Minnesota Agencies

The commission shall make a continuing study and investigation of retirement benefit plans applicable to nonfederal government employees in this state. The commission makes recommendations to the legislature including financing of the various pension funds and financing of accrued liabilities. The Pension Commission is a joint agency of the Minnesota Legislature.

Until 1955, there was no special legislative body with specific jurisdiction over Minnesota public pension plans. In 1955 (Laws 1955, Ch. 829), the Legislature created a legislative commission to report on retirement benefit plans available to government employees.

The Public Retirement Interim Commission was reestablished four times over the next five bienniums, in 1957 (Ex. Sess. Laws 1957, Ch. 13), in 1959 (Ex. Sess. Laws 1959, Ch. 82), in 1963 (Laws 1963, Ch. 888, Sec. 9), and in 1965 (Laws 1965, Ch. 888, Sec. 5). The various public retirement interim commissions functioned during the interims between the biennial legislative sessions primarily to study pending pension problems, to formulate recommendations on those problems, and to produce a biennial report that contained the recommendations of the Commission as to future legislative enactments relating to the state's various public pension plans. No public retirement interim commission was established by the 1961 Legislature.

The 1965 Public Retirement Systems Interim Commission recommended to the Legislature the creation of a permanent Legislative Commission on Pensions, and the 1967 Legislature created the Legislative Retirement Study Commission as a permanent legislative commission. That Pension Commission was scheduled to terminate its duties on June 30, 1973, under terms of the 1967 legislation. In 1971 (Laws 1971, Ch. 818), the 1973 expiration date for the Pension Commission was eliminated.

In 1975, the name of the Pension Commission was changed from the Legislative Retirement Study Commission to the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement (Laws 1975, Ch. 271, Sec. 3).

For complete history, please see the Commission's web page "Background Information on the History of the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement".

As of 2013, the commission consists of seven members of the senate appointed by the Subcommittee on Committees of the Committee on Rules and Administration and seven members of the house of representatives appointed by the speaker. No more than five members from each chamber may be from the majority caucus in that chamber. 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