Hey everyone. Well, here is the final update from the 2023 MN Legislative session. As I said in my last post, I wish I had better news, but this was NOT a great session for our pensions. The only major change was for the St. Paul Teacher's Association. They are now able to receive full retirement with no early retirement penalty under the "62-30" rule. TRA has this rule, but there is still a penalty. One positive that did happen for us in the last moments of the session came from the tax committee. The normal retirement age has been reduced from 66 to 65 which means that people will get one less "penalty" year if they qualify for the "62-30" rule. This provision does NOT take effect until July of 2025, so I'm not sure how it will affect people that would like to retire after next year. Hopefully TRA will give us a little more clarity on that in the coming months.
One massive change that doesn't help teachers, but does help school staff is now hourly school employees will be able to file for unemployment benefits in the summer. This is HUGE for employees in smaller districts who often-times pay only $13-14/hour to these employees. The biggest question mark for this moving forward is how will it affect school district budgets because their unemployment insurance will definitely see a hit in 2-3 years when these benefit payouts are calculated. The legislature appropriated one-time money for this, but we all know that they aren't known for full funding any of their mandates.
This legislative session did not achieve the move towards equalizing the benefits of Tier I and Tier II teachers in Minnesota. Those that qualified under Tier I still receive their benefits 8-10 years before someone in Tier II can receive them and didn't have to pay in as much in contributions. Hopefully next year's session can produce another step in the right direction, BUT since it's an even year, it's not a bonding year, so money isn't usually appropriated in those sessions, so it'll be difficult to see much change.
Wish I had better news, but as always, KEEP STACKIN!