Minnesota Highways, May 1954

              mm
mmwm
VOL.  3,  NO.  7
1246 University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
MAY,  1954
Check Your Retirement
Rights, Association Advises
State employees would be wise in checking up on their
retirement rights well in advance of that glorious day when
they check out for those long-awaited years of fishing, the
State Employees Retirement association advises.
^Experience has shown us that
employees wait until retire-
ineTT't age before giving any thought
to the opportunity of obtaining
additional service credit," the association reports. "Then they find
out that they have no means of
availing themselves of this credit.
"Employees therefore should
make their requests for information
as to cost, etc., long before retirement age, thus allowing themselves
more time in which to make payments if they so desire."
The association points out that,
even though the cost may seem
prohibitive, prior service can be
bought   hack   in   most   eases   more
reasonable than the cost of present
monthly deductions. For example,
if the average employee's monthly
income on which he pays 6% is
compared against what it was in
1929 and in the 1930's, credit for
which can be bought back for 5%
plus interest, most employees are
bound  to gain.
These are several sources for obtaining additional service credit,
one or more of which may be to
the employee's advantage:
1, Periods of temporary employment when no deductions were
made.
2. Repayment    of   refundments
(Continued  on   page  4)
Governor Visits Central Office
Governor C. Elmer Anderson visited the Department's Central
Office on Monday, May 10, discussing several matters with Commissioner Hoffmann and then taking time to enjoy lunch at the Brown
& Bigelow cafeteria with the Commissioner and his staff. Shown in
the picture above are the Governor, flanked by Commissioner Hoffmann
and Assistant Commissioner O. L. Kipp, while seated across the table
from them are Milton Anderson, liaison officer; R. C. Ferderer, director
of personnel, and M. O. Giertsen. bridge engineer, with other staff
jIhts shown in the background.
Safety Experts Probe
Causes of Traffic Toll
Minnesota faces a rising highway traffic toll unless rapid
action is taken to strengthen the state's traffic laws and their
enforcement, three out-of-state experts agreed at the Governor's Annual Traffic Safety Conference this month.
The conference, held at the Nicollet hotel May 12, for
the first time brought outside authorities into the state to
discuss particular phases of Minnesota's traffic safety problem. And the three experts pulled no punches. They placed
the blame for Minnesota's poor traffic safety record on weak
laws, poor enforcement, and inadequate funds to operate an
efficient highway patrol.
Lew E. Wallace of Chicago, assistant to the president of the
National Safety council, in one of
the outstanding talks of the conference, said the legislature and
the public are to blame for the
"bad situation" which finds Minnesota trailing other states in accident
prevention.
He outspokenly declared that
Minnesota "coddles" drunken drivers with an "unreasonably low"
misdemeanor penalty; that the
highway patrol needs 125 more
men for enforcement work; and
that the traffic engineering section
of the highway department has
75% of the minimum needed budget and 50 % of the minimum staff.
He also pointed out that: (1)
there are too few "no passing"
signs; (2) too few "safe speed"
signs at curves; (3) traffic law enforcement is poor because patrolmen cannot arrest unless they see
the offense; (4) the patrol lacks
authority on secondary roads; (5)
the county attorney can negate a
patrolman's arrest by refusing to
prosecute; (6) the driver's license
fee should be doubled; (7) responsibility for chauffeur and driver
licenses should be centralized and
improved (at present, if an individual does not drive a passenger car,
he does not need a driver's license
to drive a truck); (8) the state's
courts that handle traffic cases
should be studied; (9) a better system of reporting accidents and in-
(Continued   on   page  6)
Hiwayans to Share in
Cost-of-living Raise
State Highway department employees, like others under the state
civil service system, will take home
more money in their paychecks beginning July 1.
That is the date when a one-
step cost-of-living increase becomes effective as a result of higher
costs in the Twin City area last
winter. The January 15 reading
of the consumers' price index for
the Minneapolis area continued to
stand at its October, 1953, level of
116.6, five-tenths of a point above
the 116.1 mark needed to insure
the adjustment.
Employees ivill receive increases
ranging from $5 to $16 a month
depending on their salary range
assignment. Sixty-three state department heads will also get cost-
of-living increases, ranging from
$10 to $25 per month.
The cost-of-living pay plan was
established in 1945, and since then
several adjustments have been
made. At present, the state law
provides that employee salaries be
raised or lowered one step for each
four-point change in the cost-of-
living index as issued by the U. S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
January 15 reading for the Minneapolis area is used to determine
whether an adjustment should be
made effective the following July
1.