BWH C.S.H.B. 707 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS COUNTY AFFAIRS C.S.H.B. 707 By: Hamric 2-25-97 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Currently, Texas law requires county employees' requests for payroll deductions for the payment of insurance premiums to be in writing, and prohibits payroll deductions for the purpose of paying insurance premiums from exceeding the amount stated in the request. The amount deducted usually varies each year due to insurance rate increases. Therefore, county employees must annually submit written requests for payroll deductions due to the change in the rate. PURPOSE This bill allows counties to notify employees about insurance premium rate increases in the county's benefit plan without requiring the employee to annually file individual paperwork. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 155.062, Texas Local Government Code, as follows: 1) Amends Sec. 155.062(a) by striking existing language to remove the requirement that a county employees' insurance deduction request be in writing; 2) Amends Sec. 155.602(b) to allow a request to be in effect until the county officer receives a written notice of change rather than a written notice of revocation signed by the official or employee. Provides that an employee does not have to resubmit a request for deduction every year, unless the insurance policy is not renewed or the employee seeks coverage under a different policy; and 3) Amends Sec. 155.062(c) to provide that an insurance deduction may not exceed the amount stated in the request and any future premium increases imposed after the date the request for deduction is submitted. Requires the county officer to give written notice of any increase to each affected employee, before the increase takes effect, if an insurance premium is increased after the date the request for deduction is submitted. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1997. The change in law applies to requests for insurance deductions submitted before, on, or after that date. SECTION 3. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE CSHB 707 makes two changes to HB 707: 1) Strikes the second sentence of Subsection (b) on page 1, lines 16-20 of H.B. 707, which was redundant; and 2) Replaces the word "increase" with "change" in Subsection (c) on page 1, line 23 and Subsection (d) on page 2, lines 3 and 5 of H.B. 707, so that the bill addresses any change in insurance premiums, not just increases.