By: Taylor of Collin S.B. No. 500
(In the Senate - Filed January 25, 2017; January 30, 2017,
read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
February 2, 2017, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 9, Nays 0; February 2, 2017, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the effect of certain felony convictions of public
elected officers.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 810, Government Code, is amended by
adding Section 810.002 to read as follows:
Sec. 810.002. CERTAIN ELECTED OFFICIALS INELIGIBLE FOR
RETIREMENT ANNUITY. (a) In this section:
(1) "Governing body of a public retirement system" and
"public retirement system" have the meanings assigned by Section
802.001.
(2) "Qualifying felony" means any felony involving:
(A) bribery;
(B) the embezzlement, extortion, or other theft
of public money;
(C) perjury;
(D) coercion of public servant or voter;
(E) tampering with governmental record;
(F) misuse of official information;
(G) conspiracy or the attempt to commit any of
the offenses described by Paragraphs (A)-(F); or
(H) abuse of official capacity.
(b) This section applies only to a person who is:
(1) a member of the elected class of the Employees
Retirement System of Texas as described by Section 812.002(a)(1) or
(2); or
(2) otherwise eligible for membership in a public
retirement system wholly or partly because the person held an
elected office.
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), a member of a
public retirement system is not eligible to receive a service
retirement annuity under the retirement system if the member is
convicted of a qualifying felony committed while in office and
arising directly from the official duties of that elected office.
(d) The retirement system shall suspend payments of an
annuity to a person ineligible to receive the annuity under
Subsection (c). A person whose conviction is overturned on appeal
or who meets the requirements for innocence under Section
103.001(a)(2), Civil Practice and Remedies Code:
(1) is entitled to receive an amount equal to the
accrued total of payments and interest earned on the payments
withheld during the suspension period; and
(2) may resume receipt of annuity payments on payment
to the retirement system of an amount equal to the contributions
refunded to the person under Subsection (e).
(e) A member who is ineligible to receive a service
retirement annuity under Subsection (c) is entitled to a refund of
the member's service retirement annuity contributions, including
interest earned on those contributions.
(f) Benefits payable to an alternate payee under Chapter 804
who is recognized by a domestic relations order established before
January 8, 2019, are not affected by a member's ineligibility to
receive a service retirement annuity under Subsection (c).
(g) On conviction of a member for a qualifying felony, a
court may, in the interest of justice and in the same manner as in a
divorce proceeding, award half of the service retirement annuity
forfeited by the member as the separate property of an innocent
spouse if the annuity is partitioned or exchanged by written
agreement of the spouses as provided by Subchapter B, Chapter 4,
Family Code. The amount awarded to the innocent spouse may not be
converted to community property.
(h) Ineligibility for a service retirement annuity under
this section does not impair a person's right to any other
retirement benefit for which the person is eligible.
(i) The governing body of a public retirement system shall
adopt rules and procedures to implement this section.
SECTION 2. Chapter 601, Government Code, is amended by
adding Section 601.011 to read as follows:
Sec. 601.011. VACANCY ON FINAL FELONY CONVICTION OF MEMBER
OF LEGISLATURE, GOVERNOR, OR STATE ELECTED OFFICIAL. A member of
the legislature, the governor, or a state elected official
convicted of a felony vacates the member's, governor's, or
official's office on the date the conviction becomes final.
SECTION 3. Section 810.002, Government Code, as added by
this Act, applies only to a member of a public retirement system who
holds or has held elected office and, on or after the effective date
of this Act, commits an offense that is a qualifying felony as
defined by that section. A person who commits a qualifying felony
before the effective date of this Act is subject to the law in
effect on the date the offense was committed, and the former law is
continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of this section,
an offense was committed before the effective date of this Act if
any element of the offense occurred before that date.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect January 8, 2019.
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