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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.