2023 MN Legislative Update and How It Impacts your TRA Pension

Hey everyone! It's been quite a while since I've posted anything on the site. Lots of things happening in my world right now. A big one which I will plan on posting about in the coming weeks. The purpose of this post is to talk about what is happening at the MN Legislature in regards to TRA and how it will affect our pensions.

Coming into the 2023 session, a big push was to improve pensions for current TRA members.  Most current teachers don't realize that they can't retire without any kind of penalty until they are 66 years old! There is a "62/30" rule in place where you can retire at 62 years of age with at least 30 years of experience, but that only gives you a "reduced" penalty. I have posted on that before here. There were a couple of bills proposed to fix our current retirement which is the 3rd worst in all of the country! One of the bills which TRA supported was to change to a "60/30" model which would have allowed someone to retire and age 60 and at least 30 years of experience with no penalty. The other bill was supported by Education Minnesota and was a "62/35" bill. This would have allowed someone 62 years old OR 35 years of experience to retire with no penalty. Either bill would have been far better than our current system.

Unfortunately, Governor Walz only designated $600 million to fix public pensions. This money had to be split among ALL the pension groups in Minnesota; police, firefighters, judges, public employees, etc... AND it had to cover a COLA (cost of living adjustment) for all current retirees. Obviously, this was not NEARLY enough money to cover all of these areas, and unfortunately neither bill made it into the Pension Omnibus bill that came out of committee. The bill HF 3100 has passed the House and is now in Senate committee. The bill appropriates $176 million to TRA as a one-time state aid to the fund. This will help with unfunded liabilities that the fund currently has. The bill also reduces the actuarial assumed rate of return from 7.5% to 7%. One BIG change in the bill affect the St. Paul Teacher's Retirement Association. This bill DOES include a provision for a "62/30" rule with NO early retirement penalty.

None of these changes help current teachers in any way. We still have to teach until 66 to receive the full pension that current retirees received at age 56. Coming into the session, I was feeling very positive about the possibility of good changes coming to our pension. We had a MASSIVE surplus, a DFL-controlled government, and yet here we are. I wish I had better news to share, but I am only reporting on what has actually happened. There are still about 3 weeks left in the 2023 session, but if a bill hasn't made it out of committee by this point, its chances are slim to none of passing this session. Next year's session most likely won't produce much in change as it's an even year, and bonding (the money) occurs in odd-year sessions.

Keep contacting your legislators to let them know that fixing Minnesota's BROKEN teacher pension system is of huge importance in attracting people into the profession. We all are seeing first-hand the massive shortages of available teachers out there. And as always, Keep Stackin!