Revised 10/4/00
NORTH DAKOTA LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
Tentative Agenda
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS PROGRAMS COMMITTEE
Tuesday, October 10, 2000
Harvest Room, State Capitol
Bismarck, North Dakota
| 9:00 a.m. | Call to order Roll call Consideration of minutes of the May 31, 2000, committee meeting |
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TEACHERS' FUND FOR RETIREMENT (TFFR)
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| 9:05 a.m. | Technical comments and public input on Employee Benefits Programs Committee bills | |
| Bill No. 69 | Increases the benefit multiplier from 1.85 to 2.00 percent; provides a postretirement benefit increase of $2 per month multiplied by a member's number of years of service credit plus $1 per month multiplied by the number of years since the member's retirement; also provides for an automatic benefit increase of five-tenths of one percent of an individual's current monthly benefit, and the increased benefit would be payable each month beginning on July 1 of each year of the ensuing biennium and beyond (TFFR) | |
| Bill No. 70 | Changes the definition of contract to include written agreements with special education units; changes the definition of teacher to include persons employed by state agencies and special education units and persons contractually employed by a separate state institution, state agency, special education unit, school board, or other governing body of a school district under a third-party contract; reduces the time period within which a retired teacher may return to covered employment from 60 calendar days to 30 calendar days and allows the retired member to return to covered employment for less than four hours each day and continue to receive a monthly retirement benefit or return to covered employment for four or more hours each day for a maximum of 90 working days and continue to receive a monthly retirement benefit; provides that if a teacher subsequently retires with more than two years of additional earned credited service, the retired person's annuity is the greater of the sum of the discontinued annuity, plus an additional annuity computed according to North Dakota Century Code (NDCC) Chapter 15-39.1 based upon years of service and average salaries earned during the period of reemployment plus any postretirement benefit adjustments granted during the period of reemployment, or a recalculated annuity computed according to Chapter 15-39.1 based on total years of service credit earned during both employment periods offset by the actuarial value of payments already received; provides that certain TFFR records relating to the retirement benefits of a member or a beneficiary may be disclosed to a member's participating employer, the Public Employees Retirement System, state or federal agencies, and member interest groups approved by the board (TFFR) | |
| Bill No. 3 | Provides that if a retired teacher returns to teaching and subsequently retires with more than four years of additional credited service, the retired teacher's annuity for all years of service must be computed under NDCC Section 15-39.1-10(2) (age 65 or rule of 85) (Representative Brandenburg) | |
| Bill No. 95 | Allows retired teachers to return to teaching in critical shortage areas or disciplines as determined by the TFFR Board by rule (Senator Holmberg) | |
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PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM (PERS) |
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Defined Contribution Retirement Plan
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| Bill No. 72 | Provides that eligible employees may elect to participate in the defined contribution retirement plan on the date the employee is first notified of eligibility as well as at any time during the first six months after the date of employment, whichever is later; provides that deferred members who are reemployed have six months after the date of reemployment or the date the employee is first notified of eligibility, whichever is later, rather than 60 days, to elect to participate in the defined contribution retirement plan; provides that participants who become employed by a political subdivision that participates in the Public Employees Retirement System must remain in the defined contribution retirement plan, but participants who become employees of the judicial branch, the State Board of Higher Education, a state institution under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Higher Education, Highway Patrol, or in a position subject to Teachers' Fund for Retirement membership must become a new member of the retirement plan for which that member's new position is eligible; allows participating members to roll over funds from other qualified plans into their account; allows distribution of the participating member's vested account balance if the board determines the participating member has become totally and permanently disabled (PERS) | |
| Bill No. 50 | Provides that all state employees except Supreme or district court judges or employees of the State Board of Higher Education and state institutions under the jurisdiction of the board who are eligible to participate in TIAA-CREF may elect to become members of the defined contribution retirement plan (Representatives Wald and Grande) | |
| Bill No. 51 | Extends the time period within which state employees eligible to participate in the defined contribution retirement plan may elect to participate in the plan until December 31, 2001 (Representatives Wald and Grande) | |
Public Employees Retirement System Main System
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| Bill No. 71 | Increases the benefit multiplier from 1.89 to 2.00 percent; establishes a procedure for determining a member's beneficiary; provides that if a participating member repurchases service that the member did not elect to repurchase upon reemployment, the member must pay to the board an amount equal to the greater of the actuarial cost to the fund of providing the credit or the amount the member received upon taking a refund of the member's account balance; allows members to purchase service credit with either pretax or aftertax moneys; provides a postretirement adjustment of six percent of present benefits; provides a prior service adjustment of six percent of the present benefit; provides that the Public Employees Retirement System Board may share retirement records as needed by an employer to validate the employer's compliance with existing state or federal laws, the Retirement and Investment Office, state or federal agencies, and interest groups approved by the board; allows the Public Employees Retirement System to administer more than one deferred compensation program; defines employee for purposes of the deferred compensation program as a person who is at least 18 years of age and employed in an approved and regularly funded position of unlimited duration for 20 hours or more per week and at least five months each year, including members of the Legislative Assembly; repeals NDCC Section 54-52-17.9 relating to prior service retiree adjustments (PERS) | |
