February 16, 2023 - Executive Director Update: Legislative Session, Week 6

The 94th General Assembly - Joint Public Retirement & Social Security Committee

The Joint Retirement Committee (JRC) met on Monday, February 13th. Senator Kim Hammer, Representative Les Warren, Representative Andrew Collins, and I presented the four bills in the ATRS Legislative Package. 

The next JRC meeting will be held on Monday, February 20, 2023 where Senator Kim Hammer, Representative Andrew Collins, and I will present three of the bills in the ATRS Legislative Package. The bills in the ATRS Legislative Package do NOT reduce any benefits for any ATRS member or beneficiary.

SB117, sponsored by Sen. Kim Hammer, will lower the number of months that a retiree must be terminated from employment before returning to the service of an ATRS employer. The separation period is reduced from 6 months to 4 months. (The bill is expected to be amended as such on Monday before it is presented.)

HB1186, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Collins, permits the member to nominate one or more beneficiaries, and adds clarity to the disability retiree surviving spouse benefit.

HB1187, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Collins, clarifies the language that defines the lump sum death benefit. It especially clarifies that the lump sum death benefit is extended to T-DROP participants.

The actuaries found none of the above bills to have a significant cost effect on ATRS. They are all essentially bills to add efficiency and fairness to the ATRS procedures.

Status of ATRS Package Bills

SB116 and HB1201 were passed out of the House and the Senate this week. It is on the Governor’s desk to sign. Thank you to Senator Kim Hammer for presenting these bills on the Senate floor this week. Thank you to Representative Les Warren for presenting these bills on the House floor this week.

HB1188 was passed out of the House and the Senate this week. It is on the Governor’s desk to sign. Thank you to Representative Andrew Collins for presenting this bill on the House floor this week. Thank you to Senator Kim Hammer for presenting this bill on the Senate floor this week.

SB115 has been signed by Governor Sarah Sanders and is now Act 77. Act 77 will add fairness to the process that ATRS uses in administering the survivor benefits in the event an active member dies. I want to express my appreciation to Senator Kim Hammer for sponsoring this bill.

HB1183 has been signed by Governor Sanders and is now Act 64. Act 64 will clarify and codify the current process for collecting the surcharges on outsourced services used by school districts. I want to express my appreciation to Representative John Maddox for sponsoring this bill.

HB1184 has been signed by Governor Sanders and is now Act 52. Act 52 will ensure equal treatment of full-time school employees regardless of their date of hire within the year. I want to express my appreciation to Representative John Maddox for sponsoring this bill.

HB1199 has been signed by Governor Sanders and is now Act 55. Act 55 will codify the existing practice for refunding payments for purchased service, at the member’s request, if the purchased service credit is not used. I want to express my appreciation to Representative Mark Perry for sponsoring this bill.

HB1200 has been signed by Governor Sanders and is now Act 69. Act 69 will clarify and codify the current process of allowing the purchase of service and free military service, regardless of current ATRS active member status. I want to express my appreciation to Representative Mark Perry for sponsoring this bill.

HB1202 has been signed by Governor Sanders and is now Act 63. Act 63 will codify the existing practice of applying a lower multiplier for members with less than 10 years of ATRS service credit. I want to express my appreciation to Representative Les Warren for sponsoring this bill.

Now that the deadline for filing bills that directly impact one of the Arkansas public retirement plans has passed, ATRS is monitoring other bills as they are filed to determine if there could be an indirect impact to ATRS. As these bills are identified, we will add them to the ATRS Legislation page on the website. These bills will start in the “ATRS Monitoring” status. As more information is gathered about the purpose, intent, or actuarial cost of the bills, the status could change to “ATRS Neutral”, “ATRS Supports” or “ATRS Opposes”.

As a reminder, the Joint Retirement Committee (JRC) meeting will be video streamed over the Internet each Monday morning during the session. Just visit the Arkansas Legislative Meetings and Events web page on Monday at 8:30 a.m. Look for the item “PUBLIC RETIREMENT & SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAMS-JOINT” and click on the “VIDEO” icon. The agenda for the meeting will be posted here at least 18 hours before the start of the meeting.

ATRS will try to keep its members informed about the bills that impact ATRS, its members and employers. For more information regarding the ATRS Bill Package and Bills that may impact ATRS visit the Legislation page on our website.

Stay in Touch with ATRS and View YOUR Account Information

The ATRS website allows members to have direct access to their account information and sign up to receive our executive director updates. Member account information can be accessed 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. Executive director updates are emailed periodically throughout the year to help keep members up-to-date on issues from retirement, to legislative updates that may affect ATRS, and any other time when information needs to be shared.

