Bill Text: TX HB45 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Introduced

Texas House Bill 45 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Relating to a cost-of-living increase applicable to benefits paid by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-05-04 - Left pending in committee [HB45 Detail]

Download: Texas-2015-HB45-Introduced.html

	84R1584 SGA-D

	By: Martinez	H.B. No. 45



	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	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 824.009 to read as follows:
	Sec. 824.009. ADJUSTMENT FOR COST OF LIVING; ANNUAL
	DETERMINATION. (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, 2016.
	SECTION 3. 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 September 1, 2015.