What a MN pol wants to do about MnSCU retirement

"The ability to cash out six-figure sums upon retirement appears to make MnSCU an outlier not merely compared to the private sector, but compared to other state agencies and departments as well."

-- Rep. Joe Atkins (DFL-Inver Grove Heights) in the Pioneer Press on his request that the state legislative auditor look into unused sick pay and vacation time that the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system paid its retiring employees.

Read the full story here. You can also view here the Pioneer Press database on payouts to individual MnSCU colleges.

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And here is the story that started it all -- which zeroes in on MnSCU among the state agencies:

Though the payments make up less than 1 percent of what the state spends a handful of employees - all from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system - got checks topping $100,000.

It then mentions those MnSCU employees who received the most.

The top earner, the paper reports:

Jon Quistgaard, who retired last year as president of Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College, had the biggest payout of any state employee the past four years. His check for 30 years in Bemidji: $126,500.

Quistgaard, who was making almost $254,000 when he retired at age 62, didn't return calls for comment.