Join over 30,000 ATRS members who have registered for account access and updates by visiting us at: www.artrs.gov/registration. There you can join the mailing list for executive director updates and register to gain access to your member information.

ATRS is always striving to keep its members, employers, beneficiaries, government officials, and the public informed. It is always a great pleasure for ATRS to learn of more ways to provide information to ATRS members. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve our communication you may e-mail them to info@artrs.gov for consideration.

As always, ATRS and its board are committed to providing a system that is member friendly and transparent. Remember that ATRS is here to serve you.

Best regards,

Clint Rhoden
Executive Director ATRS
Office: 501-588-4367
Mobile: 501-291-1623
clintr@artrs.gov

February 9, 2023 - Executive Director Update: Legislative Session, Week 5

The 94th General Assembly - Joint Public Retirement & Social Security Committee

The Joint Retirement Committee (JRC) met on Monday, February 6th. Representative Les Warren, Representative John Maddox, Representative Mark Perry, and I presented the six bills in the ATRS Legislative Package. 

The next JRC meeting will be held on Monday, February 13, 2023 where Senator Kim Hammer, Representative Les Warren, Representative Andrew Collins, and I will present four of the bills in the ATRS Legislative Package. The bills in the ATRS Legislative Package do NOT reduce any benefits for any ATRS member or beneficiary.

SB116, sponsored by Sen. Kim Hammer, will allow a member, that leaves active employment for a period of time and then returns back to employment, to purchase the gap years at actuarial cost.

HB1186, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Collins, permits the member to nominate one or more beneficiaries, and adds clarity to the disability retiree surviving spouse benefit.

HB1188, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Collins, clarifies some of the language related to the use of partial years in the final average salary and better defines anti-spiking.

HB1201, sponsored by Rep. Les Warren, makes changes for consistency of language, and other technical changes related to administrative efficiency.

The actuaries found none of the above bills to have a significant cost effect on ATRS. They are all essentially bills to add efficiency and fairness to the ATRS procedures.

SB115 and HB1202 were passed out of the House and the Senate this week. It is on the Governor’s desk to sign. Thank you to Senator Kim Hammer for presenting these bills on the Senate floor this week. Thank you to Representative Les Warren for presenting these bills on the House floor this week.

HB1183 and HB1184 were passed out of the House and the Senate this week. They are on the Governor’s desk to sign. Thank you to Representative John Maddox for presenting these bills on the House floor this week. Thank you to Senator Kim Hammer for presenting these bills on the Senate floor this week.

HB1199 and HB1200 were passed out of the House and the Senate this week. They are on the Governor’s desk to sign. Thank you to Representative Mark Perry for presenting these bills on the House floor this week. Thank you to Senator Kim Hammer for presenting these bills on the Senate floor this week.

Now that the deadline for filing bills that directly impact one of the Arkansas public retirement plans has passed, ATRS is monitoring other bills as they are filed to determine if there could be an indirect impact to ATRS. As these bills are identified, we will add them to the ATRS Legislation page on the website. These bills will start in the “ATRS Monitoring” status. As more information is gathered about the purpose, intent, or actuarial cost of the bills, the status could change to “ATRS Opposes” or “ATRS Supports”.

As a reminder, the Joint Retirement Committee (JRC) meeting will be video streamed over the Internet each Monday morning during the session. Just visit the Arkansas Legislative Meetings and Events web page on Monday at 8:30 a.m. Look for the item “PUBLIC RETIREMENT & SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAMS-JOINT” and click on the “VIDEO” icon. The agenda for the meeting will be posted here at least 18 hours before the start of the meeting.

ATRS will try to keep its members informed about the bills that impact ATRS, its members and employers. For more information regarding the ATRS Bill Package and Bills that may impact ATRS visit the Legislation page on our website.

Stay in Touch with ATRS and View YOUR Account Information

The ATRS website allows members to have direct access to their account information and sign up to receive our executive director updates. Member account information can be accessed 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. Executive director updates are emailed periodically throughout the year to help keep members up-to-date on issues from retirement, to legislative updates that may affect ATRS, and any other time when information needs to be shared.

Join over 30,000 ATRS members who have registered for account access and updates by visiting us at: www.artrs.gov/registration. There you can join the mailing list for executive director updates and register to gain access to your member information.

ATRS is always striving to keep its members, employers, beneficiaries, government officials, and the public informed. It is always a great pleasure for ATRS to learn of more ways to provide information to ATRS members. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve our communication you may e-mail them to info@artrs.gov for consideration.

As always, ATRS and its board are committed to providing a system that is member friendly and transparent. Remember that ATRS is here to serve you.

Best regards,

Clint Rhoden
Executive Director ATRS
Office: 501-588-4367
Mobile: 501-291-1623
clintr@artrs.gov