Regular Session News #4: ORP bill moves forward with amendments

The House Retirement Committee met on Thursday and favorably reported House Bill 24 (Rep. Bacala) with amendments. HB 24 would make changes to the terms of the optional retirement plan (ORP), a defined contribution plan available to unclassified faculty and staff in higher education. The proposed changes are:

• Increasing the minimum employer contribution to ORP participant accounts from 6.2% of pay to 8%.
• Expanding ORP eligibility to technical college staff beginning July 1, 2025, and allowing existing technical college staff 180 days from July 1, 2025, to opt into the ORP.
• Extending the window for ORP participants to switch back to the TRSL defined benefit plan, from five years after first ORP eligibility to seven years.

HB 24 would also create a nine-member ORP advisory committee comprised of both a faculty and non-faculty ORP participant from each of the state’s four higher education systems (LSU, SU, UL, and LCTCS) as well as one ORP participant not employed in higher education.

While several amendments to HB 24 were offered and approved by the committee, two were substantive. The first addresses ORP participants whose first employment in Louisiana higher education occurred before August 1, 2020 but who did not have the opportunity to switch back to the defined benefit plan because they were not in an eligible position on June 30, 2024.  It creates a window for these participants to make an irrevocable election to become a member of the TRSL regular retirement plan if they return to employment in a TRSL-eligible position. These participants could make the election to switch by the later of September 2, 2025, or sixty days after the date that the participant returns to employment with a TRSL-contributing employer for the first time after July 1, 2024.
 
The second substantive amendment would add the Commissioner of Higher Education or designee as an ex officio member on the TRSL Board of Trustees. 

Other amendments were technical in nature.

HB 24 now goes to the full House for consideration or referral to another committee.

In other news:
 
On Tuesday, consideration of House Bill 473 and House Bill 472, two proposed constitutional amendments authored by Rep. Emerson, were both deferred until a later meeting in the House Ways and Means Committee. Read more information on these two bills in our April 17 Legislative Update.

On Wednesday, the House Education Committee favorably reported House Bill 466 (Rep. Carlson), a companion bill to HB 473, with technical amendments.

HB 466 would direct the savings realized from the reduced employer contribution rate for TRSL-participating employers, if enacted through the constitutional amendment, to make permanent salary increases for teachers ($2,000) and school personnel ($1,000) beginning in the 2027-2028 school year. HB 466 includes provisions for state funding if the realized savings for any school district from HB 473 are insufficient to cover the raises. It also establishes specific purposes for which school systems must use any realized savings that exceed what is needed to fund the pay increases. HB 466 now goes to the House Appropriations Committee.
 
The return-to-work (RTW) bill, House Bill 20 (Rep. Moore), was voluntarily deferred by the bill’s author in the House Retirement Committee meeting on Thursday. TRSL RTW laws and issues will be studied by the system and Senate Retirement Committee later this year through Senate Study Request 1 (Sen. Price), approved by the Senate on Tuesday.

Scheduled next week:
 
Two proposed constitutional amendments deferred last week - House Bill 473 and House Bill 472 authored by Rep. Emerson – are scheduled to be heard in the House Ways and Means Committee at 9 a.m. on Monday, April 28 (agenda). Read more information on these two bills in our April 17 Legislative Update.