Something isn't adding up for the Republican majority in the Minnesota Senate. The latest wrong answer: a bill that will threaten the stability of Minnesota's pension funds.
I'm hard pressed to tell whether the error in the proofs is located in the calculation that Senator Mike Parry is prime leadership material, or that the STEM initiative needs to be applied retroactively to freshman legislators like Gretchen Hoffman. It's a false choice; both are likely true.
Last week, the Minnesota Senate Majority comm shop--leader by MNGOP deputy chair Michael Brodkorb chivalrously trotted out Sen. Mike Parry to assist Senator Hoffman in the press conference promoting a bill to cut the state contribution to the public employees' pension, while raising their contribution.(Parry isn't exactly carrying any important bills on his ownsome).
Later in a town hall, Parry defended the bill to constitutents who work for the state, as Bluestem noted in Mike Parry tells public employees they'll get bigger pensions, suggests new tax on services:
At one point, Parry characterized the pension bill as an increase.
“Why wouldn’t you want an extra 3 percent in your pension for when you retire?” Parry said.
“I’m not getting an extra 3 percent. I’m getting to pay an extra 3 percent because you’re reducing my employer’s contribution to it,” Driskell said. “And you are cutting me, sir. You’re cutting 15 percent of my co-workers, which may well be me, and you’re cutting 6 percent of my salary. You are cutting me. Don’t tell me you’re not. I have a brain.”
In their rush to demonize (and cut take-home pay for state employees), Hoffman and Parry forgot to check their math on the pension fund itself. A press release from Senator Dick Cohen's office lays out of the case:
“Republicans have pushed their plan to cut public employee pensions under the veil of fiscal responsibility, but now it’s clear this is simply an attack on hard-working public employees,” said Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul. “This bill will add costs to state and lower governments, lower tax revenues for our state, and increase the unfunded liabilities in our retirement system. Worse, it will take money out of the pockets of working families during these difficult economic times.” . . .
. . .Experts at the Minnesota’s three major pension plans – the Minnesota State Retirement System, the Public Employees Retirement Association and the Teachers Retirement Association – testified that while Minnesota’s pension system is currently well-managed, the GOP proposal would add significant costs to the system, and expand the deficits in Minnesota’s retirement funds.
As introduced, the bill would have expanded the unfunded liabilities in the state’s retirement funds by $64 million. An amendment adopted to the proposal last night would reduce that figure to roughly $40 million.
“This so-called pension reform bill threatens the very stability of our state’s retirement system,” said Sen. Cohen. “At the end of the day, this bill is simply a cost increase on thousands of middle-class Minnesotans. It will bring in $30 or $40 million for our state’s General Fund, directly out of the paychecks of public workers. It is simply a pay cut disguised as reform.”
The measure was also opposed by city and county officials, nurses, firefighters, school districts, teachers, and state employee unions. Rep. Steve Smith, R-Mound, a House Republican lead on pension issues, has also questioned the merits of the proposal.
The State Government Innovation and Veterans Committee will consider whether to include the measure in a broader budget bill late Tuesday evening.
And the genius heading that committee? Mr. Personality himself, Senator Mike Parry.
Photo: Senator Mike Parry, real man of Republican genius.
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