The Honorable
Governor-Elect Mike Kehoe
Missouri State Capitol
Room 218
Jefferson City, Missouri 65101
Dear Governor-Elect Kehoe:
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for your leadership in serving Missouri state employees and Missouri state retirees!
You’re work as Lieutenant Governor is extremely admirable, and we are most appreciative of
the efforts you and your team are making to do right by the Missouri state workforce. To that
end – please consider continuing this direction, so we might have the state workforce Missouri
taxpayers deserve.
We are contacting you again this year, as well as, the new Lt. Governor, the OA budget director
and a variety of legislative leaders on issues important to the FY 2025 budget and the upcoming
legislative session.
The Association of Active and Retired Missouri State Employees (ARMSE) is a non-partisan
association working to keep active and retired state employees informed about the state’s
administration of health care and retirement programs.
This letter highlights our association’s requests for state employees’ salary issues, benefits and
state taxation, specific to the FY 2026 budget and 2025 legislative session.
#1 STATE PAY PLAN
Please consider a continuation of your efforts to reward state employees. It’s important to
provide a pay plan that keeps pace with the inflation we are all experiencing. To that we end,
we ask you to consider a state pay raise of at least 4 percent. This is critical due to the passage
of the minimum wage law in terms of entry-level hiring and thus the retaining of state
employees.
#2 MOSERS and MPERS – We ask that the state fully fund the certified contribution rate
submitted by the Missouri State Employees’ Retirement System (MOSERS) Board of Trustees.
MOSERS has always received the certified rate. Continuation of that practice is critical to
maintenance of the state’s Triple-A bond rating and an essential demonstration of the state’s
solvency and commitment to excellence in financial management. Similarly, we ask that the
state fully fund the certified contribution rate for the Missouri Department of Transportation and
Missouri State Highway Patrol Employees’ Retirement System (MPERS).
#3 MCHCP FY 2026 Budget – ARMSE supports full funding of the MCHCP budget request. In
addition, we ask that the state ensure sufficient FY 2026 funding to cover health care cost
increases. Any increase in the cost of health care should not consume the entire pay plan for
active employees or the entire cost-of-living adjustment for retirees.
MCHCP Medicare retirees in 2019 were forced into a Medicare Advantage Plan, and the state
should continually review the number and percentage of former state employees in the plan.
The state and the MCHCP board should not operate the plan in a manner that drives former
employees out of the plan due to cost or benefit increases in attempts to reduce MCHCP’s
budget.
#4 TAXATION OF PENSION BENEFITS
ARMSE is requesting further guidance regarding the legislation that reduced the amount of
public retirement benefits subject to state income tax. Guidance is needed from the Department
of Revenue as soon as possible, so state retirees can determine what they want to do regarding
state income tax withholding from their retirement benefits. MOSERS and MPERS have been
asking DOR about this issue; however, an answer has not been provided. It is important for
state retirees to make their withholding decisions as early as possible in the new year.
If ARMSE can be of any service to accomplishing these goals, please call on us. Thank
you again for your continued support of both active and retired state employees! We
also wish you the best as you begin your journey as Missouri’s governor!
Sincerely,
Roger Schwartze, ARMSE President
Jefferson City
573-690-4496
Cc: Lt. Governor-Elect
Ken Zellers, Office of Administration
Dan Haug, OA Budget and Planning
Sen. Caleb Rowden
Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin
Sen. Mike Bernskoetter
Sen. John Rizzo
Sen. Rusty Black
Sen. Lincoln Hough
Rep. Dean Plocher
Rep. Mike Henderson
Rep. Dave Griffith
Rep. Rudy Veit
Rep. Barry Hovis
Rep. Dirk Deaton
Rep. Don Mayhew
Rep. Cody Smith
