86R922 TSR-D
By: Hernandez H.B. No. 398
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 H, Chapter 824, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 824.703 to read as follows:
Sec. 824.703. COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENT; ANNUAL
DETERMINATION. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, 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 that is 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) Subject to Subsection (d), the board of trustees shall
increase the amount of a benefit payable under this chapter by
applying the adjustment rate set by the board of trustees 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 increasing benefits 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, 2020.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.