By Williams H.B. No. 986
76R4777 GCH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to retirement under the Texas County and District
1-3 Retirement System.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 844.003, Government Code, is amended by
1-6 amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d) to read as
1-7 follows:
1-8 (a) Except as provided by Subsections [Subsection] (b) and
1-9 (d), the effective date of a member's service retirement is the
1-10 date the member designates at the time the member applies for
1-11 retirement under Section 844.101, but the date must be the last day
1-12 of a calendar month and may not precede the date the member
1-13 terminates employment with all participating subdivisions.
1-14 (d) A member who is eligible for service retirement on the
1-15 day the member terminates employment with a participating
1-16 subdivision may apply for and receive a service retirement annuity
1-17 despite the fact that the member becomes an employee of another
1-18 participating subdivision. Service with the member's new employer
1-19 may not be used in determining eligibility for the annuity, and
1-20 contributions for the service may not be used in determining the
1-21 amount of the annuity. The effective date of a retirement under
1-22 this subsection is the last day of the month in which the
1-23 retirement system receives the application, and that date may not
1-24 be later than the last day of the third month following the month
2-1 in which the member begins employment with the new employer. A
2-2 person who retires under this subsection is considered for all
2-3 purposes to be a retiree who resumes service with a different
2-4 employer under Section 842.111.
2-5 SECTION 2. (a) A member of the Texas County and District
2-6 Retirement System who resigned from employment with a participating
2-7 subdivision after January 1, 1998, and before the effective date of
2-8 this Act to accept employment with another participating
2-9 subdivision, who is a contributing member of the retirement system,
2-10 and who would have met the requirements of Section 844.003(d),
2-11 Government Code, as added by this Act, if that law had been in
2-12 effect on January 1, 1998, may apply for and receive a service
2-13 retirement annuity under the terms of that law if the retirement
2-14 system receives the application before January 1, 2000. The
2-15 effective date of retirement of an eligible person who makes a
2-16 timely application under this subsection is the last day of the
2-17 month in which the member resigned from employment with the
2-18 subdivision.
2-19 (b) The amount of a service retirement annuity payable under
2-20 this section will be determined under the plan terms and conditions
2-21 in effect on the last day of the month in which the member resigned
2-22 from employment with the subdivision. The retirement system shall
2-23 pay all unpaid annuity payments that would have been paid if
2-24 Section 844.003(d), Government Code, as added by this Act, had been
2-25 in effect on January 1, 1998, in a single sum.
2-26 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-27 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-1 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-2 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-3 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-4 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-5 passage, and it is so enacted.