Dayton wants pension bump for dead MnDOT worker's family

St. Paul, Minn.

April 1, 2011 10:14 AM

Searching for backhoe operator — Rescue workers in an inflatable raft probe around the MnDOT backhoe that fell into swollen Seven Mile Creek along Highway 169 between Mankato and St. Peter, Minn. on Tuesday, March 22, 2011. Mike Struck, who was operating the backhoe, was found dead the next day.
AP Photo/The Mankato Free Press, John Cross

Gov. Mark Dayton is proposing legislation to increase the pension available to the family of a Minnesota Department of Transportation employee who was killed last week while working on flood response.

Mike Struck is survived by his wife and two young children. Current law provides a survivor's pension of $191 a month. Dayton is proposing $2,000 a month, which is similar to the survivor's pension for a state patrol officer killed in the line of duty.

"Mike Struck gave his life in service of the people of Minnesota," Dayton said in a news release. "It would be shameful to leave his widow and her two young children with a pension of less than $2300 a year. My proposed legislation shows them the compassion that their terrible loss deserves. The people of Minnesota will know in their hearts that this is the right thing to do."

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