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Senate Bill 1812 |
Senate Author: Duncan |
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Effective: 6-14-13 |
House Sponsor: Otto |
Senate Bill 1812 amends Government Code and Insurance Code provisions relating to the determination of the state contributions for participation by certain junior college employees in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), the TRS optional retirement program, and the state employees group benefits program administered by the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS). The bill includes in the aggregate annual contributions on which such state contributions to TRS and to the TRS optional retirement program are based no creditable compensation other than 50 percent of the eligible creditable compensation of public junior college and public junior college district employees who are eligible for TRS membership and are instructional or administrative staff whose salaries are fully payable by the state. The bill requires the ERS board of trustees to include in its certified estimate of the amount required to pay the state contribution for coverages provided to public junior college and college district employees under the group benefits program no costs other than 50 percent of the cost associated with program-eligible employees who are instructional or administrative staff whose salaries are fully payable by the state.
Senate Bill 1812 requires the certification by both the TRS and ERS boards of trustees of their respective estimates of the amounts necessary to pay the state's contributions to TRS and to ERS for coverages provided under the state employees group benefits program for the following biennium, as applicable, to be performed in coordination with the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) and adds a similar certification requirement for TRS with respect to an estimate of the amount necessary to pay the state's contributions to the TRS optional retirement program. The bill prohibits the number of qualifying employees whose compensation may be included in each of the above TRS certified estimates or whose group benefits program costs may be included in the ERS estimate for each public junior college or public junior college district from being adjusted in a proportion greater than the change in student enrollment at each college during the reporting period, except that a college that experiences a decline in enrollment may petition the LBB to maintain the number of eligible employees up to 98 percent of the level of the preceding biennium.
Senate Bill 1812 requires each public junior college or public junior college district to contribute monthly to TRS an amount equal to the state contribution rate multiplied by 50 percent of the aggregate eligible creditable compensation of its qualifying employees reported to TRS plus an amount equal to the state contribution rate multiplied by 100 percent of the aggregate eligible creditable compensation of all other employees reported to TRS. The bill requires the designated disbursing officer of each such college or district to submit a monthly report to TRS certifying the total amount of compensation paid and of employer contributions to be made to TRS for the payroll period; to maintain and retain the name of each of the college's or district's employees, the employee's salary for the most recent payroll period, and whether the employee is a qualifying employee; and to include payment of the certified amount of employer contributions due along with the submitted monthly report. The bill requires TRS, before the end of each school year, to certify to the comptroller the names of any public junior colleges or junior college districts that have failed to remit all required contributions for the school year and the amounts of the unpaid contributions and requires the comptroller to withhold the certified amount of unpaid contributions, plus interest, from the first state money payable to the college or district and to deposit the withheld funds to the credit of the appropriate TRS accounts. The bill also requires TRS to deposit all money received from the collection of employer contributions from public junior colleges and college districts in the state contribution account.