SB 12 (Huffman/Bonnen) Relating to the contributions to and benefits under the Teacher Retirement System of Texas was sent to the Governor on 5/28. All districts are required to contribute to employee contribution, currently districts who participated in social security were not required to make a distribution on this fund. Rep. Rodriguez argued that 55 school districts are saving millions of dollars under the current language and noted his concern on the impacts of SB 12 conference committee report. Reps. G. Bonnen and Murphy argued those 55 districts are not paying in their required share while their employees draw from the TRS fund. Funding for this reform is in SB 500 (the supplemental budget bill). It was noted the bill means a total of $1.113 billion to retired teachers of Texas.
SB 1337 (Huffman/Flynn) Relating to credit in, benefits from, and administration of the Texas Municipal Retirement System was sent to the Governor on 05/25. The bill amends the Government Code to update, clarify, and revise provisions relating to credit in, benefits from, and administration of the TMRS.
SB 2224 (Huffman/Murphy) Relating to requiring a public retirement system to adopt a written funding policy was sent to the Governor on 05/21. The bill amends the Government Code to require the governing body of a public retirement system to adopt a written funding policy no later than January 1, 2020.
SB 322 (Huffman/) Relating to the evaluation and reporting of investment practices and performance of certain public retirement systems would require a public retirement system to have an independent firm evaluate the system’s investment practices and performance and to submit a report of an evaluation to the State Pension Review Board following each evaluation. The bill was sent to the Governor on 05/25.
HB 2763 (Flynn/Taylor) Relating to the police pension fund in certain municipalities, Galveston, was sent to the Governor on 5/29.