By Goolsby H.B. No. 18
76R557 GCH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to death benefit annuities payable by the Employees
1-3 Retirement System of Texas.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 814.302, Government Code, is amended by
1-6 adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
1-7 (c) If a person dies who was a contributing member of the
1-8 elected class of membership at the time of death and who would have
1-9 met the service requirements for service retirement if the person
1-10 had completed the term of office during which the person died, the
1-11 person's surviving spouse may select a plan as if the decedent had
1-12 retired on the last day of the term in which the person died. If
1-13 there is no surviving spouse, the decedent's children as a group
1-14 may select a plan. If the decedent is not survived by a spouse or
1-15 child, an annuity may not be paid under this subsection.
1-16 SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies to
1-17 deaths of members of the Employees Retirement System of Texas
1-18 whether the deaths occur or occurred before, on, or after the
1-19 effective date of this Act, except that payments of a death benefit
1-20 annuity may not be made for any period preceding the date the first
1-21 payment becomes due after selection of the annuity.
1-22 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-23 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-24 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-1 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-2 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-3 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-4 passage, and it is so enacted.