STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO.732

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1309

S.D. 2

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1309, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT SYSTEM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend various provisions of chapter 88, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to the Employees' Retirement System.

Specifically, this bill:

(1) Clarifies to whom monthly pensions are payable upon the death of a pensioner;

(2) Requires the Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement System to set the administrator's salary at not more than that of a state executive department director;

(3) Allows elective officials and judges who have retired after attaining the seventy-five per cent benefit limitation to begin receiving benefits on the last day of December; and

(4) Restores the method used to calculate a member's average final compensation prior to the enactment of Act 128, Session Laws of Hawaii 2002.

Your Committee finds that Act 128, Session Laws of Hawaii 2002, was passed to streamline the processing of retirement benefits, but had the unintended effect of negatively impacting the retirement benefits of certain membership groups. This measure addresses this unintended consequence and also clarifies existing statutory language to provide for consistency in the application of Employees' Retirement System provisions.

Upon consideration of the fiscal impact of this measure, your Committee has amended this bill to keep intact existing statutory provisions that require the Employees' Retirement System board to set the salary of the Administrator within the range established for deputy directors.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1309, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1309, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

		____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair