Enrolled Bill Summary

Senate Bill 1664	Senate Author:  Duncan
Effective:  See below	House Sponsor:  Truitt et al.

            Senate Bill 1664 amends provisions of the Government Code, Insurance Code, and Local Government Code relating to the powers and duties of and contributions to and benefits from the systems and programs administered by the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS). The bill:

·         prohibits any benefits, funds, or account balances payable on the death of a participant in any of the following plans or systems from being paid to a person convicted of or adjudicated as having caused that death: a deferred compensation plan for public employees, the Employees Retirement System of Texas, the Judicial Retirement System of Texas Plan One or Two, or the group benefits program under the Texas Employees Group Benefits Act; the bill provides for the payment of such benefits, funds, or balances as if the convicted person had predeceased the decedent;

·         requires the state employee charitable campaign policy committee to include retired state employees receiving ERS benefits in addition to current state employees and authorizes the inclusion of one or more such retired employees on a local state employee charitable campaign committee;

·         beginning in 2016, changes the reporting interval for the ERS report providing to the comptroller of public accounts certain identification information of each member, retiree, and beneficiary from ERS records from an annual requirement to a requirement with a reporting interval of once every five years;

·         changes the computation of the required contribution amount for a member of ERS claiming credit in the elected class or employee class for service not previously established to reflect, as part of  the computation, the amount of the appropriate member contribution as provided by law rather than a fixed percentage of the monthly state salary paid to a person in the office for which credit is sought or for the person's service, as applicable, during the time for which the credit is sought;

·         authorizes a person who receives an annuity from ERS to authorize ERS to deduct from the person's monthly annuity payment the amount of a contribution to the state employee charitable campaign and includes provisions governing the administration of such charitable deductions by the ERS board of trustees and the state employee charitable campaign policy committee;

·         increases from 5 years to 10 years the minimum number of years of service credit that an ERS member who was not a member on the date hired, who was hired on or after September 1, 2009, and who has ERS service credit must have to be eligible to retire and receive a service retirement annuity under the rule of 80;

·         revises the eligibility requirements for a bank or brokerage firm to lend ERS securities, with respect to the maintenance of the collateral required of any securities broker or dealer to whom the bank or firm lends such securities;

·         transfers the portion of the consolidated court costs collected on conviction of an offense that previously was allocated by the comptroller of public accounts to the operator's and chauffeur's license account so that the funds are allocated instead to the law enforcement and custodial officer supplemental retirement fund;

·         exempts an applicable member's contribution to ERS, if the state contribution to ERS or the law enforcement and custodial officer supplemental retirement fund is computed using a percentage less than 6.5 percent or 0.5 percent, respectively, for the state fiscal year beginning September 1, 2011, from being required to be computed using a percentage equal to the percentage used to compute the state contribution for that biennium;

·         increases from 25 years of age to 26 years of age the maximum age of eligibility for an unmarried child or ward to participate as a dependent in the state employees group benefits program;

·         authorizes the ERS board of trustees to adopt rules that modify the coverage provided under the group benefits program of the Texas Employees Group Benefits Act by adding, deleting, or changing a provision of the program, including rules modifying eligibility and enrollment requirements and available program benefits;

·         requires the ERS board of trustees to develop a plan for providing, under any health benefit plan provided under the group benefits program, tobacco cessation coverage for health benefit plan participants and to assess each participant who uses one or more tobacco products a tobacco user premium differential;

·         requires the ERS board of trustees to assess each employer whose employees participate in the group benefits program an employer enrollment fee to be credited to the employees life, accident, and health insurance and benefits fund; and

·         prohibits a state contribution from being made for or used to pay a tobacco user premium differential or from being made for coverages under the Texas Employees Group Benefits Act selected by an individual who receives a state contribution for coverages under a group benefits program provided by another state health plan.

Senate Bill 1664 takes effect September 1, 2011, except for the reallocation of the specified portion of the consolidated court costs, which takes effect September 1, 2013.