TRSL will be closed Friday, March 28, for Good Friday. Normal business hours will resume Monday, April 1. 

Regular Session News #26: 2016 session wrap-up

Jun 7, 2016

The 2016 regular legislative session ended at 6 p.m. yesterday. Here’s what happened in the final hours to a number of bills awaiting legislative action.

Return-to-work bills fail to pass

Three return-to-work bills failed final passage. Last week, the bills were sent to separate conference committees after the House rejected the Senate’s amendments to the bills. In order to gain final passage, recommendations of the conference committees had to be passed by the House and Senate; that did not occur. The bills are listed below:
  • House Bill 60 (Miguez) adds “school nurse” to the list of retirees who can return to work and continue to receive a benefit check, subject to a 25% of benefit earnings limitation.
  • House Bill 61 (Hoffmann) adds “school psychologist” to the list of full-time critical shortage positions in which a retiree can return to work without a restriction of benefits.
  • House Bill 907 (LeBas) increases the earnings allowed for TRSL retirees who are re-employed as substitute classroom teachers and filling a vacancy created by extended leave, from 25% of benefit to 50% of benefit.
The Senate amendments in question would have increased the waiting period between retirement and returning to work from 12 months to 36 months for non-critical shortage positions, but would not have affected those retired members who had met the 12-month waiting period and returned to work prior to May 15, 2016.

Supplemental payments to UAL (unfunded accrued liability)

On Sunday, the House agreed to Senate amendments to House Bill 603 and House Bill 696 (Leger). HB 603 proposes that a constitutional amendment be placed before voters on the November ballot to establish the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund and to provide for the allocation of mineral revenues. A portion of the mineral revenues allocated in the proposed constitutional amendment would be dedicated to the UAL after certain thresholds are reached. HB 696 (Leger) is companion legislation to HB 603. HB 696 has been sent to the governor for signature. If signed by the governor, it will become effective if the constitutional amendment set forth in HB 603 is approved by the voters in November.

To check the latest status of all bills that TRSL was monitoring during the Regular Session, please visit the Legislation page of our website.

Legislators now continue their work on budget issues in the 2016 2nd Extraordinary Session, which began at 6:30 p.m. yesterday.

 
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