Bill Text: TX HB3902 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Relating to the resumption of employment by certain retirees within the Texas Municipal Retirement System.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-05-14 - Laid on the table subject to call [HB3902 Detail]

Download: Texas-2021-HB3902-Introduced.html

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87R8896 KFF-F
By: Anchia H.B. No. 3902

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the resumption of employment by certain retirees within
the Texas Municipal Retirement System.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 852.108, Government Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a), (c), (e), (f), (h), (i), and (j) and
adding Subsections (b-1), (k), (l), (m), and (n) to read as follows:
(a) In this section and Sections 852.1085 and 852.109, a
person's reemploying municipality is the municipality for which the
person most recently performed [was performing] creditable service
before [at the time of] the person's retirement with respect to the
person's particular individual account under this subtitle.
(b-1) Unless subject to Subsection (c), the retirement
annuity of a person subject to this section is not suspended.
(c) If a person becomes an employee of the person's
reemploying municipality at any time during the 12 consecutive
months after the effective date of the person's last retirement
from the reemploying municipality, the [The] retirement system
shall discontinue and suspend the full amount of the monthly
payments of the [each] service retirement annuity that is allowed
because of the person's previous retirement from [service with] the
reemploying municipality beginning with the month the retirement
system determines that the person has again become an employee of
the reemploying municipality. After the suspension and except as
provided by Subsection (j), the retirement system may not make
payments of the annuity for any month during which the person
remains an employee of the reemploying municipality. The
suspension of a benefit under this section does not suspend payment
of a benefit to an alternate payee under a qualified domestic
relations order.
(e) After termination of employment with the reemploying
municipality and after filing of an application for resumption of
retirement with the board of trustees, a person described by
Subsection (c) [(b)] is entitled to receive future payments of the
suspended annuity, as provided by Subsection (f), and to the
additional benefits as provided by Subsections (g), (h), (i), and
(j).
(f) Monthly payments of an [a suspended] annuity suspended
under Subsection (c) shall resume beginning with [be resumed in]
the month following the month in which employment is terminated
with the reemploying municipality, without change in the amount
except for any increase allowed under Section 854.203 or the
duration of or another condition pertaining to the suspended
benefit. Except as provided by Subsection (j), payment of the
resumed benefit may not be made for any month during which the
payment was suspended under this section.
(h) The additional service retirement benefit allowable to
a person to whom this section applies is, at the option of that
person, either:
(1) a refund of accumulated contributions made since
reemployment plus any accrued interest on the accumulated
contributions allowed by the retirement system; or
(2) a benefit consisting of:
(A) a basic annuity actuarially determined from
the sum of the member's contributions [deposits] made and
accumulated since the date the person last became a member,
together with interest accumulated on that amount since the person
last became a member and an amount from the benefit accumulation
fund equal to the amount of the member's contributions credited to
the member's individual account since the person last became a
member together with interest accrued on that amount since the
person last became a member; or
(B) a greater amount authorized by the
municipality under Section 855.501.
(i) The additional benefit described by Subsection (h)(2)
[(h)] is payable as a standard service retirement benefit or, at the
election of the member, any optional benefit authorized under this
subtitle that is the actuarial equivalent of the standard
retirement benefit. The first benefit payment date under this
subsection is the later of the end of the month following the last
month of employment or the end of the month following the month in
which the person files an application for payment. The first
payment may not be made if the person has resumed employment with
the reemploying municipality in a position that would make the
person an employee at any time during the 12 consecutive months
after the effective date of the person's last retirement from the
reemploying municipality.
(j) Subject to Subsection (m), a [A] person who resumed
employment with the person's reemploying municipality before
September 1, 2021, [to whom this section applies] shall receive a
lump-sum payment in an amount equal to the sum of the service
retirement annuity payments the person would have received had the
person's annuity payments not been discontinued and suspended under
this section as it existed on the date the person resumed employment
with the reemploying municipality, if the person:
(1) initially retired based on a bona fide termination
of employment; and
(2) resumed employment with the person's reemploying
municipality at least eight years after the effective date of the
person's retirement.
(k) If the annuity payments of a person who resumed
employment with the person's reemploying municipality before
September 1, 2021, were discontinued and suspended under this
section as it existed on the date the person resumed employment with
the reemploying municipality, on filing of a written application
with the retirement system, the retirement system shall, subject to
Subsection (l), resume making the annuity payments to the person,
provided:
(1) the person's retirement that preceded the
resumption of employment was based on a bona fide termination of
employment;
(2) the person did not become an employee of the
person's reemploying municipality at any time during the 12
consecutive months after the effective date of the person's
retirement described by Subdivision (1); and
(3) the person has not terminated employment with the
reemploying municipality.
(l) Monthly payments of an annuity suspended under
Subsection (k) shall resume beginning with the month following the
month in which the written application is approved by the
retirement system without change in the amount except for any
increase allowed under Section 854.203 or the duration of or
another condition pertaining to the suspended benefit. Except as
provided by Subsection (j), payment of the resumed benefit may not
be made for any month during which the payment was suspended under
this section as it existed on the date the person resumed employment
with the reemploying municipality.
(m) At the time a person files a written application to
resume benefits under Subsection (k), the retirement system shall
pay the person any lump-sum payment owed to the person under
Subsection (j).
(n) The board of trustees may adopt rules to implement this
section.
SECTION 2. Sections 852.109(a), (e), and (f), Government
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) If a person becomes an employee of a municipality after
the effective date of the person's [beginning to receive a]
retirement from a participating municipality [benefit], and the
municipality is not the person's reemploying municipality, the
person again becomes a member of the retirement system, and the
person's retirement annuity is not suspended.
(e) The additional benefit described by Subsection (d)(2)
[(d)] is payable as a standard service retirement benefit or, at the
election of the member, any optional benefit authorized under this
subtitle that is the actuarial equivalent of the standard
retirement benefit. The first benefit payment date under this
subsection is the later of the end of the month following the last
month of employment or the end of the month following the month in
which the person files an application for payment. The first
payment may not be made if the person has resumed employment that
would result in suspension of a benefit.
(f) If a person became an employee of a municipality other
than the person's reemploying municipality after the effective date
of the person's [beginning to receive a] retirement from a
participating municipality [benefit], and the person's service
retirement annuity was suspended under Section 852.108 as it
existed at the time of reemployment, the person may, on written
application to the retirement system, resume receiving the
suspended annuity.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.