78R5627 T
By: Madla S.B. No. 1658
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the administration of retirement systems for paid,
partly paid, or volunteer fire fighters.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 2, Texas Local Fire Fighters Retirement
Act (Article 6243e, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
adding the following:
(10) "Accrued benefit" means the dollar amount of the
monthly service retirement benefit a member would have received if
the member had terminated employment as of the determination date,
based on service credit, compensation history and retirement system
benefit provisions as of the determination date. The accrued
benefit is the benefit that would be payable at the date first
eligible for an unreduced service retirement benefit or, if later,
the determination date. The accrued benefit would be payable in the
normal form of benefit payment without regard to any optional form
of payment. Disability or death benefits are not accrued benefits
until the member becomes disabled under the terms of the retirement
system or dies. The accrued benefit of a retiree or eligible
survivor of a deceased member or retiree is the benefit being paid
on the determination date. The accrued benefit of a retiree or
eligible survivor shall include the retirement system terms under
which such benefit is being paid at the determination date. The
benefit being paid to a disability retiree on the determination
date is an accrued benefit subject to the terms of the retirement
system, including any subsequent reduction, and only as long as the
disability retiree meets all requirements of the retirement system
for the benefit. No future increases under an automatic
cost-of-living provision are part of the accrued benefit on the
determination date.
(11) "Vested accrued benefit" means a member's accrued
benefit multiplied by the member's vested percentage. The vested
percentage is as of the date of determining the accrued benefit and
for a retiree or eligible survivor shall be 100 percent.
(e) An addition or change adopted under this section may
not, without the member's written consent, deprive a member of the
retirement system of a right to receive a vested accrued benefit.
For purposes of determining such vested accrued benefit, the
determination date will be the day before an addition or change is
adopted.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.