The Minnesota Legislature is headed for a special session with many pending budget bills. However, one of the few areas spared from this uncertainty is the Judiciary and Public Safety policy and finance bill, which was passed by both the House and Senate and was presented to the Governor on May 20.
In a year of so much uncertainty for crime victim services, we want to take a moment to acknowledge the crucial win this represents for children’s advocacy centers and crime victim services overall. Thank you to everyone who showed up at the Capitol for action day, packed hearing rooms, and called legislators demanding a fix for crime victim services in the shadow of federal funding instability! Your efforts, the persistent work of all six state crime victim coalitions, and our dedicated lobbyist, Nancy Haas, led to significant wins in a biennium when there was little room for anything new.
Funding Forecast Indicates Drop in Available Funds
Going into this session, the projected initial budget surplus for the current biennium dwindled by $160M to $456M, and the projected budget deficit for FY 2028-29 increased by nearly $1B. Unexpected cuts to federal spending in several areas, including over $200M to currently approved public health funding, made the situation even more dire.
Victim Services Call for Fix to Federal Cuts
In this context the six statewide crime victim coalitions (Minnesota Children’s Alliance, Mending the Sacred Hoop, Minnesota Alliance on Crime, MNCASA, Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, and Violence Free MN) pursued an innovative plan to offset the impact of dwindling and unstable federal VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) funding and create a state-based fund to develop sustainable funding into the future. The Judiciary and Public Safety omnibus bill included a $107.42M increase over the base per the global target agreement set by legislators and the Governor. We also had significant policy wins that strengthened child abuse investigations and opened up potential for increased funding from local jurisdictions.
Policy and Funding Highlights in HF 2432
Article 2 of HF 2432 (appropriations)
- Minnesota Victims of Crime Account (Sec. 16 [299A.708]): The account is established in the special revenue fund. Money in the account is appropriated to the Office of Justice Programs for grants to crime victim services providers. Detailed grant areas are in Subdivision 3.
- Article 2, Section 12: $7.2M is transferred from the general fund to the Minnesota victims of crime account in the special revenue fund under MN Statutes, section 299A.708.
- Article 2, Section 16, Subd. 5: In FY 2028, the commissioner of management and budget shall transfer $878,000 from the general fund. In FY 2029 and each following year, the commissioner shall transfer $879,000.
Article 4 of HF 2432 (criminal law)
- Section 12. Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 617.246, subdivision 1, is amended.
- “Pornographic work” is changed to “child sexual abuse material.”
- Adds CSAM created through generative artificial intelligence
Article 5 of HF 2432 (public safety policy)
- Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 13.03, subdivision 6, is amended. The same changes are made in: 13.821, 144.296, 611A.90, 634.35.
- “videotape” is changed to “recording” of child abuse victims (reflecting that most recorded video is no longer on videotape.)
Article 6 (crime victim provisions)
- Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 609.101, subdivision 2, is amended.
- The definition of “victim assistance program” is updated to include children’s advocacy centers as defined in section 260E.02, subdivision 5. This change makes CACs applicable programs to work with county courts on allocating fines from applicable crimes to their center.