BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                       



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                   AB 192|
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                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 192
          Author:   Gatto (D) 
          Amended:  8/20/10 in Senate
          Vote:     21 

           
          PRIOR VOTES NOT RELEVANT


           SUBJECT  :    Public employee retirement benefits

           SOURCE  :     Author


           DIGEST  :    This bill prevents an increase in liability for  
          a former local employer when a Public Employees Retirement  
          System contracting agency increases a nonrepresented  
          employees salary by more than 15 percent.

           Senate Floor Amendments  of 8/20/10 delete the prior version  
          of the bill relating to statutory changes in the area of  
          cash management and cash deferrals in order to amend the  
          2009 Budget Act.

           ANALYSIS  :    

           Existing Law

           1.Creates and defines the Public Employees' Retirement  
            System (PERS), which administers retirement, death, and  
            health benefits for state employees, classified school  
            employees, and the employees of over 4000 local  
            contracting agencies.
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          2.Requires that if a local agency employs 100 or fewer  
            employees, its assets and liabilities shall be pooled  
            with other small agencies having the same benefit  
            structures and that the employers in the pool shall share  
            the same employer rate, as specified.

          3.Requires PERS to actuarially determine the employer rates  
            annually, which are based on various factors, including  
            employee and retiree demographics, experience (e.g.,  
            numbers of deaths and retirements, amounts of salary  
            increases, etc.), and the level of investment returns on  
            the retirement fund.  The rates are charged as a  
            percentage of the employer's total payroll for active  
            employees and are paid over the course of an employee's  
            career.

          4.Requires that assets and liabilities of terminated  
            agencies be pooled together in a single account to  
            provide for the payment of promised benefits to members  
            of those plans.

          5.Allows public employees who change public employers to,  
            upon retirement and having met specified criteria, have  
            all their years of service calculated at their highest  
            compensation for the purpose of determining their  
            retirement benefits and specifies that this is one of the  
            benefits of reciprocity.

          6.Requires employees to also make contributions to fund  
            their benefits, which accumulated contributions are the  
            property of the employees and may be disbursed to them or  
            their survivors upon separation from employment or death.

          This bill:

          1.Requires that the contributions and disbursements of  
            benefits for that portion of compensation that is  
            excessive shall be the obligation of the contracting  
            agency that paid the excessive compensation.

          2.Requires that the liability of a prior contracting agency  
            for the contributions and disbursements of benefits for  
            an employee shall be limited to the contributions and  

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            other assets sufficient to fund a retirement allowance  
            calculated using the amount of the employee's final  
            compensation at the time he or she terminated employment  
            with the prior agency.

          3.Defines excessive compensation as the portion of a salary  
            that increases by more than 15 percent than the salary  
            paid by the former employee, and excludes represented  
            employees from being subject to these provisions.

          4.Requires the PERS actuary to determine separate rates for  
            agencies subject to this bill with respect to the  
            excessive compensation, and requires that rate to be the  
            same for al agencies as a group, as specified.

          5.Requires these contributions to be pooled and allocated  
            between the agencies, as determined by the PERS actuary,  
            without regard to incidences of death or disability.

          6.Prohibits these separate contributions to be made by  
            employees and employees from being part of accumulated  
            contributions.

          7.Makes changes to how benefits would, or would not be,  
            paid in the terminated agency pool with regard to these  
            monies.

          8.Requires all contracting agencies impacted by these  
            changes to modify their PERS contracts by July 1, 2011.  
           
           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  Yes   Fiscal Com.:  Yes    
          Local:  No


          CPM:cm  8/23/10   Senate Floor Analyses 

                       SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  NONE RECEIVED

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