Regular Session News #12: House advances benefit increase and RTW bills
May 6, 2022
Yesterday, the House Retirement Committee met to consider three bills that would affect TRSL.
The committee passed Senate Bill 6 (Sen. Price), which would authorize a 2% PBI for eligible TRSL retirees, beneficiaries, and survivors calculated on the first $68,396 of their annual retirement benefit. The PBI would be payable on July 1, 2022.
If this legislation is enacted, individuals who meet the following criteria on July 1, 2022, would be granted a 2% monthly benefit increase:
- Regular retiree: Must have received a benefit for at least one year and be 60 years of age
- Disability retiree: Must have been retired at least one year regardless of age
- Beneficiary of retired member: Retiree or beneficiary (or both combined) must have received a benefit for at least one year, and the deceased retiree would have been 60 years of age at the time the PBI is payable
- Survivor of non-retired member: Must have received a benefit for at least one year and the benefits must have originated from the service of a deceased member who would have been 60 years of age at the time the PBI is payable
The committee amended and passed House Bill 30 (Rep. Frieman). Originally, House Bill 30 would have repealed the 2010 RTW law and enacted a new RTW law, which would authorize K-12 retirees to return to work under the following conditions:
- the retirement benefit of the RTW retiree would not be suspended or reduced;
- neither the retiree nor the employer would make contributions to TRSL for the duration of the re-employment; and
- the retiree would not earn service credit during re-employment.
The increased earnings limit would be in effect from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2025, after which it would revert to the current 25% of FAC. The amended House Bill 30 will now go to the full House for consideration.
The committee passed a substitute bill for House Bill 25 (Rep. McCormick). House Bill 25 would have prohibited a retirement system from investing in companies having policies that prohibit: (1) investing in energy companies; (2) doing business with energy companies; and (3) entering into contracts with energy companies or with any class or group of companies within the energy sector.
The substitute bill would require each state and statewide system to annually submit a report on investments to the House and Senate Retirement Committees, the Cash Management Review Board, and to each other containing a breakdown of each system’s investments (1) inside the State of Louisiana; (2) inside the United States; and (3) outside the United States.
The substitute bill was deferred and may be reconsidered by the committee at a later date.
Other news:
On Wednesday, the full House made several substantive amendments and passed House Bill 1021 (Rep. McFarland, DeVillier, Edmonds, Frieman, Harris, and Romero). As amended, this bill would change the 2010 RTW Law to relax the advertising requirements to allow an employer to hire a RTW retiree certified in any area to fill critical shortage vacancies before July 1, 2025, under the following conditions:
- at the beginning of each semester, the employer must post a general statement that the employer is soliciting applications for future employment of certified teachers at the designated career development entities of postsecondary institutions within 120 miles of the employer’s governing authority;
- the employer must advertise at least once per month in the official journal of the employer's governing authority that the employer is soliciting applications for future employment of certified teachers; and
- the employer must prominently display a listing of positions that are unfilled or that are filled by re-employed retirees on the website of the employer's governing authority and of the employer, if the employer maintains a separate website.
- has been retired for at least 12 months;
- did not retire based on disability;
- has at least 30 years of service credit;
- is at least age 62;
- is not re-employed under contract or corporate contract; and
- is employed to fill a position as an adjunct professor instructing students in a nursing program.
Additionally, the bill stipulates that:
- both the re-employed RTW retiree and employer would make contributions to TRSL for the duration of the re-employment;
- no additional service credit would be earned during re-employment;
- employee contributions would be refundable upon request at termination of re-employment;
- the employer must follow reporting requirements when hiring RTW retirees; and
Other amendments were technical in nature. House Bill 1021 now awaits a Senate referral.
On Monday, the full House also amended and passed House Bill 22 (Rep. Edmonds). This bill would increase the earnings limit per fiscal year to 50% of the retiree’s final average compensation (FAC) under Option 1 of the 2020 RTW law for retirees who retired before December 31, 2021. The earnings limit would be in effect from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2025, after which it would revert to the current 25% of FAC.
One set of amendments narrowed the increased earnings limit to retirees certified to teach mathematics, science, English language arts, or special education, and for any teacher's aide, instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, or professor, who is assigned the professional activity of instructing students or who is conducting research at a public postsecondary education institution. The other set of amendments were technical in nature.
House Bill 22 now awaits consideration by the Senate Retirement Committee.
Next week:
The Senate Retirement Committee is scheduled to meet at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, May 9 (agenda). The committee will consider House Concurrent Resolution 11 (Rep. M. Johnson), which urges and requests state legislatures to ask Congress to review and eliminate or reduce the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) Social Security benefit reductions. The resolution also requests that the Louisiana Attorney General explore legal action to restore benefits lost to the GPO and WEP.
The House Civil Law and Procedure is scheduled to meet at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 9 (agenda) to consider two proposed constitutional amendments that would affect TRSL:
- House Bill 31 (Rep. Tarver) would allow the legislature to appropriate monies from the balance of nonrecurring state revenue (after certain allocations) to fund a one-time supplemental benefit to retirees, beneficiaries, and survivors of the four state retirement systems: TRSL, Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS), Louisiana School Employees’ Retirement System (LSERS), and Louisiana State Police Retirement System (LSPRS).
- House Bill 29 (Rep. Nelson) would require a minimum of 50% of nonrecurring state revenue to be appropriated to the UAL of the four state retirement systems (TRSL, LASERS, LSERS, and LSPRS) beginning FY 2023-24.