Minnesota State Veterans Cemeteries

Minnesota runs four state veterans cemeteries, at Little Falls, Duluth, Preston and Redwood Falls, under section 197.236. They are maintained and operated in accordance with the operational standards and measures of the National Cemetery Administration, and the commissioner must require that upright granite markers supplied by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs be used to mark all gravesites. Eligibility was rebuilt by Laws 2026, chapter 96, section 5, and the new subdivision 8 is a five-clause list. Service members who die on active duty, eligible veterans, and other persons listed in 38 U.S.C. 2402(a), subparagraphs 1 to 4 and 7. Veterans of the Secret War in Laos. From January 1, 2027, members of a reserve component and members of the Army National Guard or Air National Guard who completed at least one full term of service and received an honorable discharge, or whose death occurs while in good standing with their assigned component and was not due to their willful misconduct. Spouses, surviving spouses, minor children and unmarried adult children of a person in the first clause. And from January 1, 2027, the same family members of a Guard or reserve member under the third clause. Three additions in that list are worth calling out. A surviving spouse who remarried is not excluded. The 2026 act added a sentence saying that for purposes of this section a surviving spouse includes a surviving spouse who had a subsequent marriage. Most state cemeteries in this catalog end at remarriage. A general discharge under honorable conditions does not count as an honorable discharge here. The act added that sentence expressly, and it applies to the Guard and reserve route in clause (3). A guardsman with a general discharge is outside the new clause even though a general discharge is good enough for a Minnesota driver's licence veteran designation and good enough for the definition of veteran in section 197.447. And conviction of stolen valor disqualifies. Applicants with convictions under 18 U.S.C. 704 are ineligible, and by January 1, 2027 the commissioner must establish a process to verify that applicants for burial have not been convicted of it. Nothing comparable appeared in the first thirty-eight jurisdictions in this catalog. The definitions the act supplied matter for families. A "minor child" is an unmarried child under 21, or under 23 and pursuing a full-time course of instruction at an approved educational institution. An "unmarried adult child" is an unmarried child who became permanently physically or mentally disabled and incapable of self support before 21, or before 23 while pursuing full-time instruction. Fees. No plot or interment fee may be charged for the burial of service members who die on active duty or of eligible veterans as defined in 38 U.S.C. 2402(a), subparagraphs 1 to 4 and 7. For everyone else on the list the commissioner sets a fee schedule that covers, as nearly as practicable, the actual costs of interment. The 2026 act deleted the words "excluding the value of the plot" from that sentence, so the fee charged to a spouse or child may now reflect the plot as well as the interment. That is a cost increase for families and it is easy to miss. The commissioner may waive or reduce the burial fee for an indigent eligible person and must maintain a policy, eligibility standards and an application form for doing so. Two structural notes. Receipts for burial fees, plot or interment allowance claims and other cemetery receipts go into a dedicated account in the special revenue fund and are appropriated back to the commissioner for cemetery development, operation, maintenance and improvement, and the commissioner must apply for available federal grants. And subdivision 12 forbids hiring staff for any new veterans cemetery without explicit legislative approval, which is the practical constraint on opening a fifth. Section 197.231 pays a local unit of a congressionally chartered veterans organisation or its auxiliary up to $50, within available funds, for each honor guard detail at the funeral of a deceased veteran, a veteran of the Secret War in Laos, or a reserve or National Guard member within the cemetery eligibility definition. Where the local unit provides a student to play Taps, it may pay some or all of the $50 to the student.