Bill Text: TX HB398 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to a cost-of-living increase applicable to benefits paid by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-02-19 - Referred to Pensions, Investments & Financial Services [HB398 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-HB398-Introduced.html
86R922 TSR-D | ||
By: Hernandez | H.B. No. 398 |
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relating to a cost-of-living increase applicable to benefits paid | ||
by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Subchapter H, Chapter 824, Government Code, is | ||
amended by adding Section 824.703 to read as follows: | ||
Sec. 824.703. COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENT; ANNUAL | ||
DETERMINATION. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, the amount of a | ||
service retirement benefit, disability retirement benefit, or | ||
death benefit paid under this chapter is adjusted in accordance | ||
with this section as necessary to reflect inflation. | ||
(b) Each year, during the last seven days of October, the | ||
board of trustees shall set the rate of the adjustment for the next | ||
calendar year to equal the percentage increase, if any, in the | ||
Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers | ||
(CPI-W) most recently published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics | ||
of the United States Department of Labor that is used by the United | ||
States Social Security Administration to provide a cost-of-living | ||
adjustment for social security benefit payments payable beginning | ||
in January of the next year. | ||
(c) Subject to Subsection (d), the board of trustees shall | ||
increase the amount of a benefit payable under this chapter by | ||
applying the adjustment rate set by the board of trustees under | ||
Subsection (b) to the amount otherwise required to be paid as | ||
determined in accordance with the other applicable provisions of | ||
this chapter. | ||
(d) The board of trustees may not pay a benefit increase | ||
under this section in any calendar year unless the board finds that | ||
the retirement system is actuarially sound and has money available | ||
to pay increased benefits in that year. If the board of trustees | ||
finds that the retirement system is actuarially sound, but that the | ||
amount of money available is not sufficient to pay the full amount | ||
of the adjustment under Subsection (b), the board shall compute the | ||
largest rate of adjustment possible for the amount of money | ||
available while maintaining the actuarial soundness of the system | ||
and shall use that rate in increasing benefits under Subsection (c) | ||
for that calendar year. | ||
SECTION 2. This Act applies only to a benefit paid by the | ||
Teacher Retirement System of Texas on or after January 1, 2020. | ||
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019. |