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3.85 Legislative commission on pensions and retirement.

Subdivision 1. Creation. The legislative commission on pensions and retirement is created to study and investigate public retirement systems.

Subd. 2. Powers. The commission shall make a continuing study and investigation of retirement benefit plans applicable to nonfederal government employees in this state. The powers and duties of the commission include, but are not limited to the following:

(a) studying retirement benefit plans applicable to nonfederal government employees in Minnesota, including federal plans available to the employees;

(b) making recommendations within the scope of its study, including attention to financing of the various pension funds and financing of accrued liabilities;

(c) considering all aspects of pension planning and operation and making recommendations designed to establish and maintain sound pension policy for all funds;

(d) filing a report at least biennially to each session of the legislature;

(e) analyzing each item of proposed pension and retirement legislation, including amendments to each, with particular reference to analysis of their cost, actuarial soundness, and adherence to sound pension policy, and reporting its findings to the legislature;

(f) creating and maintaining a library for reference concerning pension and retirement matters, including information about laws and systems in other states; and

(g) studying, analyzing, and preparing reports in regard to subjects certified to the commission for study.

Subd. 3. Membership. The commission consists of five members of the senate appointed by the subcommittee on committees of the committee on rules and administration and five members of the house of representatives appointed by the speaker. Members shall be appointed at the commencement of each regular session of the legislature for a two-year term beginning January 16 of the first year of the regular session. Members continue to serve until their successors are appointed. Vacancies that occur while the legislature is in session shall be filled like regular appointments. If the legislature is not in session, senate vacancies shall be filled by the last subcommittee on committees of the senate committee on rules and administration or other appointing authority designated by the senate rules, and house vacancies shall be filled by the last speaker of the house, or if the speaker is not available, by the last chair of the house rules committee.

Subd. 4. Office, meetings, officers. The commission shall maintain an office in the capitol group of buildings in space which the commissioner of administration shall provide. The commission shall hold meetings at the times and places it may designate. It shall select a chair, a vice-chair, and other officers from its membership as it deems necessary.

Subd. 5. Staff. The commission may employ professional and technical assistants as it deems necessary to perform the duties prescribed in this section.

Subd. 6. Assistance of other agencies. The commission may request information from any state officer or agency or public pension fund or plan as defined in section 356.615, paragraph (b), including a volunteer firefighters' relief association to which sections 69.771 to 69.776 apply, to assist it to carry out the terms of this section. The officer, agency, or public pension fund or plan shall promptly furnish any data requested.

Subd. 7. Repealed, 1996 c 310 s 1

Subd. 8. Expenses, reimbursement. The members of the commission and its assistants shall be reimbursed for all expenses actually and necessarily incurred in the performance of their duties. Reimbursement for expenses incurred shall be made under the rules governing state employees.

Subd. 9. Expenses and reports. Expenses of the commission shall be approved by the chair or another member as the rules of the commission provide. The expenses shall then be paid like other state expenses. A general summary or statement of expenses incurred by the commission and paid shall be made to the legislature by November 15 of each even-numbered year.

Subd. 10. Standards for pension valuations and cost estimates. The commission shall adopt standards prescribing specific detailed methods to calculate, evaluate, and display current and proposed law liabilities, costs, and actuarial equivalents of all public employee pension plans in Minnesota. These standards shall be consistent with chapter 356 and be updated annually.

Subd. 11. Valuations and reports to legislature. (a) The commission shall contract with an established actuarial consulting firm to conduct annual actuarial valuations for the retirement plans named in paragraph (b). The contract must include provisions for performing cost analyses of proposals for changes in benefit and funding policies.

(b) The contract for actuarial valuation must include the following retirement plans:

(1) the teachers retirement plan, teachers retirement association;

(2) the general state employees retirement plan, Minnesota state retirement system;

(3) the correctional employees retirement plan, Minnesota state retirement system;

(4) the state patrol retirement plan, Minnesota state retirement system;

(5) the judges retirement plan, Minnesota state retirement system;

(6) the Minneapolis employees retirement plan, Minneapolis employees retirement fund;

(7) the public employees retirement plan, public employees retirement association;

(8) the public employees police and fire plan, public employees retirement association;

(9) the Duluth teachers retirement plan, Duluth teachers retirement fund association;

(10) the Minneapolis teachers retirement plan, Minneapolis teachers retirement fund association;

(11) the St. Paul teachers retirement plan, St. Paul teachers retirement fund association;

(12) the legislators retirement plan, Minnesota state retirement system;

(13) the elective state officers retirement plan, Minnesota state retirement system; and

(14) local government correctional service retirement plan, public employees retirement association.

