1-1 By: Williams (Senate Sponsor - Ogden) H.B. No. 986
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House March 29, 1999;
1-3 March 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Intergovernmental Relations; April 15, 1999, reported favorably by
1-5 the following vote: Yeas 4, Nays 0; April 15, 1999, sent to
1-6 printer.)
1-7 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-8 AN ACT
1-9 relating to retirement under the Texas County and District
1-10 Retirement System.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Section 844.003, Government Code, is amended by
1-13 amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d) to read as
1-14 follows:
1-15 (a) Except as provided by Subsections [Subsection] (b) and
1-16 (d), the effective date of a member's service retirement is the
1-17 date the member designates at the time the member applies for
1-18 retirement under Section 844.101, but the date must be the last day
1-19 of a calendar month and may not precede the date the member
1-20 terminates employment with all participating subdivisions.
1-21 (d) A member who is eligible for service retirement on the
1-22 day the member terminates employment with a participating
1-23 subdivision may apply for and receive a service retirement annuity
1-24 despite the fact that the member becomes an employee of another
1-25 participating subdivision. Service with the member's new employer
1-26 may not be used in determining eligibility for the annuity, and
1-27 contributions for the service may not be used in determining the
1-28 amount of the annuity. The effective date of a retirement under
1-29 this subsection is the last day of the month in which the
1-30 retirement system receives the application, and that date may not
1-31 be later than the last day of the third month following the month
1-32 in which the member begins employment with the new employer. A
1-33 person who retires under this subsection is considered for all
1-34 purposes to be a retiree who resumes service with a different
1-35 employer under Section 842.111.
1-36 SECTION 2. (a) A member of the Texas County and District
1-37 Retirement System who resigned from employment with a participating
1-38 subdivision after January 1, 1998, and before the effective date of
1-39 this Act to accept employment with another participating
1-40 subdivision, who is a contributing member of the retirement system,
1-41 and who would have met the requirements of Section 844.003(d),
1-42 Government Code, as added by this Act, if that law had been in
1-43 effect on January 1, 1998, may apply for and receive a service
1-44 retirement annuity under the terms of that law if the retirement
1-45 system receives the application before January 1, 2000. The
1-46 effective date of retirement of an eligible person who makes a
1-47 timely application under this subsection is the last day of the
1-48 month in which the member resigned from employment with the
1-49 subdivision.
1-50 (b) The amount of a service retirement annuity payable under
1-51 this section will be determined under the plan terms and conditions
1-52 in effect on the last day of the month in which the member resigned
1-53 from employment with the subdivision. The retirement system shall
1-54 pay all unpaid annuity payments that would have been paid if
1-55 Section 844.003(d), Government Code, as added by this Act, had been
1-56 in effect on January 1, 1998, in a single sum.
1-57 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-58 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-59 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-60 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-61 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-62 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-63 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-64 * * * * *