Regular Session News #1: 2020 Regular session starts Monday, several bills would affect TRSL

Mar 6, 2020

The 2020 Regular Legislative Session begins Monday, March 9, and TRSL is monitoring the following bills that would impact the retirement system and its members:
Senate bills affecting TRSL

• Senate Bill 2 (Sen. F. Mills) would waive mandatory TRSL membership for TRSL-eligible employees hired on or after July 1, 2020, who are 60 years old at the time of employment or 55 years old with at least 40 quarters of credit in Social Security. These employees would have a one-time irrevocable option of membership in TRSL.
• Senate Bill 17 (Sen. Peacock) would include employees of the Louisiana School Board Association (LSBA) in TRSL membership and would allow such employees hired before June 30, 2020, to actuarially transfer service credit from the Parochial Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) to TRSL.
• Senate Bill 18 (Sen. Peacock) would change retirement eligibility for new hires whose first employment makes them eligible for membership in a state retirement system on or after July 1, 2020. Members hired on/after this date could retire under the following eligibility criteria: (1) five years of service at the higher of age 67 or the age of retirement set by the Social Security Administration; (2) 40 years of service at age 62; or (3) 20 years of service at any age (actuarially reduced).

• Senate Bill 19 (Sen. Peacock)  would clarify that the member of the House retirement committee appointed to the TRSL Board of Trustees by the House Speaker can authorize legislative staff to attend board executive sessions.
• Senate Bill 21 (Sen. Peacock) would require actuarial valuations of state, statewide, and local retirement systems to be submitted to the chairs of the House and Senate retirement committees within 10 days of board approval.

House bills affecting TRSL

• House Bill 8 (Rep. Bourriaque) would waive the 25% cap on earnings (per fiscal year) and the 12-month waiting period for re-employed retirees hired as PreK-12 substitute classroom teachers in parishes with a population of 10,000 or less.
• House Bill 10 (Rep. Edmonds) would change the retirement benefit computation of average compensation when the computation is affected by a gap in service that spans more than 10 years.
• House Bill 20 (Rep. Schamerhorn), a proposed constitutional amendment, would prohibit the use of public funds of the state and/or political subdivisions to pay retirement contributions and life/health insurance premiums of public officials elected after January 1, 2021.
• House Bill 24 (Rep. Ivey) would exclude from the definition of teacher, for return-to-work purposes, any person employed by a private company to provide tutoring or standardized test preparation services, regardless of any contractual relationship between the company and the employer.

• House Bill 25 (Rep. Ivey) would require annual direct payments to TRSL for the Original Amortization Base (a debt schedule containing the Initial Unfunded Accrued Liability) to be made through the state’s general appropriations bill on behalf of all employers that receive minimum foundation program (MFP) funds; requires this appropriation to be considered in the development of the MFP formula.

• House Bill 26 (Rep. Ivey), a proposed constitutional amendment, would retain the existing constitutional guarantee of state retirement system benefits only if the benefits are annuitized by the system, and would retain the current prohibition on diminishment or impairment of state retirement benefits only if benefits are annuitized and calculated based on accrual rate and average compensation.

• House Bill 32 (Rep. Ivey) would establish an optional hybrid retirement benefit structure for certain members of TRSL first hired on or after July 1, 2021.
• House Bill 33 (Rep. Ivey) would establish an optional hybrid retirement benefit structure for individuals employed by public postsecondary education management boards first hired on or after July 1, 2021.
• House Bill 34 (Rep. Ivey) would establish an optional hybrid retirement benefit structure for individuals employed by charter schools first hired on or after July 1, 2021.

Retirement bills are typically heard first in either the House or Senate retirement committees. The chair of the Senate Retirement Committee is Sen. Edward J. “Ed” Price, and the chair of the House Retirement Committee is Rep. Lance Harris.
TRSL will keep you informed about the status of bills being monitored throughout the session.
 
Stay tuned for future updates.