Minnesota Senate Finance Committee on April 2 voted to recommend passage of Senate File 447, a bill to create a consumer restitution account administered by the Attorney General’s Office to compensate people who have been defrauded when individual restitution is not possible.

Sponsor Senator Rest told the committee the account, supported by AARP, would be limited to no more than $1 million in any fiscal year and is intended to help victims for whom there is no practical path to individualized restitution. "The proposal will establish a consumer restitution account, limited to, no more than a million dollars in any given year," Senator Rest said.

Under the bill’s language, 50% of a particular category of undistributed revenues that currently flow to the general fund would be redirected to the new account up to the $1 million annual…