Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Proposal seeks to end fees for burial in state veterans cemeteries

Burial fees some families must pay to inter loved ones in a state veterans cemetery may soon end.

The House Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Committee held over a bill Monday that would eliminate those fees, which are currently set using an adjustable schedule.

Sponsored by Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington), HF837 could be placed in an omnibus bill. Garofalo told members that although burial fees can currently be waived, the time is right to stop them altogether.

“Given the size of our budget surplus and the resources we have available, for a very modest amount of money, this would allow us to waive those burial fees for spouses and dependents of those who have served our country,” he said.

A fiscal note on the proposal that arrived shortly before the meeting began, estimates eliminating the fees would cost $661,000 during the upcoming biennium and $786,000 for fiscal years 2026-27.

Jack Schlichting, whose wife served as pilot in the National Guard, said his neighbor, who also served and was deployed, brought the issue to his attention and made the point that the spouse often carries as heavy a burden as the veteran.

“So then upon death, and it’s not a significant amount of money, but it’s a stress level that they’ve already gone through when they were a spouse, and now they’re being put through stress again at a burial time, or their family is,” Schlichting said. “With the situation financially, this seems like something, as a state, we could do very easily.”


Related Articles


Priority Dailies

House passes tax package that includes rebate checks, $1 billion in new revenues
Rep. Aisha Gomez and House Majority Leader Jamie Long talk during a break in the May 20 debate on HF1938, the tax finance and policy bill. (Photo by Catherine Davis) Is it the largest tax cut in Minnesota history? Or the biggest tax hike the state has ever experienced? Could it be both? That’s the crux of the debate about the conference ...
House passes finalized cannabis legalization bill, sends it to Senate
A supporter of cannabis legalization demonstrates in front of the Capitol in 2021. The House repassed a bill to legalize recreational cannabis, as amended in conference committee, May 18 and sent HF100 to the Senate. (House Photography file photo) The House gave the green light to adult-use recreational cannabis Thursday. “The day has finally arrived. Today is the day that we are going to vote here in the House for th...

Minnesota House on Twitter