By:  Davis of Dallas                                            H.J.R. No. 100



A JOINT RESOLUTION

proposing a constitutional amendment relating to the authority of 
the boards of trustees of certain state retirement systems to 
contract with professional investment managers.
	BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                       
	SECTION 1.  Section 67, Article XVI, Texas Constitution, is 
amended to read as follows:
	(a)  General Provisions.                                                       
		(1)  The legislature may enact general laws 
establishing systems and programs of retirement and related 
disability and death benefits for public employees and officers.  
Financing of benefits must be based on sound actuarial principles.  
The assets of a system are held in trust for the benefit of members 
and may not be diverted.
		(2)  A person may not receive benefits from more than 
one system for the same service, but the legislature may provide by 
law that a person with service covered by more than one system or 
program is entitled to a fractional benefit from each system or 
program based on service rendered under each system or program 
calculated as to amount upon the benefit formula used in that system 
or program.  Transfer of service credit between the Employees 
Retirement System of Texas and the Teacher Retirement System of 
Texas also may be authorized by law.
		(3)  Each statewide benefit system must have a board of 
trustees to administer the system and to invest the funds of the 
system in such securities as the board may consider prudent 
investments.  In making investments, a board shall exercise the 
judgment and care under the circumstances then prevailing that 
persons of ordinary prudence, discretion, and intelligence 
exercise in the management of their own affairs, not in regard to 
speculation, but in regard to the permanent disposition of their 
funds, considering the probable income therefrom as well as the 
probable safety of their capital.  The legislature by law may 
further restrict the investment discretion of a board and may 
provide for a board alternatively, or in combination with its own 
staff, to contract for the management of investments under this 
section with a private investment management firm.
		(4)  General laws establishing retirement systems and 
optional retirement programs for public employees and officers in 
effect at the time of the adoption of this section remain in effect, 
subject to the general powers of the legislature established in 
this subsection.
	SECTION 2.  This proposed constitutional amendment shall be 
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 4, 2003.  
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the 
proposition: "The constitutional amendment to authorize the boards 
of trustees of certain state retirement systems to contract with 
professional investment managers."