The Minnesota Senate today passed House File 707, the 2017 omnibus Legacy Finance bill. The Legacy bill appropriates funding from the proceeds of the 2008 Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Constitutional Amendment. The bill includes $200,000 for a new Veterans Memorial Grants program to help complete veterans memorials in Rice County and Waseca County.

These projects were originally introduced as individual bills before being referred to the Legacy Committee. Senate File 693, authored by Sen. John Jasinski (R-Faribault), provided funding for the Rice County memorial, and Senate File 2146, co-authored by Sen. Jasinski, funded the Waseca County memorial.

“These memorials have been in the works for a long time now,” said Sen. Jasinski. “The volunteers who have been spearheading both the Rice County and Waseca County memorials have done a terrific job of raising private donations, and I’m glad Minnesota is able to come through and help them get over the finish line.”

Rather than funding these individual projects, the Legacy Committee created a new Veterans Memorial Grants program to handle requests for veterans memorials throughout Minnesota. The program will be managed by the Department of Administration. Currently, Rice County and Waseca County are the only projects that have requested funding.