| Bill No. 73 | Provides that permanent and total disability for Supreme Court and district court judges is based solely on a judge's inability to perform judicial duties arising out of physical or mental impairment; provides that for Supreme Court and district court judges who do not elect a single life, joint and survivor, level Social Security, or life with 5-year or 10-year retirement payment option, that retirement benefits must be in the form of a lifetime monthly pension with 50 percent of the benefit continuing for the life of the surviving spouse, if any; provides that participants in the judges' retirement system are entitled to receive a two percent postretirement adjustment in their present monthly benefit beginning January 1, 2002, and again on January 1, 2003; repeals NDCC Section 54-52-17.12 relating to postretirement adjustments for Supreme Court and district court judges (PERS) | |
| Bill No. 88 | Provides that payments for overtime must be included as wages and salaries for purposes of calculating benefits under the Public Employees Retirement System (Senator Lindaas) | |
| Bill No. 191 | Establishes the Public Employees Retirement System retirement plans as both contributory and noncontributory retirement plans (PERS) | |
Highway Patrolmen's Retirement System
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| Bill No. 74 | Allows contributors to the Highway Patrolmen's retirement system to purchase additional service credit from rollovers from other qualified plans, purchase additional credit for up to four years of active employment in the armed forces of the United States, purchase credit for employer-approved leaves of absence, and purchase additional years of service credit to enable the contributor to qualify for normal retirement; increases the benefit multiplier from 3.40 to 3.60 percent of final average salary for the first 25 years of service; provides a postretirement increase in the benefit multiplier from 3.40 to 3.60 percent of final average salary; provides an increase for individuals receiving disability retirement benefits of six percent of the individual's present benefits; provides for the determination of beneficiaries under the Highway Patrolmen's retirement system; allows members of the Highway Patrolmen's retirement system to purchase service credit with either pretax or aftertax moneys (PERS) | |
Retiree Health Insurance Credit Fund
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| Bill No. 77 | Increases the retiree health credit from $4.50 to $5 (PERS) | |
UNIFORM GROUP INSURANCE PROGRAM
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| Bill No. 75 | Transfers from NDCC Section 54-52.1-06 to Section 54-52-04 authority of the Public Employees Retirement System Board to use amounts credited to the separate uniform group insurance program fund in excess of the costs of the administration of the uniform group insurance program to reduce the amount of premium amounts paid monthly by enrolled members of the uniform group insurance program, to reduce increases in premium amounts paid monthly by enrolled members, or to provide increased insurance coverage to members, as determined by the board; provides that retirees who have accepted a periodic distribution from the defined contribution retirement plan are eligible for retiree health benefits; provides that premium payment amount and history for any available insurance coverage are confidential, but the board may disclose certain information and records to persons or entities to which the board is required to disclose information pursuant to federal statutes or rules (PERS) | |
| Bill No. 76 | Requires the Public Employees Retirement System Board to establish a dental plan for eligible employees and retirees by July 1, 2002 (PERS) | |
| Bill No. 2 | Provides that eligible employees who are eligible to participate in the uniform group insurance program at the family plan rate who have medical and hospital benefits coverage under a health insurance plan provided to another member of the eligible employee's family who is not insured under the uniform group insurance program and the eligible employee does not enroll in the uniform group insurance program are entitled to receive a monthly payment equal to 60 percent of the family plan rate; provides that if eligible employees who are eligible to participate in the uniform group insurance program at the family plan rate elect to participate at the single plan rate and forego family coverage, the eligible employee is entitled to receive a monthly payment equal to one-half of the difference between the family plan rate and the single plan rate provided no member of the eligible employee's family is insured under the uniform group insurance program (Senator Andrist) | |
| Bill No. 49 | Allows any person who is without health insurance coverage to participate in the uniform group insurance program subject to minimum requirements established by the Public Employees Retirement System Board (Senator T. Mathern) | |
OLD-AGE AND SURVIVOR INSURANCE SYSTEM (OASIS)
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| Bill No. 78 | Increases primary insurance benefits under the Old-Age and Survivor Insurance System fund (Job Service North Dakota) | |
ALTERNATE FIREFIGHTERS RELIEF ASSOCIATION PLANS
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| Bill No. 79 | Provides that a firefighters relief association may adopt an alternate pension plan for its members with a service benefit of 2.5 percent of final salary with final salary for a first-class firefighter being the final salary at the time of the member's retirement and final salary for officers or members of higher rank being the average salary for the last five years of employment; provides a postretirement adjustment of two percent of the member's present benefits (Senators Grindberg and C. Nelson) | |
| 3:00 p.m. | Staff directives | |
| 3:15 p.m. | Adjourn | |
| NOTE: The committee may take a 15- to 20-minute coffee break in the morning and will take a one-hour luncheon recess at noon. | ||
