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

Regular Session News #8: Senate passes RTW bills; House strips retirement matters from constitutional convention

May 24, 2017

The Senate yesterday passed two return-to-work bills affecting retired school nurses and psychologists.
  • HB 4 (Rep. Miguez) adds school nurses to the list of retirees who can return to work and continue to receive a benefit check, subject to a 25% of annual benefit earnings limitation. The legislation becomes effective July 1, if signed by the governor.
     
  • HB 31 (Rep. Hoffmann) adds school psychologists to the list of critical shortage positions in which a retiree can return to work without a reduction of benefits. The bill was amended on the Senate floor. It now provides that if a retiree’s benefit was calculated at an accrual rate lower than 2.5% or their benefit was actuarially reduced, they will be subject to a 36-month waiting period (rather than the 12-month waiting period in current law) before returning to work under the provisions of TRSL’s return-to-work law.  The amendments do not apply to the current law’s grandfathered group or retirees with advanced degrees in speech therapy, speech pathology, or audiology. HB 31 awaits concurrence from the House on the amendment.
Also yesterday, the House adopted amendments to HB 456 (Rep. Abramson), which proposes to hold a constitutional convention to make changes to fiscal provisions in the state constitution. The amendments, among other things, removed the consideration of any changes to state and statewide retirement provisions during the convention. The amended HB 456 was returned to the calendar for final consideration from the full House at a later date.

In other legislative action 

The House retirement committee unanimously passed SB 8 (Sen. Peacock) which provides for correction of enrollment errors for persons enrolled in an incorrect public retirement system. It now goes to the full House for consideration.

A complete list of legislation impacting TRSL, including the position taken by the TRSL Board of Trustees on each bill, is available on the Legislation page of our website.

TUNE IN & WATCH LIVE: You can watch live retirement committee meetings online at www.legis.la.gov. Click on the TV icon for any meeting in progress that you’d like to view. Archived broadcasts are available here.

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