Veterans Day on the Hill is April 23
2 national commanders to welcome veterans
ST. PAUL — Veterans Day on the Hill is April 23.
American Legion National Commander Dan K. Wiley and Disabled American Veterans National Commander Coleman Nee are set to speak.
Hundreds of veterans descend on the St. Paul Armory and Minnesota State Capitol every spring to let lawmakers know that their service matters and their sacrifices need to be recognized.
Doors open at 9 a.m. April 23. Wiley provides the welcome message at 11 a.m. A free meal provided by Chick-fil-A will be served immediately after. The program starts at noon. During the program, Nee will speak.
Next, the veterans will gather in front of the Veterans Service Building and, at 12:45 p.m., march to the Capitol and assemble in the Rotunda. New security measures could make entry take longer than usual. A program in the Capitol will begin around 1:15 or 1:30 p.m.
DAV of Minnesota will cover half of the cost of a bus if the organization reaches out in advance to [email protected]. Here is the Legion page with the flier.
This year, the Minnesota Commanders’ Task Force, better known at the CTF, advocates for a single bill — modernizing the Disabled Veterans Homestead Market Value Exclusion.
The current state law provides an exclusion of $150,000 on their residential property taxes for veterans rated by the federal VA as 70 percent disabled and $300,000 for ones rated as 100 percent total-and-permanent disabled.
The eight CTF organizations — American Legion, VFW, DAV, Amvets, Jewish War Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Paralyzed Veterans of America and Marine Corps League — support adjusting the exclusions to $200,000 and $400,000.
House File 3727 does just that. Its companion is Senate File 615.
Minnesota American Legion Assistant Adjutant Janet Lorenzo testified on the exclusion before the House Veterans Affairs Division on March 11. She was joined by testifiers from the DAV and VFW.
“Those figures haven’t been updated in 18 years, diminishing the intention of this benefit,” Lorenzo told the committee.
The committee approved amending the bill to reflect amounts of $225,000 and $450,000.
The state American Legion has its Action Center up and running. Visit mnlegion.org/action and tell lawmakers to pass these bills.
The Minnesota CTF thanks Minnesota Veterans 4 Veterans Trust Fund for its support.
Gambling
Gambling is never part of the CTF’s priorities, because some of the organizations cannot touch gambling, but it remains part of The American Legion’s efforts to fund programs and strengthen Minnesota communities.
Supported by the Minnesota American Legion, Allied Charities of Minnesota and Minnesota Indian Gaming Association have worked hand in hand to get bills filed that introduce legal sports betting to Minnesota with a mechanism to reduce the heavy tax burden the state places on licensed charitable gambling organizations.
Find the language in House File 4204 and Senate File 4139.
They are much the same as prior sessions, with a 22 percent state tax on sports betting revenue, which in turn will be used to offset the heavy tax burden faced by charitable gambling organizations. This bill is different in that the amount of tax relief for charities has been increased to 50 percent of the sports gambling tax revenue.
The bill also allows congressionally chartered veterans organizations to have five years to improve or repair property with gambling revenue.
Learn more in the next issue of the Legionnaire if the sports-betting bill survives the filing deadline. It has bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition, so it is not a predictable forecast.
Communications Director and Post 550 Gambling Manager Tim Engstrom testified on March 17 before the House Commerce Committee on House File 4090.
The bill increases the bet limitation on paddlewheel tickets (i.e.: meat raffles) from $2 to $5 and increases the maximum prize award for paddlewheel tickets from $70 to $200.
“Prices have gone up in the normal course of time, and the Legislature modernizes state law from time to time to match the modern economics,” Engstrom said. “This bill allows us to afford better prizes, better meat. Meat raffles fund a lot of youth programs across Minnesota.”
The bill is likely to be amended to leave the cash prize cap at $70. Gift cards can be $200 if they aren’t cash cards. In other words, a $200 gift card to a grocery store, meat market or retailer is OK but a $200 Visa gift card is not if it is above $70.
Its companion is Senate File 4515.
Filed March 16 are bills to outlaw online sweepstakes, as there have been many sweepstakes casinos that have found the means to get around the consideration part of gambling laws in many states.
The Legion, ACM and MIGA all stand together on these measures. Illegal gambling hurts all forms of legal gambling.
Find the language at Senate File 4474 and House File 4410.
The measure would not affect legal sweepstakes like Monopoly at McDonald’s. It would fight illegal casinos shirking laws by claiming to be sweepstakes. Many other states are passing these measures.