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Blue Earth ups payment to firefighters

BLUE EARTH — The Blue Earth City Council has approved a 20 percent increase to the Blue Earth Fire Relief pension, despite current efforts to cut the 2018 city budget.

Steve Brown, Jeff Eckles, Chris Mathews and Dan Ristau, members of the Blue Earth Fire Relief Association, spoke to the council, requesting a 20 percent increase to the Fire Relief pension to $2,300 per service year.

In Minnesota, volunteer firefighters receive pension coverage as part of their compensation package. According to the documents provided by the Blue Earth Fire Relief Association, the pension plan is primarily funded through the city, fire aid received from the state and investment earnings. The state aid comes from a 2 percent state tax on insurance premiums and is distributed to fire departments based on the population and market value of property in the fire district.

Mathews said the Fire Relief Association believes the increase would be consistent with other cities similar to the size of Blue Earth.

Mayor Rick Scholtes said that because of the budgetary cuts the city is trying to make, he believed the council should take away funding to the Fire Relief Association for 2018.

“Being fair to our taxpayers in a tight budget year, we need to watch where we’re spending our money and where it’s needed,” he said.

Scholtes said the goal for 2018 is to bring down the property tax increase to 3.5 percent. To do this, he said, cuts to departments will have to be made. While other departments have been looked at for further cuts, Scholtes said a cut would impact the fire department the least.

“All the departments get hit, to me this is the least impact to you guys,” he said.

Scholtes said that because the city would be required to contribute to the pension if funds ran low, he didn’t believe that missing a year would have a large impact overall.

“It’s not that I’m saying it’s not good to invest,” he said. “Your money is still there and it’s still going to increase in value, and we can get you there.”

Council member John Huisman voiced his concerns about taking the pension out of the budget.

“Public pensions are under attack nationally,” he said. “Part of the reason some are doing better than others is that this attack has to do with the fact that they didn’t keep up putting dollars in on a regular basis. And I’m afraid that’s what we would face here if we don’t keep it up.”

Because of this, Huisman said he would like to see the city consistently contribute to the pension fund.

“This is a group of volunteers who are contributing greatly to this community,” he said. “I just don’t want to see us shortchange them.”

Mathews said the retirement pension is effective when recruiting new firefighters, as it gives them something to rely on. The Blue Earth Fire Department currently has 30 volunteer firefighters.

“I know you’re viewing it as a budgetary item, but the guys in the department won’t view it that way,” Mathews said.

During its regular meeting Monday, the council approved the requested increase to the pension at $2,300 per service year.

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