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February 17, 2017 - Executive Director Update: ATRS Legislative Package and Week 6 of the General Assembly

Week 6 was somewhat of a busy week. ATRS had four (4) bills for consideration by the Joint Retirement Committee on Monday, February 13, 2017. HB1304, HB1305, SB233, and SB193 were all voted out of the Committee "DO PASS". HB1304 concerns were resolved with an amendment to the bill that was filed late Friday afternoon, before the Joint Retirement Committee meeting on Monday. HB1304 is a clarification bill that does not substantively change policy or procedure.

Meetings and telephone calls with school officials, members of the General Assembly, ATRS members, and other school advocates are still occurring to discuss various issues with the 20 bill ATRS legislative package. ATRS is working on amendments to certain bills to reflect agreements and to further clarify language and intent. ATRS is always anxious to address concerns and improve legislation. ATRS heard many concerns this week regarding SB186 and SB187. As to SB186, the important thing to know is that the ATRS Board already has authority to reduce the multipliers for both non-contributory and contributory service. That authority has existed for several years and it has never been used. The reason for the change to the existing authority to adjust the multipliers is that the actuaries have suggested ATRS attempt to reach about an 18 year amortization period instead of maintaining a 30 year amortization period as the target period. The 30 year period is no longer accurate as the goal. SB186 takes out the requirement for over a 30 year amortization and replaces it with a requirement that the Board may make the change, if needed, to maintain actuarial soundness. In regard to SB187, as with SB186, the ATRS Board already has authority to increase the member contribution rate. If the ATRS Board had wanted to increase the rate, the rate could easily have been increased. That authority has existed for several years and it has never been used. In fact, it has been 47 years since the member contribution rate has been increased. Under current law, if ATRS has an amortization period to pay off its unfunded liability of over 30 years, the contribution rate can be increased. For several years, ATRS was over a 30 year amortization period and the board never increased the rate, although it had authority to do so by just passing a resolution at a board meeting. The only change in authority for the board to change the contribution rate is that the actuaries have suggested ATRS attempt to reach about an 18 year amortization period instead of making a 30 year amortization period the target period. SB187 takes out the requirement for over a 30 year amortization and replaces it with a requirement more in line with current actuarial views that the Board may make the change, if needed, to maintain actuarial soundness.

Next week, the regular Monday meeting of the Joint Retirement Committee has been cancelled since the House is not in session on Monday. This means that all the work will be on amendments, actuarial reports, and negotiations on bills. This is a good chance to catch up and clarify issues with legislators on the ATRS package.

ATRS gives its appreciation and thanks to the COURAGEOUS and hard working legislators who are carrying the 20 bill package of the ATRS Board on behalf of ATRS members. Some members have mistakenly thought that the bills were attacking ATRS. In reality, the bills are actually designed to help ATRS navigate any future stormy financial markets and actuarial changes with the ability to restore any adjustments. Thank you Senator Caldwell, Senator Cheatham, Senator Cooper, Senator Hester, Senator Hutchinson, Senator Sample, Senator Maloch, Representative Coleman, Representative Deffenbaugh, Representative Maddox, and Representative Rye for your hard work and support of ATRS and its members.

Remember the ATRS website allows members to have direct access to specific member account information. Now approximately 9,500 members have direct account access to individualized account information. Here is the link to the instructions to sign up: https://www.artrs.gov/welcome.

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 14,200 people have signed up to receive this executive director by direct email delivery. You can find the link to sign up for email delivery to these updates here: https://www.artrs.gov/login. 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

February 10, 2017 - Executive Director Update: ATRS Legislative Package and Week 5 of the General Assembly

Week 5 was a "3 steps forward and 2 steps back" week. ATRS had three (3) bills for consideration by the Joint Retirement Committee on Monday, February 6, 2017. HB1304 and HB1305 were voted out of the Committee "DO PASS" and SB233 was held in Committee for consideration next week. On Wednesday, both HB1304 and HB1305 were returned to the Joint Retirement Committee for additional review and clarification. All three of the bills ready for action are now back in committee. Concerns arose that HB1304 would impact local property taxes on real property held by ATRS and otherwise could give ATRS an unfair competitive advantage over private owners. HB1304 does not impact the payment of property taxes by ATRS and was a clarification bill.

ATRS looks forward to better explaining the bill on Monday, February 13, 2017, back in the Joint Retirement Committee. If you would like to see a very detailed analysis of HB1304 that was sent to the members of the General Assembly on Thursday, February 9, 2017, a copy of the email with attachments that was sent to members of the General Assembly is attached to this update.

ATRS did have several meetings and telephone calls with school officials, members of the General Assembly, ATRS members, and other school advocates to discuss the 20 bill ATRS legislative package. ATRS is working on amendments to certain bills to reflect agreements and to further clarify language and intent.

ATRS staff met with Representative Tosh on HB1336 and now expects that amendments are underway to remove ATRS concerns about the bill. This is the bill that originally contained forfeiture of benefit language in the event a retirement system member committed certain crimes. ATRS thanks Representative Tosh for his assistance and cooperation with ATRS on this bill.

On Monday, ATRS will likely have four (4) package bills on the Joint Retirement Committee agenda, SB193, SB233, HB1304, and HB1305. In addition, a bill by Representative Tosh addressing the ATRS five (5) year lookback law is also expected to be on the agenda. ATRS worked with Representative Tosh to find acceptable language and is neutral on this bill. Monday is stacking up to be a busy day in the Joint Retirement Committee for ATRS. SB142 is now an official act of the 91^st General Assembly. SB142 became Act 127 of 2017. Again, thank you Senator Cooper for sponsoring this bill that ensures the independence of the ATRS Internal Auditor.