CO seat on PERA Agenda

MNCORA has been seeking to get a dedicated seat for a Correctional Plan member on the PERA Board for quite some time.

We are working with a Minnesota State Representative and the LCPR to make this happen. We recently solicited support from the PERA Board.

That request is on the PERA Board Agenda on October 12th.

It's item 7 Stakeholder 2024 Initiatives on the Agenda.

We will update any developments after the meeting.

Correctional Officers Federally Recognized as Public Safety Employees

As of January 1, 2025, Correctional Officers are Federally Recognized as Public Safety Employees the same as Police and Fire. This has implications for disability, taxes and retirement. As we face new challenges to our pension in 2025 this will further the distinction between PERA General Plan members like 911 Dispatch and Probation and CO's in the PERA Correctional Plan. It's part of the Secure Act 2.0. 26 USC § 72(t)()(10) definition of Public Safety Employee - qualified public safety employee (10) Distributions to qualified public safety employees and private sector firefighters (A) In general In the case of a distribution to a qualified public safety employee from a governmental plan (within the meaning of section 414(d) ) or a distribution from a plan described in clause (iii), (iv), or (vi) of section 402(c)(8)(B) to an employee who provides firefighting services, paragraph (2)(A)(v) shall be applied by substituting “age 50 or 25 years of service u...

Confusion at today's PERA meeting

I attended the PERA Board meeting remotely today (3/13/25). As all of you know there's lots of pieces at play in the PERA pension plans. There have been in the recent past attempts by 911 Dispatchers and Probation to be merged into the PERA Correctional Plan which MNCORA has vehemently opposed. The positive note from todays meeting is that the current discussion is centered around improved pensions (earlier retirement) for probation and dispatch without talk of adding them to the Correctional Plan. The sad part is the apparent confusion among PERA Board members as to the difference between Essential Employees and Public Safety Employees. Some were using the terms interchangeably which could lead to future problems. While Police, Fire, Corrections, Probation and 911 Dispatch are all essential employees https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/179A.03 . Only Police, Fire and Correctional Officers are Public Safety! The Secure Act 2.0 spells out changes to the defi...

PERA August meeting

I attended the August 14 meeting today. One PERA Agenda item today was the Probation Officers and 911 Telecommunicators Pension Plans Workgroup . We're happy to report that so far it seems only to be seeking a new and separate pension for them with no mention at trying to raid the Correctional Plan. Other Agenda items included 2 closed meeting items. One related to a Duty Injury appeal for a Police and Fire member then another closed meeting item from the Attorney Generals Office regarding the MNDDA lawsuit over HF1234 and the response from the MN Court of Appeals . MNCORA is on record supporting this lawsuit .

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