HBA-GUM H.B. 3486 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3486 By: Dunnam Pensions & Investments 3/25/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, Texas does not offer private school teachers incentives to transfer to the public school system. Accordingly, it is rare for a private school teacher to transfer to the public school system. H.B. 3486 provides an incentive for private school educators to join the public school system by allowing them to collect service credit in the Teacher Retirement System. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter E, Chapter 823, Government Code, by adding Section 823.404, as follows: Sec. 823.404. SERVICE FOR PRIVATE SCHOOL OR INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION. (a) Defines "accredited private institution of higher education" and "accredited private school." (b) Authorizes an eligible member of the Teacher Retirement System (member, TRS) to establish equivalent membership service credit for employment with an accredited private school or institution of higher education. (c) Requires a member to have at least 10 years of service credit in the retirement system for actual service in public schools to become eligible to establish credit under this section, and that at least one of the 10 years of service credit be for service performed after the service for which credit is sought. (d) Authorizes a member to establish credit by depositing with TRS for each year of service claimed a contribution, determined as provided by Section 822.201(Member Compensation), during the first year of service for which the member received membership credit in the retirement system that is after the service for which credit is sought. (e) Provides that a member claiming credit under this section must pay a fee of eight percent, compounded annually, of the required contribution from the date of first eligibility to the date of deposit. Requires the deposit for at least one year of credit to be made with an initial application for credit. Requires payments for service claimed under this section to be made before retirement. (f) Prohibits a member from establishing service credit for more than 10 years. (g) Requires TRS, once a member has made the deposits, to grant the member one year of membership service credit for each year of service approved. Prohibits TRS from using service credit granted under this section in computing a member's annual average compensation. (h) Requires TRS, in determining the contribution under Subsection (d) of non full-time members, to compute an annual rate of compensation from the member's reported compensation. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.