(c) The contract must specify completion of annual actuarial valuation calculations on a fiscal year basis with their contents as specified in section 356.215, and the standards for actuarial work adopted by the commission.

The contract must specify completion of annual experience data collection and processing and a quadrennial published experience study for the plans listed in paragraph (b), clauses (1), (2), and (7), as provided for in the standards for actuarial work adopted by the commission. The experience data collection, processing, and analysis must evaluate the following:

(1) individual salary progression;

(2) rate of return on investments based on current asset value;

(3) payroll growth;

(4) mortality;

(5) retirement age;

(6) withdrawal; and

(7) disablement.

(d) The actuary retained by the commission shall annually prepare a report to the legislature, including the commentary on the actuarial valuation calculations for the plans named in paragraph (b) and summarizing the results of the actuarial valuation calculations. The commission-retained actuary shall include with the report the actuary's recommendations concerning the appropriateness of the support rates to achieve proper funding of the retirement funds by the required funding dates. The commission-retained actuary shall, as part of the quadrennial published experience study, include recommendations to the legislature on the appropriateness of the actuarial valuation assumptions required for evaluation in the study.

(e) If the actuarial gain and loss analysis in the actuarial valuation calculations indicates a persistent pattern of sizable gains or losses, as directed by the commission, the actuary retained by the commission shall prepare a special experience study for a plan listed in paragraph (b), clause (3), (4), (5), (6), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13), or (14), in the manner provided for in the standards for actuarial work adopted by the commission.

(f) The term of the contract between the commission and the actuary retained by the commission is four years. The contract is subject to competitive bidding procedures as specified by the commission.

Subd. 12. Allocation of actuarial cost. (a) The commission shall assess each retirement plan specified in subdivision 11, paragraph (b), its appropriate portion of the compensation paid to the actuary retained by the commission for the actuarial valuation calculations, quadrennial projection valuations, and quadrennial experience studies. The total assessment is 100 percent of the amount of contract compensation for the actuarial consulting firm retained by the commission for actuarial valuation calculations, including any public employees police and fire plan consolidation accounts of the public employees retirement association established before March 2, 1999, for which the municipality declined merger under section 353.665, subdivision 1, or established after March 1, 1999, annual experience data collection and processing, and quadrennial experience studies and quadrennial projection valuations.

The portion of the total assessment payable by each retirement system or pension plan must be determined based on each plan's proportion of the actuarial services required, as determined by the commission's retained actuary, to complete the actuarial valuation calculations, annual experience data collection and processing, and quadrennial experience studies for all plans.

(b) The assessment must be made within 30 days following the end of the fiscal year and must be reported to the executive director of the legislative commission on pensions and retirement and to the chief administrative officers of the applicable retirement plans. The amount of the assessment is appropriated from the retirement fund applicable to the retirement plan. Receipts from assessments must be transmitted to the executive director of the legislative commission on pensions and retirement and must be deposited in the state treasury and credited to the general fund.

HIST: 1967 c 549 s 1-6; 1969 c 399 s 1; 1971 c 818 s 1,2; 1974 c 406 s 53; 1975 c 271 s 6; 1981 c 224 s 1; 1984 c 564 s 1,2; 1Sp1985 c 7 s 1,2,35; 1Sp1985 c 13 s 65; 1986 c 359 s 1; 1986 c 444; 1987 c 259 s 1; 1987 c 404 s 62; 1988 c 469 art 1 s 1; 1991 c 269 art 3 s 1; 1995 c 248 art 2 s 3; 1995 c 254 art 1 s 36; 1997 c 202 art 2 s 5; 1997 c 233 art 1 s 1,2; 1998 c 390 art 8 s 1; 1999 c 222 art 2 s 1,2; art 4 s 1; art 20 s 1; 2000 c 461 art 1 s 1; 2001 c 7 s 1; 1Sp2001 c 10 art 2 s 8

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes