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

Regular Session News #9: Senate chamber passes COLA bill

Aug 1, 2016

The Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 2 today. Sen. Barrow Peacock, chair of the Senate retirement committee, sponsored the bill; 21 other senators signed on to co-author the legislation before its passage on the Senate floor.

The legislation would grant a 1.5% permanent benefit increase (also known as a COLA) on the first $60,000 of the retirement benefit to eligible TRSL retirees and beneficiaries. The amendment ties the legislation’s passage to other bills dealing with retirement system funding (Senate Bill 5 and Senate Bill 18), which are under consideration this session.

COLA eligibility criteria for retirees and beneficiaries in Senate Bill 2 are consistent with current law. The
COLA bill now heads to the House retirement committee for consideration. 

In other news: The House and governmental affairs committee reported favorably House bills 621 and 1093, both sponsored by Rep. Barry Ivey.

HB 621 would extend the powers of the legislative auditor to examine not only the records of the retirement system but also to examine the records of the actuaries and investment professionals with whom TRSL contracts.  The bill would also grant any representative of the legislative auditor this extended access.  

Under HB 1093, the legislative auditor would be required to provide comparative summaries of each public retirement system’s actuarial assumptions and funded ratio and report on his assessment of the appropriateness of these assumptions at least every five years.


UPCOMING MEETINGS

The House retirement committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m., Thursday, April 14. A number of bills impacting TRSL are on the agenda for consideration.

The Senate education committee will also meet on Thursday upon adjournment of the full Senate. The committee will consider Senate Bill 147 (Gatti), which would require funds included for payment of the unfunded accrued liability to be withheld from the state portion of the minimum foundation program (MFP) for charter schools and transmitted directly to TRSL.

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.
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