By:  Thompson, S.                                     H.B. No. 1198
       73R2407 GCH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to eligibility for service retirement under the Texas
    1-3  County and District Retirement System.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Sections 844.207(c), (d), and (e), Government
    1-6  Code, are amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (c)  A member shall be eligible, beginning on the first
    1-8  anniversary date of the person's membership, to retire and receive
    1-9  a service retirement annuity, if the member:
   1-10              (1)  is at least 60 years old and has at least 5 <10>
   1-11  years of Section 844.207 credited service in the retirement system;
   1-12  or
   1-13              (2)  has sufficient years of Section 844.207 credited
   1-14  service in the retirement system that, when such number is added to
   1-15  the years of attained age of the member, produces a sum equal to or
   1-16  in excess of the number 75 <80>; or
   1-17              (3)  <if the member> is eligible for service retirement
   1-18  under any other provision of this subtitle.
   1-19        (d)  If a member has 5 <10> years or more of Section 844.207
   1-20  credited service in the retirement system, subsequent absence from
   1-21  service shall not terminate membership, and unless membership is
   1-22  otherwise terminated, the member shall be eligible to retire and
   1-23  receive a service retirement annuity at any time after the member
   1-24  attains the age of 60 years.
    2-1        (e)  An employee of a participating subdivision which has
    2-2  adopted the plan provisions of this section may select an optional
    2-3  service retirement annuity in the manner and under the conditions
    2-4  provided in Section 844.105, if the member:
    2-5              (1)  has 5 <10> or more years of Section 844.207
    2-6  credited service in the retirement system and has attained the age
    2-7  of 60 years; or
    2-8              (2)  has at least 20 years of Section 844.207 credited
    2-9  service or is otherwise eligible to make such selection of an
   2-10  optional service retirement annuity under the provisions of Section
   2-11  844.105, 844.106, 844.203, or 844.204.
   2-12        If a member who is authorized under this subsection to select
   2-13  an optional service retirement annuity dies before retirement
   2-14  without having made a selection, the member's surviving spouse or
   2-15  the executor or administrator of the member's estate may make the
   2-16  selection provided by Section 844.105 under the terms of that
   2-17  section <subsection>.
   2-18        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-24  passage, and it is so enacted.