Join OR RENEW todaY​

Join us to promote, protect, and enhance Minnesota State retiree benefits. Your membership and support
​is necessary to provide a strong voice. There is strength in numbers. MRSEA is your retirement security.

​By joining MRSEA today, your $25 payment provides membership through December 2026. 

Regular 2025 Legislative Session highlights

​The MN Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement, LCPR, under the able leadership of LCPR Chair Senator Nick Frentz from North Mankato, successfully shepherded a wide-ranging public employee pension omnibus bill through all the typical end of session chaos. The LCPR pension omnibus bill passed both the Senate and the House in the final moments of the regular session of the Minnesota Legislature that ended at midnight Monday, May 19 and has been signed by the Governor.
The highlights of the 2025 Public Employee Pension Bill of interest to our members, by Pension Plan, is as follows:
 
MSRS
  • Increases the multiplier used to calculate the annuity amount for those in the General Plan from 1.7% to 1.9% for years of service earned after June 30, 2025; effective July 1, 2025
  • Increases the post-retirement adjustment (COLA) for those in the General, Legislators, and Unclassified Plans from 1.5% to 1.75% beginning January 1, 2026; effective for COLAs beginning on or after January 1, 2026.
  • Increases the COLA for the MSRS State Patrol from 1% to 1.25%
 
PERA
  • For those in the PERA Correctional Plan, updates the multiplier for calculating the duty disability benefit from 1.9% to 2.2% to incorporate the multiplier change made in 2024, applicable to years of covered service after June 30, 2025; effective the day following final enactment.
  • Increases the maximum COLA for the PERA General Plan.  Under current law, the COLA for the PERA General Plan is 1% effective each January 1, unless the Social Security COLA is greater than 2%, in which case the COLA is 50% of the Social Security COLA not to exceed 1.5%.  Under the bill, the COLA for the PERA General Plan is 1% unless the Social Security COLA is greater than 1%, in which case the COLA is the same as the Social Security COLA, not to exceed 1.75%.  A new provision requires an automatic decrease to the COLA maximum in effect on January 1, from 1.75% to 1.5%, if the funded status for the PERA General Plan reaches either of the following:
    • 85% or less in the most recent two consecutive annual actuarial valuations.
    • 80% or less in the most recent annual actuarial valuation.
  • The PERA General Plan COLA changes are effective for postretirement adjustments beginning on or after January 1, 2026.
TRA
The language of the TRA portion of the bill includes:
  • Increases the pension adjustment revenue and employer contributions by .31% of their sufficiency.
  • Lowers the age for the enhanced early retirement reduction from 62/30 to 60/30 (age/years of service).
  • Lowers the reduction/penalty percentage from 6% to 5% for early retirement.
  • Deletes all exceptions to Cost of Living delays for new retirees.
  • Appropriates money to school districts to fund increased employer contributions.
  • Makes all pension funds consistent with an amortization date to 2048.
  • Nothing for retirees.
It should be noted that the benefit enhancements for the MSRS General, Legislators and Unclassified Plan and the PERA General Plan are funded completely through the existing Retirement Plans and require no Legislative Appropriations.  Direct State Aid for Public Safety Plans including Public Employees Police and Fire Retirements Plans cost $35.4 Million while the benefit enhancements for the State Patrol costs $4.6 million for the biennium.
TRA benefit enhancements paid to state agencies and school districts cost $37.9 million for the biennium.
Those advocating for Public Safety and especially TRA benefit enhancements were numerous, provided many testifiers, voluminous written testimony, attended LCPR meetings in large numbers and have been contacting their legislators for several years.

 Important Updates 

Important Update 5/15/25
The Omnibut Pension Bill has a number.  It is HF 1889 and SF2884.  The Legislature has finally settled on a target for public employee pensions.  It is $80 million.  Most of this will go toward increasing the COLA for public safety employees from 1.00% to 1.5% and to provide some early retirement provisions for teachers.

The proposed increase in the MSRS and PERA COLA to 1.75% remains in the bill.  The proposed increase in the multiplier for MSRS pensions from 1.7 to 1.9 also remains in the bill.  These proposals can be totally funded by the pension plans and do NOT reed any additional appropriations from the Legislature.

Please call your legislators and encourage them to support HF1889 AND SF2884.
​

Pension Bill Testimony

3-25-25
​Chair Frentz members of the Commission and Commission Staff. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

My name is Mike Landers. I served for 27 years as a finance specialist with the Minnesota Department of Education. I’m here today on behalf of The Minnesota Retired State Employee Association (MRSEA). MRSEA was
established in the 1940’s initially as a social organization, however, we expanded our focus in the early 1970’s to include advocacy on behalf of our members, particularly in the areas of pensions and group insurance. We represent thousands of retired state employees from all levels of state government and from all across the State of Minnesota and beyond.

MRSEA strongly supports the provisions of HF 2237. This legislation provides a fiscally responsible and balanced approach to begin to address the needs of both active employees and retirees.

It is fiscally responsible because, as the MSRS General Plan returns to full funding, it offers modest benefit increases to begin addressing the sacrifices made by all parties in the 2018 pension bill in order to restore the plans to a sound fiscal foundation. And it does so without requiring outside funding.
These changes can be completely funded by the plan itself and is therefore cost neutral to the state budget.

It’s balanced in that it increases the annuity benefit multiplier from 1.7 to 1.9 percent and offers a one quarter of one percent increase in retiree COLA thereby addressing the needs of both active employees and retirees. This balance has been the hallmark of successful public pension agreements in the past, both in times of sacrifice and when there have been opportunities for benefit improvements.

HF 2237 is a step in the right direction and we ask that you vote for it to be included in the omnibus pension bill.

However, this bill still leaves significant unmet needs. The COLA study required by the 2018 pension bill showed inflation caused a significant loss in purchasing power over a retiree’s lifetime – and that was before the surge in inflation we recently experienced. Let me give you an example of someone covered by the MSRS General Plan who retired in 2015. When I add up the differences between their pension COLA and the Annual Rate of Inflation between 2017, the first year they were eligible for a COLA and 2024, that
difference is 19 percent. If the February inflation rate of 2.8 percent continues throughout the whole year, the difference will be a loss of more than 20 percent over this 9 year period. So, when resources become available in the future, we ask that you remember and address the unmet needs of the public
employees who work so hard to provide the high quality of life that all Minnesotans enjoy.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
​
Michael J. Landers, Ed.D.
Legislative Committee, Chair
Minnesota Retired State Employee Association

Fall 2026 Open enrollment

​
Meetings to be determined.

For more information go to: http://mn.gov/mmb/segip
.

Urgent Pension Action Needed​

If you think something needs to be done about inflation's impact on your pension, NOW is the time to speak up!

Learn more, by clicking the tab below, about what is going on in our Legislature right now.