BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 626 |
By: Harper-Brown |
Pensions |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties assert that some part-time municipal employees who desire to work more than 20 hours a week are prevented from doing so because taxpayers in the municipality cannot afford the employees' enrollment in the Texas Municipal Retirement System. C.S.H.B. 626 seeks to address this issue by changing certain eligibility requirements for participation in the retirement system.
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RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the board of trustees of the Texas Municipal Retirement System in SECTION 2 of this bill.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 626 amends the Government Code to authorize the governing body of a municipality participating in the Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) to adopt an alternative definition of "employee" for TMRS purposes that increases the number of hours a person in an appointive office or position, other than a person employed by the municipality as a law enforcement officer or firefighter, is normally required to serve from not less than 1,000 hours a year to not less than 1,500 hours a year. The bill requires the ordinance to designate an effective date of the ordinance and limits the ordinance's application to an employee of the participating municipality who is hired on or after the ordinance's effective date. The bill establishes that the earliest permissible effective date of such an ordinance is the first day of the next month following the first full calendar month following the date the participating municipality provides notice and a copy of the ordinance to TMRS. The bill authorizes the TMRS board of trustees to adopt rules limiting the frequency with which participating municipalities may adopt alternative definitions of "employee" through adoption of an ordinance for such purposes or through modification or repeal of an ordinance adopted for such purposes.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2013.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 626 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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