BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 996|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 996
Author: Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee
Amended: 3/26/12
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT & RETIRE. COMM : 4-0, 04/09/12
AYES: Negrete McLeod, Walters, Gaines, Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Padilla
SUBJECT : County Employees Retirement Law of 1937: heart
trouble
presumption
SOURCE : State Association of County Retirement Systems
DIGEST : This bill is intended to restate and clarify
existing 1937 Act County Retirement Law regarding the
rebuttable presumption that heart trouble incurred by a
safety member arises from the safety members employment.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1.Establishes the 1937 Act County Employees' Retirement
Law, which covers 20 independent county retirement
systems.
2.Provides a system of industrial death and disability
benefits for safety officers and firefighters who are
injured, die, or develop an illness directly related to
the performance of their duties.
CONTINUED
SB 996
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2
3.Requires that when a safety member, firefighter, or
member in active law enforcement who has been employed
for five or more years develops heart trouble, the heart
trouble will be presumed to have arisen out of, and in
the course of, the member's employment, therefore making
the illness industrial and qualifying the member for
related industrial benefits.
4.Establishes industrial causation presumptions for cancer,
blood-borne infectious diseases, and illness due to
exposure to biochemical substances for safety officers,
and states that these presumptions may be rebutted by
presenting evidence to the contrary, but unless rebutted,
the retirement board must find that the illness was
industrial.
This bill clarifies that in the case of heart trouble, that
presumption may also be rebutted, but absent evidence to
the contrary, the retirement board must find that the heart
trouble was industrial.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/10/12)
State Association of County Retirement Systems (source)
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the State Association
of County Retirement Systems, the appellate court ruled in
Pellerin v KCERA (2006) that Government Code Section
31720.5 creates a rebuttable presumption that a heart
condition incurred by a safety employee arose out of the
individual's employment.
Following the Pellerin decision, there was some confusion
among 1937 Act County Retirement System attorneys regarding
the ability to rebut the heart presumption with other
evidence. The purpose of the language is to clarify
existing law and make the statutory language regarding the
heart presumption consistent with other presumptions within
the 1937 Act Retirement Law.
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DLW:nl 4/11/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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