The 93rd General Assembly
Joint Public Retirement & Social Security Committee (JRC)
The Joint Retirement Committee (JRC) met on Monday, April 5th where Representative Les Warren presented HB1325 and Representative Reginald Murdock presented HB1300.
The Joint Public Retirement Committee (JRC) has concluded all of its business for this legislative session. There are no scheduled meetings at this time.
SB50 has been signed by Governor Hutchinson and is now Act 579. Act 579 authorizes the ATRS budget appropriation for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
HB1325 was passed out of the House and is on the Senate calendar. This bill clarifies and improves the subchapter that deals with reciprocity. It allows each system to define the final average salary used in reciprocal calculations. It contains a grandfather clause regarding the use of the highest final average salary for anyone who currently has reciprocal service. This bill will ensure that there are no conflicts with general reciprocal law and ATRS law.
HB1300 was passed out of the House and the Senate this week. It is on the Governor’s desk to sign. This bill allows high school students working during the summer as part of specific summer work programs to not be considered employees of the school. ATRS will not lose any contributions that would be made by some other employee.
Monitoring Teacher Retirement Related Legislation
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 they could indirectly impact 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”.
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 specific member account information. Now, approximately 24,500 members have direct account access to individualized account information. Here is the link to the instructions to sign up: www.artrs.gov/registration.
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 26,100 people have signed up to receive this executive director update by 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. 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