The Minnesota Senate Committee on Rules Administration on May 16 voted to suspend Senate Concurrent Resolution 4 to allow Senate File 2884, the omnibus pension bill, to proceed to the Finance Committee.

Senator Frentz asked the committee to “suspend concurrent resolution number 4 enough to let senate file 28 84, the omnibus pension bill proceed,” saying the bill was late because joint pension targets were not known until the morning before. Senator Pappas made the motion to suspend the resolution and the committee adopted it by voice vote.

The bill contains pension benefit changes that senators said largely depend on agreed joint pension targets. “The bulk of the pension work relates to any pension benefit improvements that really can't take place until we have the joint pension targets,” Senator Frentz told the committee. He said that those targets became known only recently and that committee staff and nonpartisan LCPR staff requested handling the bill now to save time.

Senator Pappas said she was concerned about the process, noting the typical sequence — pension commission approval, then State and Local Government Committee, then Finance — had been reversed in this instance. “Typically, the pension commission would approve the bill, then it would go to state and local, then it would go to finance,” she said, calling the sequence “a little backwards.”

Committee members discussed a tentative funding framework the bill would use: about $20 million per year for the educator component (about $40 million over two years) and potential use of Teachers Retirement Association (TRA) resources. Senator Pappas urged that Saint Paul teachers be included if the state covers part of a career-rule cost; Senator Frentz said including Saint Paul would represent about $1,000,000 of the $20,000,000 per year being discussed and that Education Minnesota’s views were still being heard.

Frentz said progress toward agreements might be complete within about 24 hours: “Probably, optimistically, grama could be reached in the next 24 hours,” he said, adding that public safety and educator improvements could follow once targets are finalized. He also noted TRA had a board meeting the same day that might influence educator-related items.

By adopting Senator Pappas’s motion the committee directed that the previous committee report be adopted and sent with the bill to Finance. The committee did not record a roll-call vote in the transcript; the motion passed by voice vote.

Senate File 2884 now goes to the Finance Committee for further consideration as senators continue negotiations on specific benefit and funding details.