BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 98|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 98
Author: Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review
Amended: 6/16/15
Vote: 21
SENATE FLOOR: Not relevant
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: Not available
SUBJECT: State government
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill is necessary for the enactment of the 2015
Budget Act and makes various changes relating to retiree health
care and vacant positions.
Assembly Amendments delete the Senate version of the bill and
insert the current language.
ANALYSIS: This bill:
1)Clarifies the definition of family to specifically exclude
former spouses and former domestic partners.
2)Requires a state employee's or state annuitant's employer to
possess and maintain documentation verifying eligibility of an
employee's family members and to verify this information every
three years, or annually for children for whom the state
employee or annuitant has assumed a parent-child relationship.
3)Prohibits the Board of Administration of the Public Employees'
Retirement System (board) from granting further exceptions to
the rule against enrolling employees, annuitants, and their
SB 98
Page 2
family members who are eligible for Medicare, as specified, in
a basic health care plan.
4)Revise the entities to which the board is required to provide
notification of approval of proposed benefits and premium
readjustments to exclude the Legislature as a whole, and
instead requires provision of an initial estimate of the
proposed changes in writing to the Joint Legislative Budget
Committee, the chairpersons of the committee and subcommittees
in each house of the Legislature that consider the Public
Employees' Retirement System's budget and activities, the
State Controller, the Director of Finance, and the Legislative
Analyst.
5)Require the board to provide a detailed report to the
Legislature and the Director of Finance annually, on November
1, regarding the health benefit plans it provides.
6)Establish the Annuitants' Health Care Coverage Fund, which is
continuously appropriated for the purpose of prefunding health
care coverage for annuitants, including administrative costs.
7)Prohibit the use of state funds in the Annuitants' Health Care
Coverage Fund for the payment of benefits until the date the
funded ratio reaches at least 100 percent, or July 1, 2046.
8)Revise the definition of prefunding to include employee, as
well as, employer payments and to provide that payments may
fund the actuarially-determined normal costs of postemployment
health care benefits.
9)Repeals state law pertaining to vacant positions that requires
the Controller to abolish state positions that are vacant for
six consecutive months.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: Yes Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/19/15)
SB 98
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None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/19/15)
None received
Prepared by: Farra Bracht / B. & F.R. / (916) 651-4103
6/19/15 10:47:19
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