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.
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