83R1758 SGA-D
By: Hernandez Luna H.B. No. 498
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. (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, 2014.
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, 2013.