HF3053 and SF2620 have passed.
For our PERA Corrections Plan members this means the COLA will cap out at 2.5% as it currently does.
The firsts drafts of this bill would have maxed the COLA for Corrections Retirees at 1.5%.
Our MNPEA Vice President and Retiree Wade Laszlo, representing retired CO’s met with the PERA Board and PERA Executive director Doug Anderson as well as working with their legislators to remedy the original proposal.
No other Unions representing CO’s stepped up to the plate, in fact they had already signed off on the cut to 1.5%.
The PERA Police and Fire Pension has also seen a fix.
From the PERA website the new Bill:
“Eliminates the trigger to 2.5 percent thereby fixing the COLA at the current 1 percent. Under measurements from last year that showed the plan’s funding status was projected to decline, the 2.5 percent COLA was never expected to occur.”
The MNPEA does not support any cuts to Corrections Officers, Police Officers or Retirees. But we do have a question to ask. Why does the leadership of so few Unions get to make such important decisions for so many, about cuts in Pensions without ever going to their members for a vote?