Legislation

After taking off the week of Spring Break, the Legislature has been moving at breakneck speed this week as they work to finish their business by April 16. The end of this session is now in sight.

On Tuesday, the Joint Public Retirement Committee held what will be their last meeting for this session. They approved several bills, including three that affect ATRS.

The first one, HB1344, is just a technical correction. There is a separate bill moving through the Legislature, HB1810, that proposes to combine the Arkansas School for the Blind and the Arkansas School for the Deaf into a single entity operating under a single Board of Trustees. These schools are ATRS-covered employers and are specifically mentioned in the state retirement laws. All that HB1344 does is change the name of the schools in the retirement laws to reflect their new combined name, in the event that HB1810 passes. The Committee gave the bill a do pass recommendation, and the House approved the bill on Wednesday.

SB148 is a bill I mentioned in an update a few weeks back, it would expand ATRS membership to include early childhood education employees working for some private facilities. These employees would participate in ATRS on the same terms, and with the same contribution rates, as our existing members. It would be available only to employees of facilities that are licensed and accredited by the state and that receive state or federal child care funding. Current law already allows this opportunity for private developmental disability providers, and SB148 follows that same pattern for early childhood education. The Committee gave the bill a do pass recommendation, and the Senate approved the bill on Wednesday.

The third one, SB157, mentions ATRS but should not change anything for us. It authorizes all of the state's retirement systems to offer a death benefit to members using life insurance. ATRS already provides the Lump-Sum Death Benefit for members who have at least ten years of service credit. The real motivation behind the bill was to encourage the state's other retirement systems to follow the example of ATRS on this issue. The Committee gave the bill a do pass recommendation, and the Senate approved the bill on Thursday.

Aside from what the Joint Public Retirement Committee considered this week, we are still closely monitoring two other bills. HB1365, which would remove the requirement that ATRS and other boards and commissions have minority members, passed out of the House on Thursday and is now in the Senate State Agencies Committee. And HB1352, which restricts our ability to invest in China, passed out of committee with one additional amendment we had asked for, and it is now on the Senate floor. 

If you have questions about any of these bills, or any other pending legislation, please reach out to me at the email address or phone number below. Also, if you are receiving this email as a forward and would like to be added to the distribution list, you can subscribe to these legislative updates here.

Mark White
ATRS Executive Director
MarkW@artrs.gov
Office: (501) 621-8853
Cell: (501) 541-2057