Agenda for House Retirement Committee Meeting on Wednesday, May 15

The House Retirement Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday, May 15, at 9:00 a.m. Five bills which would impact LASERS are on the agenda.

HB 61 (Badon) provides for a "divided benefit" for members whose actual earnings in a calendar month are 30 percent or more above his average monthly earnings for the immediately preceding 12 months. The LASERS Board opposes this bill.

HB 68 (Pearson) re-enacts the Cash Balance Plan and makes changes regarding membership, withdrawals, interest, transfers, reciprocals, disability and survivor benefits, reemployment, purchases and dual plan membership. The LASERS Board opposes this legislation because of the lack of retirement security offered to members who have no Social Security safety net. The bill also fails to address many of LASERS administrative concerns.

HCR 108 (Stokes) requests the state and statewide public retirement systems to appear before the House and Senate committees on retirement and report relative to the promulgation and distribution of forms regarding pension forfeiture.

SB 14 (Martiny) allows a member to upgrade their accrual rate on transferred service to the accrual rate of the receiving system by paying the actuarial cost of the upgrade.  The bill allows for reverse transfers in certain instances.  (This measure has been amended, and the new reverse transfer provisions do not apply to state employees.) The LASERS Board was neutral on the original bill.

SCR 1 (Cortez) suspends the provisions of the Cash Balance Plan until July 1, 2014. This bill has already passed in the Senate Chamber. The LASERS Board supports this measure.

Please note that meeting schedules and agendas are subject to change. Check the LASERS website daily for updates and for detailed information about the proposed legislation which would impact LASERS.