January 27, 2017 - Executive Director Update: ATRS Legislative Package and Week 3 of the General Assembly

The week of the retirement bill filing deadline is the first frantically paced week of a general session of the legislature. As of the filing deadline for retirement bills, the 20 ATRS package bills were filed and two (2) ATRS sponsored shell bills were filed. A total of 93 retirement bills were filed by the deadline. Several of the bills were for other retirement systems.  Of the non-ATRS package bills that involve ATRS, 4 were substantive bills that would impact ATRS, 6 shell bills were ATRS specific shell bills that could be amended at any time to impact ATRS, and 5 were generic retirement bills that could be amended to potentially impact ATRS. This update has 2 attachments. The first attachment is a Session Update with some analysis. The second attachment is a Bill Summary that lists all the retirement bills and summarizes the 20 ATRS legislative package bills plus all the additional bills that impact ATRS.

Without legislative sponsors of the ATRS package proposed by the ATRS Board, ATRS could not have a legislative package.  Sponsoring legislation is time consuming and often difficult. Retirement bills are among the most difficult bills every session.  ATRS is grateful and appreciative for the members of the General Assembly that reviewed the ATRS package bills and agreed to sponsor bills in the 20 bill package.  A special thank you goes to the sponsors.  Senator Bart Hester is sponsoring four (4) of the 20 bills in the ATRS package, Representative Gary Deffenbaugh is sponsoring two (2) bills, Senator John Cooper is sponsoring two (2) of the bills,  Representative Johnny Rye is sponsoring two (2) bills, Senator Eddie Cheatham is sponsoring three (3) bills, Representative John Maddox is sponsoring two (2) bills, Senator Bill Sample is sponsoring two (2) bills, Representative Bruce Coleman is sponsoring a package bill, Senator Jeremy Hutchinson is sponsoring a package bill, and Senator Ronald Caldwell is sponsoring a package bill.

From this point forward, as you read these weekly executive director updates and do not have time to read the entire update, you may want to open the attachments and look for any part of the update that is written in red. You may find red wording on both the Session Update attachment and on the Bill Summary attachment.  Red wording indicates that ATRS staff believes the information is important to know or of concern.  Due to the nature of having 25-30 substantive bills that affect ATRS and its members in this session's updates, the update will tend to be very long. This update is about 40 pages long! Each bill will have an explanation and a status update. To the extent your time is limited, the red wording will attempt to highlight what ATRS staff thinks may be of greatest interest or concern for ATRS employers and members to focus upon.  ATRS also understands that some members will be focused on specific bills that may be of major interest but not highlighted. It is understood that the 20 bill package of ATRS is closely watched since it is designed to allow ATRS to react to market changes and new financial standards. 

At this time, four (4) additional bills have been filed (not part of the ATRS package) with substantive language that would change laws affecting ATRS and its members. Numerous shell bills have been filed that could become substantive within a day. If a major concern arrives during the week, ATRS may send out a special executive director update at any time to inform members and employers about a major issue of concern.

Remember that ATRS has a new website that allows members to have direct access to specific member account information. Now approximately 9,400 members have direct account access to individualized account information. Here is the link to the instructions to sign up: https://www.artrs.gov/general/director-updates/716-08-15-2014-executive-director-update-the-new-atrs-website.

You can also sign up to obtain these executive director updates through your private email address. Updates are made throughout the year such as at retirement season and other times when information needs to be shared. Now, over 10,300 people have signed up to receive this executive director by listserve email. You can find the link to sign up for listserve delivery to these updates here: https://www.artrs.gov/login.

In addition, over 14,000 people have access to the ATRS executive director updates via direct email delivery. It is always a great pleasure for ATRS staff to learn of more ways to provide information to ATRS members, employers, beneficiaries, government officials, and the public. The ATRS Board is committed to providing a system that is member friendly and transparent.

You can also get helpful ATRS information on the ATRS Facebook page under the name of Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Over 3,100 Facebook users get updates via the ATRS Facebook page. Go to the Facebook page and "like" ATRS to get daily updates.  I try to go to the Facebook page every day to post information and answer member questions about ATRS. In addition, if you use Twitter, you can join over 800 others by following events at ATRS and issues of interest on the ATRS Twitter page. Remember that ATRS is here to serve you! If you have questions, email me or call.

