Senate Judiciary committee hears funding requests for victim services, civil legal aid, public‑safety programs; lays bills over

The Minnesota Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on March 5 heard testimony on a string of funding and policy proposals ranging from a state crime‑victim services fund to expanded civil legal aid and nonprofit security grants. Committee members laid each bill over for further work rather than taking final action.

Committee chair (recorded in the hearing as Chair Lats) opened the meeting saying the panel planned to consider roughly eight bills in a two‑hour block and asked members and witnesses to keep testimony succinct.

The most extensive discussion centered on Senate File 852, a bill sponsored in the hearing by the committee author (recorded in the transcript as Senator Umuverabet) to create a special revenue account for crime victim services and to add reporting requirements and new revenue sources. The sponsor and multiple victim‑services advocates testified that federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding has plummeted in recent years and that Minnesota programs face cuts that could force layoffs or closures. Sarah Kern, executive director of Hope Coalition, described services her organization provides in rural Goodhue and Wabasha counties including a recently opened forensic exam room and mobile outreach; she said local rental scarcity and lack of transportation make it harder for survivors to flee abusive situations. Bobbie Holtberg, executive director of the Minnesota Alliance on Crime, told the committee VOCA funding in 2018 reached about $58 million nationally and called estimates that federal money could fall to about $7 million this year “devastating,” and detailed a state need for tens of millions of dollars in supplemental funding. Sarah Gangelhoff of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota and Molly Montague of RAINN also testified in favor of the bill’s goals.

Senators pressed the author on proposed revenue sources in the bill, including increments to civil marriage license fees and assessments on corporate criminal penalties.…