82R5407 SGA-D
By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 812
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the service retirement benefits of certain retirees who
resume employment within the Texas Municipal Retirement System.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 852.108, Government Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (b), (d), (e), (f), (h), and (i) and adding
Subsections (a-1), (b-1), (b-2), and (f-1) to read as follows:
(a-1) Except as provided by Subsection (a), this section
applies only to a person who:
(1) has retired with a service retirement benefit
under this subtitle;
(2) has been separated from service with the person's
reemploying municipality for at least 12 months; and
(3) returns to service with the reemploying
municipality after the separation described by Subdivision (2).
(b) Except as provided by Section 852.1085, a person to whom
this section applies [who has retired with a service retirement
benefit under this subtitle and later becomes an employee of the
person's reemploying municipality] also resumes the person's most
recent membership in [becomes a member of] the system on the date of
employment, but credits and benefits allowable to the person under
this subtitle are limited as provided by this section.
(b-1) The retirement system shall reactivate the same
individual member account in the employees saving fund that the
person contributed to before the person retired.
(b-2) On the date of a person's reemployment, the person
must choose whether to resume making member contributions to the
person's individual member account. A person who resumes making
contributions shall earn additional service credit.
(d) Member contributions under Section 855.402 shall be
made on all compensation paid to the employee by the reemploying
municipality at the same rate as is required of other employees of
the department. The retirement system shall deposit the
contributions on receipt in the member's reactivated [an]
individual account [for the member] in the employees saving fund
and shall credit the account with interest annually at the same rate
and manner as the accounts of other members are credited. The
compensation paid to the employee by the reemploying municipality
shall be included in computing the monthly contributions the
municipality makes to the municipality accumulation fund.
(e) After termination of employment with the reemploying
municipality and after filing of an application for resumption of
retirement with the board of trustees, a person described by
Subsection (a-1) [(b)] is entitled to receive future payments of
the suspended annuity, as provided by Subsections (f) and (f-1) or
Subsection (h) [(f)], and to the additional benefits as provided by
Subsections (g)[, (h),] and (i).
(f) Monthly payments of a suspended annuity shall be
recomputed to reflect:
(1) the amount of the original service retirement
annuity;
(2) any additional service credit earned by the person
during the period of reemployment;
(3) the sum of any contributions made by the person
during the period of reemployment to the person's individual
account in the employees saving fund and interest accrued on the
accumulated contributions allowed by the retirement system;
(4) one of the following amounts from the municipality
accumulation fund, as applicable:
(A) an amount equal to the amount under
Subdivision (3) if the person elected to resume making
contributions under Subsection (b-2);
(B) an amount equal to the amount under
Subdivision (3) based on the contributions that would have been
made by the person if the person had elected to resume making
contributions under Subsection (b-2); or
(C) a greater amount than the amount under
Paragraph (A) or (B) if authorized by the reemploying municipality
under Section 855.501; and
(5) a reduction for any service retirement annuity
payments received by the person before the person's reemployment.
(f-1) The payments as recomputed shall be resumed in the
month following the month in which employment is terminated with
the reemploying municipality, without any other change in the
amount except for any increase allowed under Section 854.203 or the
duration of or another condition pertaining to the suspended
benefit. Payment of the resumed benefit may not be made for any
month during which the payment was suspended under this section.
(h) Instead of a resumption of recomputed benefits under
Subsection (f), [The additional service retirement benefit
allowable to] a person to whom this section applies may elect to
resume the suspended annuity payments in the month following the
month in which employment is terminated with the reemploying
municipality in the amount provided before the reemployment without
any change in the amount except for any increase allowed under
Section 854.203 and [is], at the option of that person, receive
either:
(1) a refund of accumulated contributions made since
reemployment plus any accrued interest on the accumulated
contributions allowed by the retirement system; or
(2) a benefit consisting of:
(A) a basic annuity actuarially determined from
the sum of the member's deposits made and accumulated since the date
the person last became a member, together with interest accumulated
on that amount since the person last became a member; or
(B) a greater amount authorized by the
municipality under Section 855.501.
(i) The additional benefit described by Subsection (h)(1)
or (2) [(h)] is payable as a standard service retirement benefit or,
at the election of the member, any optional benefit authorized
under this subtitle that is the actuarial equivalent of the
standard retirement benefit. The first benefit payment date under
this subsection is the later of the end of the month following the
last month of employment or the end of the month following the month
in which the person files an application for payment. The first
payment may not be made if the person has resumed employment with
the reemploying municipality in a position that would make the
person an employee.
SECTION 2. (a) The changes in law made by this Act to
Section 852.108, Government Code, apply only to the following:
(1) a person who resumes employment on or after the
effective date of this Act with the same municipality the person was
employed by before retiring from service; and
(2) a person who resumed employment before the
effective date of this Act with the same municipality the person was
employed by before retiring from service and who is in that
employment on the effective date of this Act.
(b) A person described by Subsection (a)(2) of this section
may elect under Section 852.108(b-2), Government Code, as added by
this Act, whether to resume making contributions and earn
additional service credit for the months of reemployment that occur
on and after the effective date of this Act.
(c) The changes in law made by this Act to Section 852.108,
Government Code, do not apply to a person to whom Section 852.1085,
Government Code, applies.
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, 2011.