On October 10th PERA will hold their planning meeting. One of the items to be discussed is MNCORA's request for a seat on the PERA Board for a CO. Below is the letter the MNCORA Executive Board sent PERA: PERA Executive Director Doug Anderson and PERA Executive Board members,   The Minnesota Correctional Officer Retirement Association (MNCORA) understands the issue of adding a PERA Correctional Member to the PERA Executive Board is to be discussed at this upcoming planning meeting. Last session a Bill was introduced to that effect, unfortunately it did not get a hearing from the LCPR, but that Bill will be reintroduced this year. (HF4342 and SF4464) The Bill simply adds language to statute 353.03 sub 1…   “ Of the six trustees elected by the membership , one of whom must be a member of the police and fire fund  plan, one must be a member of the local government correctional service retirement plan,  …” Our plan has been in existence since 1999 and is the healthiest and best fund

Last session the following legislators authored HF4342  on the House side, a Bill to add a PERA Correctional Officer to the PERA Board.  Representative Harry Niska was the one who got the ball rolling quickly followed by Rep. Peggy Scott and Rep. Paul Novotny . On the Senate side SF4464 Senator Cal Bahr was the first to Author followed by Senator Jim Abeler  and finally Senator Nick Frentz . The Chair of the Legislative Pension Commission , Rep. Kaohly Her did not allow this Bill to be heard even though it had a sponsor on both the House and Senate side. MNCORA is hoping to get this Bill reintroduced this upcoming session. Each year the Chair of the  Pension Commission rotates. We are hoping the next Chair is more amenable to a Correctional Officer on the PERA Board. This is an election year and MNCORA wants our members to know who has supported our efforts. Supporting this Bill were Representatives Harry Niska, Peggy Scott and Paul Novotny. In the Senate were Senators Cal Bahr, Ji

  The MNCORA Executive Board met on 9/17/27. Discussed-PERA's planning meeting is October 10th. Being discussed is adding a Corrections Officer seat to the PERA Board. MNCORA will be stating our support. This is the result of MNCORA approaching the PERA Board last session. They didn't support us or oppose. They tabled it until this years planning meeting. Big things are coming this session, Watch this site to keep up.  Last session ended with a bill to to add dispatchers to our pension. While this didn't move forward they stated it wasn't dead. They are supposed to be doing an actuarial about an improved pension for dispatch and probation. Hopefully it doesn't include a raid on our pension. MNCORA will be watching.

Last session LELS Legislator of the Year Rep. Dan Wolgamott put forward Bill HF 4796   to add Dispatchers to the PERA Correctional Plan. MNCORA fought this. The Bill didn't pass last session but resulted in a study that is to explore a better pension for Dispatch and Probation. We hope that doesn't include another swing at our Corrections Plan. As of today it's not listed on the LCPR's Workgroup page so we don't know. We were told the issue is not over. Last session LELS Executive Director Jim Mortenson was very upset MNCORA was collecting petitions opposing HF4796. LELS CO's were blindsided by their Union's support of this threat to the Correctional Plan. MNCORA has members statewide. We're hearing from some CO's LELS doesn't support adding Dispatch to our plan and from other groups they're telling dispatch they do.  LELS has a history of treating Correctional members different than others. For instance they collect dues for the MPPOA, but

 A CO working in the Hubbard County jail was shanked by an inmate. He was able to fight off the inmate until help arrived. The officer was treated at the hospital for wounds to his face and head. Th inmate who has a history of violence was charged with First, Second, Third and Fourth degree assault. Bail is $900,000. We wish the CO a speedy and full recovery. Full story KROC This is the press release from Hubbard County Sheriff Cory Aukes:

I attended the August 8th PERA meeting in person today. They discussed the funding levels of the plans. Police and Fire is funded at 87% and at current rates won't be fully funded until 2080! The PERA Correctional Plan is funded at 96.7% and will be fully funded by 2026! This includes the increase of the high five multiplier of 2.2% that begins July of 2025. Last year we pushed for a CO seat on the PERA Board. We had the Bill but it didn't get a hearing by the Pension Commission or pass. We tried to get the PERA Board to support that but they didn't want to last year, they said they'd take it up at 'next years planning meeting.' That meeting is October 30th of this year and PERA Executive Director Doug Anderson reminded them of that. The new session will be coming up after elections. We will again push for a long overdue seat on the PERA Board and will be watching for other attempts to raid our healthy plan.  We look forward to a new session and new work on your