Regular Session News #10: End of session delivers return-to-work and appropriation bills, Social Security resolutions, and PBI study
Jun 2, 2020
The 2020 Regular Session, which began March 9, ended yesterday. Two bills and four resolutions impacting TRSL passed. Here’s a look at them.
Returning to work after retirement
House Bill 8 (Rep. Bourriaque) makes significant changes to the return-to-work law.
- Establishes that the current return-to-work law only applies to retirees who have returned to work with an employer covered by TRSL on or before June 30, 2020, and to retirees who retired on or before June 30, 2010 (the original grandfathered group).
- Requires a retiree who returns to work with an employer covered by TRSL on or after July 1, 2020, to choose one of the following two options, depending on whether the retiree is re-employed in a full-time position:
- Option 1: Have earnings limited to 25% (per fiscal year) of the retiree’s final average compensation (FAC) with a reduction in the benefit if the cap is exceeded, or
- Option 2: (Only available to retirees re-employed in full-time positions):
- Have benefits suspended for the duration of re-employment.
- Return to active member status in TRSL and accrue a supplemental benefit, which will be calculated with the same formula used to determine the original benefit. If re-employed for at least 36 months, the supplemental benefit will be calculated based on the higher of the retiree’s original FAC or the FAC since re-employment. If re-employed less than 36 months, the supplemental benefit will be calculated based on the retiree’s original FAC.
- Allows a retiree returning to work under Option 1 to convert to Option 2 any time prior to or after reaching the allowable 25% earnings limitation (per fiscal year) of the retiree’s FAC.
- Establishes that any retiree, who returns to active service after July 1, 2020, and within 12 months after retirement, shall have his retirement benefits suspended for the duration of such active service or the lapse of 12 months from the effective date of his retirement, whichever occurs first.
- Allows a retiree covered by the current return-to-work law to elect to be covered by the new provisions in House Bill 8.
- Requires that any retiree who returns to active service shall have his benefit suspended if such re-employment is based on a contract or corporate contract.
- Establishes that retirees receiving a TRSL disability retirement cannot return to work under any of the proposed provisions.
- Establishes that employer return-to-work reporting requirements, including penalties for failure to report, will be the same as under current law.
Payments toward the UAL
House Bill 307 (Rep. Zeringue) makes a $36.7 million supplemental appropriation to the TRSL initial unfunded accrued liability (IUAL) from a portion of the FY 2018-19 surplus funds in the state treasury.
Social Security offsets
Two concurrent resolutions, House Concurrent Resolution 9 (Rep. M. Johnson) and Senate Concurrent Resolution 34 (Sen. Mizell) ask Congress to consider eliminating or reducing the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) Social Security benefit reductions.
Permanent benefit increases
House Resolution 21 (Rep. Harris) and Senate Resolution 15 (Sen. Price) request that the state retirement systems report to the legislature on alternative methods for providing permanent benefit increases (formerly called COLAs) to retirees in future years.
First Extraordinary Session of 2020
The legislature immediately convened into a special session after the regular session ended on June 1, 2020. Currently, no legislation has been filed that would impact TRSL. The special session will end at 6 p.m., June 30, 2020.
Visit the “Legislation” page of this website, to see an overview of all legislation monitored during the Regular Session.