Daily Digest: Pension fix flies through state Senate

Good morning and happy Tuesday. Here's the Digest.

1. Senate votes unanimously for pension fix.  State leaders and legislators have known for some time that they have a big problem on their hands. The amount going into pension accounts for police officers, teachers, state clerical workers and many others eventually won’t be enough to pay benefits out. The various accounts cover more than 500,000 current or future recipients. Those beneficiaries are living longer. The assumed rate of investment return is higher than many other states predict. And cost of living adjustments have been more generous than the funds can afford. That and some other factors left Minnesota staring down at a future pension gap of almost $17 billion. “We’ve gotten by on the cheap, but this can’t go on. We are now perilously close to states who have avoided addressing their pension problems,” said Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, moments before the Senate voted 66-0 to approve a bill that begins fixing the system. “We can no longer keep our heads in the sand. If we don’t act now we can slip into the problems that states like New Jersey and Illinois face.” The bill would chop the unfunded liability about in half. The package relies on both employers and employees kicking in more and retirees expecting slightly less in return. Early retirement or pension cash-outs would be less attractive. The bill spends $27 million this year and calls for more spending in the future. (MPR News)

2. State employees are getting a raise. Tens of thousands of Minnesota state workers will get a raise after the House and Senate approved negotiated contracts. Senators voted 56-10 Monday to bump up pay for more than 30,000 workers by 2 percent this year and 2.5 percent next year. The House followed a few hours later with a 93-33 vote. About half of workers are eligible for other increases, too, Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, said. The raises will not increase taxes, said Sen. Erik Simonson, DFL-Duluth, because the added pay would come out of existing budgets. State Rep. Marion O’Neill, R-Maple Lake, agreed: “‘I have assurance from all of the commissioners of all the state agencies that this does fit into their budgets.” O’Neill said the raises will cost $287 million. Commissioner Myron Frans of Minnesota Management and Budget thanked senators for backing the raises, adding: “Every day their work has an impact on the lives of Minnesotans throughout the state.” (Forum News Service)

3. Another push for gun control. Some DFL state senators are hoping weekend rallies against gun violence in St. Paul and Washington D.C. can get gun bills moving again at the Capitol. The said Monday they want the Senate to hold hearings on more than a dozen bills already introduced this year, including school safety measures, enhanced background checks, a bump stock ban, and an age limit on assault weapons. A number of high school students joined with the lawmakers at a state Capitol news conference. Henry Sibley High School freshman Lauren Youness said she’s disappointed that the Legislature doesn’t feel a sense of urgency. “I felt like we did a really good job at the march. We had so many numbers, and I was super empowered and I felt like we were going to do something. And now we’re back here, and like, we’re holding this meeting, but nothing seems to be happening yet. We’re working really hard, and we just really need to get this done.” A variety of gun measures have been introduced at the Capitol in the wake of the shootings at a school in Parkland Florida, but two measures were tabled in House committee earlier this month; and key committee chairs have said gun bills are not likely to pass this year. (MPR News)

4. Liberians rally for help from President Trump. Hundreds of Liberians gathered at the state Capitol Monday to sing, cheer and call for President Trump to renew the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) program, as Presidents Obama and George W. Bush did before him. Experts think most of the 4,000 Liberians facing potential deportation have homes and families in Minnesota, many with jobs in the state's health care industry. Minnesota is home to the largest Liberian population in the country, an estimated 30,000 people. DED was renewed in September of 2016 Obama. But that official determination only runs through Saturday. If it expires, native Liberians may face deportation and an uncertain future. When Liberians first fled to this country, they got Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. That program, and the Deferred Enforced Departure initiative, are a humanitarian effort meant to help people whose home countries have been struck by war or natural disaster. (MPR News)

5. Paulsen prefers telephone to town hall. It’s been years since U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen held a town hall meeting, in a hall, in a town in his district. Instead, every few weeks or months, he phones home. Using numbers provided by an outside contractor, Paulsen’s office dials as many as 50,000 households in his district at a time. Anyone who picks up the phone is given an invitation, a conference call code and a toll-free number to call within the next hour. The calls cycle among communities in the Third District, an affluent suburban crescent wrapped around the western Twin Cities metro. Many members of Congress have grown wary of town halls, where they risk on-camera confrontations with angry constituents, which in turn has provided fodder to political opponents to raise accusations of politicians dodging the people they represent. Paulsen’s refusal to hold a traditional town hall has been a source of intense frustration for some critics in his district, one of just a few Republican-held congressional districts in the nation that Hillary Clinton carried. (Star Tribune)

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