The benefit increase was rolled into an omnibus pension bill and passed as Laws 1999, Chapter 222, Article 3, Sections 1 and 2. That 1999 legislation also removed the requirement that recent ad hoc benefit increases be rescinded if the city fails to contribute sufficient amounts to cover benefit payments to be made in the succeeding year. The Eveleth trust fund does not has any mechanism to automatically provide annual benefit increases to retired members and survivors. This would cause the value of any given benefit to erode over time due to the effect of inflation if ad hoc increases were not granted. In response, the Legislature has granted numerous ad hoc benefit increases to the benefit recipients of this trust fund over the years, as follows.
Local approval is required.
The proposed legislation raises the following issues. The issue is whether there is a sufficient need to consider the bill and provide a benefit increase. The Commission may wish to consider that the benefits provided by the trust fund are modest. The trust fund does not have any mechanism to automatically provide increases. In recent years, ad hoc benefit requests have occurred and been granted by the Legislature every other year.