BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2233
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          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 2233 (Public Employees Committee)
          As Amended August 23, 2004
          Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |74-0 |(May 17, 2004)  |SENATE: |22-12|(August 24,    |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2004)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:    P.E.,R & S.S.  
           
          SUMMARY  :  Makes technical non-substantive changes to Teachers'  
          Retirement Law (TRL). 

           The Senate amendments  :
           
           1)Clarifies the parties that are eligible for survivor benefits  
            under the Defined Benefit (DB) Plan and the Cash Balance (CB)  
            Plan of the State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS).

          2)Eliminate the requirement that two witness signatures are  
            required for a beneficiary designation.

          3)Specifies that an election for certain programs which allow a  
            lump sum payment and reduced monthly allowances must result in  
            no net actuarial impact to the program.

          4)Makes other technical and clarifying changes.
           
          EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Establishes the DB Plan of the State Teachers' Retirement  
            Plan. 

          2)Requires the governing board of a school district to grant an  
            employee a leave of absence to enable the employee to serve as  
            an elected officer of an employee organization.

           AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill:
           
           1)Made technical changes to various provisions of that law. 

          2)Declared that any act that amends or repeals any of the  
            sections amended by this act shall prevail over this act. 








                                                                  AB 2233
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          FISCAL EFFECT  :  None

           COMMENTS  :  According to CalSTRS, Assembly Bill 2233 is the  
          annual technical "housekeeping" bill.  This bill makes various  
          grammatical, technical and conforming changes to TRL to  
          facilitate efficient administration of the State Teachers'  
          Retirement Plan (Plan), which includes the DB Plan, the Defined  
          Benefit Supplement (DBS) Program, and the CB Plan.   
          Specifically, the bill:

          1)Adds the term "spouse" to clarify the nonmember spouse payment  
            requirements for purchasing additional service credit.
          2)Adds the term "Employees'" to clarify service performed under  
            the San Francisco City and County Employees' Retirement System  
            is excluded under the CalSTRS DB Plan.

          3)Eliminates the text "age and" to clarify that only additional  
            service credit is granted to DB Plan members under the 2-Year  
            Retirement Incentive Program.

          4)Replaces the text "purchase additional service credit" with  
            "redeposit refunded accumulated retirement contributions" to  
            clarify redeposit conditions under the DB Plan.

          5)Eliminates the term "annual" in order to allow CalSTRS to  
            issue the earnings limit in advance of the calendar year for  
            which it is effective by using the California Consumer Price  
            Index from the immediately preceding June.

          6)Replaces the term "allowance" with "benefit" to clarify the  
            actuarial reduction applied to the retirement benefit when a  
            member elects the Partial Lump Sum under the DB Plan.

          7)Clarifies the authority of the Teachers' Retirement Board to  
            set the employer contribution rate as a plan amendment. 


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Clem Meredith / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916)  
          319-3957 


                                                                FN: 0008786










                                                                  AB 2233
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