PA 09-43—SB 905

Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee

AN ACT CONCERNING TECHNICAL CHANGES TO THE CALCULATION OF COST OF LIVING ALLOWANCES FOR MEMBERS OF THE TEACHERS' RETIREMENT SYSTEM

SUMMARY: This act corrects a typographical error in the statute dealing with promised annual pension cost of living adjustments (COLAs) for those who join the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) on or after July 1, 2007. By doing so, it applies percentage COLAs for such members after they retire to the basic retirement benefits they will receive on the last day of December or June and excludes from the COLA calculation any benefits based on one percent or voluntary contributions (see BACKGROUND). This matches the COLA calculation for all other TRS members.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

BACKGROUND

One Percent or Voluntary Contributions

One percent or voluntary contributions are additional pre-tax or after-tax contributions a TRS member chooses to make to the Teacher's Retirement Fund. Such contributions receive credited interest and, at the member's option, may be paid out in a lump sum, rolled over to or from an individual retirement account according to Teachers' Retirement Board rules, or paid as an extra annuity after retirement.

OLR Tracking: JSL; KM: JM: TS