BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 4653

By: Anchía

Pensions, Investments & Financial Services

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Senior officers are greatly needed at in the City of Dallas's police and fire departments due to challenges in recruiting and retaining officers. Senior officers have a great deal of institutional knowledge with respect to departmental operations and provide an enormous amount of guidance to the departments' newer employees. Under current law, a member of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System is only allowed to participate in the deferred retirement option plan (DROP) for 10 years. C.S.H.B. 4653 seeks to incentivize senior members of the police and fire departments to remain on active service by extending the number of years in which a member may participate in DROP from 10 to 20 years.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 4653 amends the Revised Statutes to raise from 10 to 20 the cap on the number of years that a police officer or firefighter's deferred retirement option plan (DROP) account is credited for such an employee who is on active service and is a member of the pension system for such employees in a municipality having a population of more than 1.18 million and located predominately in a county that has a total area of less than 1,000 square miles. The bill applies to a member who participates in DROP regardless of whether the member began DROP participation before, on, or after the bill's effective date. The bill expressly does not entitle a member whose retirement pension ceased being credited to the member's DROP account on or after January 1, 2018, under the applicable Revised Statutes provision as the provision existed immediately before the bill's effective date, to have amounts credited to the member's account for the period beginning on the date the member's retirement pension ceased being credited and ending on August 31, 2023.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 4653 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute includes a provision not present in the introduced establishing that a member whose retirement pension ceased being credited to the member's DROP account on or after January 1, 2018, under the applicable Revised Statutes provision as the provision existed immediately before the bill's effective date is not entitled to have amounts credited to the DROP account for the period beginning on the date the member's retirement pension ceased being credited to the DROP account and ending on August 31, 2023.