By:  King, Pena, Jones of Bexar, Capelo,                        H.J.R. No. 54 
 
    Swinford                                                                 


A JOINT RESOLUTION

proposing a constitutional amendment providing that benefits in 
certain public retirement systems may not be reduced or impaired.
	BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                       
	SECTION 1.  Section 67, Article XVI, Texas Constitution, is 
amended by adding Subsections (h) and (i) to read as follows:
	(h)  This subsection applies only to a public retirement 
system that is not a statewide system and that provides service and 
disability retirement benefits and death benefits to public 
officers and employees and to a statewide public retirement system 
that provides service and disability retirement benefits and death 
benefits to volunteer emergency services personnel.  Income 
benefits under a retirement system to which this subsection applies 
may not be reduced or impaired for service performed before the 
effective date of any change in the benefit structure, and benefits 
granted to any retiree or other annuitant before the effective date 
of this subsection and in effect on that effective date may not be 
reduced or impaired.  The obligation to not reduce or impair 
benefits is the joint responsibility of the active members of a 
retirement system and the state or the political subdivision or 
subdivisions that finance the retirement system.  This subsection 
does not apply to a member of a retirement system who has not 
qualified to receive benefits under the requirements of the 
retirement system.
	(i)  A political subdivision and a public retirement system 
described by Subsection (h) are exempt from the application of 
Subsection (h) if the political subdivision holds an election on 
the date in May 2004 that political subdivisions are required to use 
for the election of their officers and the majority of the voters of 
the political subdivision voting at the election favor exempting 
the political subdivision and the public retirement system from the 
application of Subsection (h).
	SECTION 2.  This constitutional amendment shall be submitted 
to the voters at an election to be held November 4, 2003.  The ballot 
shall be printed to allow for voting for or against the proposition:  
"The constitutional amendment to guarantee benefits earned in local 
public retirement systems and certain statewide public retirement 
systems."