Gov. Mark Dayton Friday said the widow of a transportation worker should get the same pension benefit as the family of a patrol officer killed in the line of duty.
"Mike Struck gave his life in service of the people of Minnesota. 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," Dayton said in a statement.
Struck, a Department of Transportation worker who was preparing for the coming floods, was killed two weeks ago while clearing debris out of a culvert and his backhoe plunged into the roiling Minnesota River between St. Peter and Mankato.
According to current law, the family of the 8-plus year veteran would get $191 per month in survivors' pension benefits. The governor's office proposed a bill to increase that to almost $2,000 a month, "similar to that of the family of a state patrol office killed in the line of duty."
The governor's office said the move has bipartisan support.
Struck was survived by his wife and a six-year-old and four-year-old child.
A video of the frantic search for Struck, whose body was later found:
