MDVA warns offset needed if state eliminates spouse burial fees; committee lays HF840 over

Chair Bliss presented House File 840 on March 12, 2025, proposing to eliminate burial fees for spouses and eligible dependents in Minnesota state veterans cemeteries. The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs told the committee that eliminating the fee would require offsetting funds or an appropriation; the committee laid the bill over.

Cole Trace, government affairs liaison for the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, testified that the current spouse and eligible-dependent burial fee is $978 and that the fee level is based on the non-service-connected burial allowance set by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Benefits Administration. Trace said the MDVA projects the fiscal offset for eliminating the spouse fee would be about $828,000 for the current fiscal year and would exceed $1 million in future biennia unless an appropriation is provided.

Trace described the Support Our Troops (SOT) fund — revenue derived from the sale of Support Our Troops license plates — as the likely offset in the bill’s current language. He warned that using SOT to cover the elimination of spouse burial fees would commit a significant portion of SOT revenue and limit funds available for other uses, including grants to veterans-service organizations, advertising, statewide system costs, and the Veterans Linkage Line (LinkVet), a 24/7 confidential crisis support service. “If the offset to the loss of spouse eligible dependent burial fees is to be pulled from the SOT funds ... MDVA projects that a significant portion of the SOT funds will be solely committed to cover the elimination of these burial fees in future years and will no longer be available for the other 6 categories that I mentioned,” Trace said.

David Swantek, deputy director of Memorial Affairs for MDVA, explained the current spouse-fee revenue is deposited into the cemetery maintenance and development account and has been used for cemetery maintenance, capital improvements and equipment replacement; he noted that only in the current biennium were some capital improvements fully executed. Barry Hendrickson, adjutant quartermaster for the Department of Minnesota Veterans of Foreign Wars, testified that SOT grants are vital to veterans service posts and programs and that reduced SOT availability would harm those operations.

Trace said the agency would support the policy change if the appropriation matched the fiscal note. Chair Bliss said the bill would be laid over for negotiations and budget consideration.