Respectfully,

George Hopkins

(501) 682-1820 Office
(501) 318-5998 Cell
georgeh@artrs.gov

 

Click on the following document for more information:

1. Session Update

2. Bill Summary

January 20, 2017 - Executive Director Update: ATRS Legislative Package and Week 2 of the General Assembly

Despite that this is just the conclusion of the second week, the news in this update is material, positive, and likely sets the tone for the entire session on ATRS, its legislative package, and on ATRS retirement legislation generally. On Wednesday, I met with the 4 leaders of the Joint Retirement Committee along with Governor Hutchinson's staff office. The meeting was very positive and focused on protecting the members of ATRS and protecting the financial strength of ATRS. 

The Joint Retirement Committee's leadership is Representative Douglas House, House Co-chair; Senator Bart Hester, Senate Co-chair; Representative Gary Deffenbaugh, House Vice chair; and Senator Blake Johnson, Senate Vice chair. During the meeting, two important themes should be highlighted right now. First, the leadership would not support any effort to merge or consolidate ATRS or any other Arkansas public retirement system and has no expectation that such a proposal will be introduced in this session. That is great news for ATRS members! 

The second theme is that the leadership is focused on maintaining the financial strength of ATRS and agrees that ATRS should have the tools and mechanisms necessary to react to downturns in the financial markets or changes in actuarial standards to pay all earned and lawful benefits. This meeting theme aligns with the legislative package of the ATRS Board. 

The meeting was meaningful and productive. ATRS is grateful to the committee leadership and Governor Hutchinson's staff for having this important meeting with ATRS. The committee leadership and governor's staff dedicated a long period  of time on a very busy day to fully discuss the issues on ATRS and retirement. The meeting set the tone for the approach of the leadership and ATRS for the session. ATRS executive staff is very appreciative for their time and candid discussion.

At this point, two (2) of the 20 ATRS package bills have been introduced. Hopefully, the remaining 18 package bills will be introduced by the end of next week. Members of the General Assembly have committed to sponsoring bills for ATRS and will do so next week. The deadline to file retirement bills is January 27th. By the time you receive the executive director update next week,  a clearer picture of all the bills in the Joint Retirement Committee will be known.

This week, Senator John Cooper of Jonesboro introduced the first 2 ATRS package bills. SB141 is a bill that gives the ATRS Board authority to modify the formula that prevents unfair manipulation of salary in the final average calculation. SB142 is a bill that helps ensure the independence of the ATRS internal auditor by placing the employee performance evaluation with the ATRS audit committee. Thank you, Senator Cooper for assisting ATRS on these important bills. 

This update has an attachment that is a session update and an attachment that summarizes the 20 ATRS legislative package bills plus a summary of the one additional bill that impacts ATRS. Next week should have much more activity both on ATRS package bills and potentially other bills.

Remember that ATRS has a new website that allows members to have direct access to specific member account information. Now approximately 9,200 members have direct account access to individualized account information. Here is the link to the instructions to sign up: https://www.artrs.gov/general/director-updates/716-08-15-2014-executive-director-update-the-new-atrs-website.

You can also sign up to obtain these executive director updates through your private email address. Updates are made throughout the year such as at retirement season and other times when information needs to be shared. Now, over 9,500 people have signed up to receive this executive director by listserve email. You can find the link to sign up for listserve delivery to these updates here: https://www.artrs.gov/login.

In addition, over 13,000 people have access to the ATRS executive director updates via direct email delivery. It is always a great pleasure for ATRS staff to learn of more ways to provide information to ATRS members, employers, beneficiaries, government officials, and the public. The ATRS Board is committed to providing a system that is member friendly and transparent.

You can also get helpful ATRS information on the ATRS Facebook page under the name of Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Over 3,100 Facebook users get updates via the ATRS Facebook page. Go to the Facebook page and "like" ATRS to get daily updates.  I try to go to the Facebook page every day to post information and answer member questions about ATRS. In addition, if you use Twitter, you can join over 800 others by following events at ATRS and issues of interest on the ATRS Twitter page. Remember that ATRS is here to serve you! If you have questions, email me or call.

Respectfully,

George Hopkins

(501) 682-1820 Office
(501) 318-5998 Cell
georgeh@artrs.gov

 

Click on the following document for more information:

1. Session Update

2. Bill Summary