Bill Text: TX HB246 | 2017 | 85th Legislature 1st Special Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to a cost-of-living increase applicable to benefits paid by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
Sponsorship: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-07-21 - Referred to Pensions [HB246 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-HB246-Introduced.html
| 85S10910 TSR-D | ||
| By: Hernandez | H.B. No. 246 | |
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| relating to a cost-of-living increase applicable to benefits paid | ||
| by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 824, Government Code, is | ||
| amended by adding Section 824.010 to read as follows: | ||
| Sec. 824.010. ADJUSTMENT FOR COST OF LIVING. (a) The | ||
| amount of a service retirement benefit, disability retirement | ||
| benefit, or death benefit paid under this chapter is adjusted in | ||
| accordance with this section as necessary to reflect inflation. | ||
| (b) Each year, during the last seven days of October, the | ||
| board of trustees shall set the rate of the adjustment for the next | ||
| calendar year to equal the percentage increase, if any, in the | ||
| Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers | ||
| (CPI-W) most recently published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics | ||
| of the United States Department of Labor and used by the United | ||
| States Social Security Administration to provide a cost-of-living | ||
| adjustment for social security benefit payments payable beginning | ||
| in January of the next year. | ||
| (c) The board of trustees shall recompute the amount of a | ||
| benefit paid under this chapter by applying the adjustment computed | ||
| under Subsection (b) to the amount otherwise required to be paid as | ||
| determined in accordance with the other applicable provisions of | ||
| this chapter. | ||
| (d) The board of trustees may not pay a benefit increase | ||
| under this section in any calendar year unless the board finds that | ||
| the retirement system is actuarially sound and has money available | ||
| to pay increased benefits in that year. If the board of trustees | ||
| finds that the retirement system is actuarially sound, but that the | ||
| amount of money available is not sufficient to pay the full amount | ||
| of the adjustment under Subsection (b), the board shall compute the | ||
| largest rate of adjustment possible for the amount of money | ||
| available while maintaining the actuarial soundness of the system | ||
| and shall use that rate in recomputing the benefit amount under | ||
| Subsection (c) for that calendar year. | ||
| SECTION 2. This Act applies only to a benefit paid by the | ||
| Teacher Retirement System of Texas on or after January 1, 2018. | ||
| SECTION 3. Notwithstanding Section 824.010(b), Government | ||
| Code, as added by this Act, for the 2018 calendar year, the board of | ||
| trustees of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas shall set the | ||
| rate of the adjustment to be applied to the amount of a service | ||
| retirement benefit, disability retirement benefit, or death | ||
| benefit in the manner provided by Section 824.010, Government Code, | ||
| as added by this Act, not later than December 8, 2017. | ||
| SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives | ||
| a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as | ||
| provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this | ||
| Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this | ||
| Act takes effect December 1, 2017. | ||
