78R6394 RCJ-F

By:  Armbrister                                                   S.B. No. 1258



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to local supplementation of state contributions to the 
optional retirement program for institutions of higher education 
and certain agencies.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 830.201, Government Code, is amended by 
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (g) to read as 
follows:
	(a)  Except as provided by Subsection (g), each [Each] fiscal 
year the state shall contribute to the optional retirement program 
an amount equal to 8-1/2 percent of the aggregate annual 
compensation of all participants in the program during that year.  A 
participant in the optional retirement program shall contribute to 
the program 6.65 percent of the person's annual compensation.
	(g)  The General Appropriations Act may set the state 
contribution at an amount equal to not less than six percent of the 
aggregate annual compensation of all participants in the optional 
retirement program during that year.  Each fiscal year, an 
institution of higher education or an agency authorized under 
Section 830.101 to provide the optional retirement program to its 
employees may use local or other sources of money to supplement the 
state contribution.  The state contribution and the supplemental 
money shall be used to provide to an employee who was employed on 
August 31, 1995, by an institution of higher education or an 
authorized agency:
		(1)  the same employer contribution as the employee 
received during the 1994-1995 biennium; and
		(2)  an employer contribution of up to 8-1/2 percent of 
the aggregate annual compensation of all participants in the 
optional retirement program during that year.
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2003, and 
applies only to a contribution to the optional retirement program 
made on or after the effective date of this Act.  A contribution to 
the optional retirement program that is made before the effective 
date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at the time the 
contribution was made, and the former law is continued in effect for 
that purpose.