By Ogden                                               S.B. No. 342
         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.