Bill Text: TX HB440 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced


Bill Title: Relating to a cost-of-living increase applicable to benefits paid by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-01 - Left pending in committee [HB440 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-HB440-Introduced.html
  85R3050 LED-D
 
  By: Martinez H.B. No. 440
 
 
 
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.  ADJUSTMENT FOR COST OF LIVING; 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 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, 2018.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
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