Session News #12: Substitute bill regarding UAL payments for higher ed moves forward

May 19, 2015

The Senate Retirement Committee met yesterday and took action on the following bills affecting TRSL:

• The committee accepted and favorably passed a substitute bill for Senate Bill 18 (Sen. Adley), which proposes to change the method for determining the UAL portion of the employer contribution rate by calculating a particularized unfunded accrued liability for higher education employers and K-12 employers. (Under current law, the UAL is shared among all employers.) During discussion of the substitute bill, the committee approved an amendment which attempts to address the bill’s cost shift to K-12 employers. (At the time of this update, the substitute bill with the changes made during the committee meeting was not available on the Legislature’s website.)
• The committee also voted to favorably advance House Bill 10 (Rep. Pearson), which would allow TRSL members to purchase service credit for out-of-state private teaching service. It now moves to the full Senate for consideration.
• The committee voted to defer House Bill 43 (Rep. LeBas), which would gradually raise the earnings limit to 50% of the retirement benefit for TRSL retirees re-employed as substitute classroom teachers.

Other News: 

House Bill 42 (Rep. Jones) was reported from the House Retirement Committee to the full House today. HB 42 would provide a 1.5% permanent benefit increase (also known as a COLA) to eligible retirees of the four state retirement systems. The bill was ordered to be engrossed and passed to the third reading for final consideration by the full chamber.

The House Appropriations Committee reported House Bill 800 (Rep. Fannin) favorably this morning. This bill would appropriate approximately $6.2 Million in FY 2013-14 surplus or nonrecurring funds to TRSL’s initial unfunded accrued liability. It now moves to the full House for consideration.

The House Retirement Committee is not scheduled to meet this week.

To view a comprehensive list of all legislation affecting TRSL this session, visit the Legislation page of TRSL’s website.