Property tax relief could increase for some veterans with disabilities

A veteran close to dying is fearful his spouse will not be able to keep their longtime home that was purchased when he returned from Vietnam.

“It’s where they raised their family,” said Trent Dilks, legislative director of Disabled American Veterans Department of Minnesota. “And now, as he looks at leaving behind his surviving spouse in the near future, he is very afraid that when she sees the reductions in benefits she will not be able to afford the property tax bill on the modest family home and she will not be able to remain there.”

Help has been in law since 2008 for Minnesotans through the disabled veterans’ market value exclusion program, but the dollar benefit has not changed.

Trent Dilks, legislative director of Disabled American Veterans Department of Minnesota, testifies Feb. 12 before the House Veterans and Military Affairs Division in support of HF194, sponsored by Rep. Krista Knudsen. (Photo by Michele Jokinen)

The program reduces a home’s market value for tax purposes. It applies to a veteran with a disability, their surviving spouse, surviving spouses of military personnel killed in the line of duty and certain primary caregivers of qualifying veterans.

Sponsored by Rep. Krista Knudsen (R-Lake Shore), HF194 would increase the valuation exclusion from $150,000 to $200,000 for veterans with a disability rating of at least 70 percent and from $300,000 to $400,000 for veterans with a total and permanent disability.

“This is long overdue; we owe our veterans this,” Knudsen said moments before the House Veterans and Military Affairs Division approved the bill Wednesday and sent it to the House Taxes Committee.

Bret Sample, executive director of Forgotten Heroes Ranges & Retreat, said the true heroes are not just those who served wearing a uniform. “It’s their spouses, the ones who raised their families when they were gone, that watched the TV at night to see if they were going to be on it.”

In his work, Dilks said four out of five phone calls he gets from veterans relate to this exclusion.

“It’s no longer just affecting a few veterans in some of the more costly areas of Minnesota. … Seventeen years is a long time to not address this. This is not even inflationary. It’s not an expansion. It’s just trying to catch it up a little bit with the times.”