STAND. COM. REP. NO.  548-12

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2012

RE:   H.B. No. 2487

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2487 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 make various housekeeping amendments to the Employees' Retirement System and to restore parity with respect to age and service requirements for current Employees' Retirement System members who become judges after June 30, 2012.  Among other things, this measure:

     (1)  Restores the age and service retirement requirements for current members of the Employees' Retirement System who become judges after June 30, 2012 to the same age and service retirement requirements as other Contributory Plan members who became Employees' Retirement System members prior to July 1, 2012;

     (2)  Deletes erroneous references to water safety officers as Contributory Plan members of the Employees' Retirement System;

     (3)  Applies the same benefit multiplier for service retirement benefits and ordinary disability benefits for Hybrid Plan members who become members of the Employees' Retirement System after June 30, 2012; and

     (4)  Makes the service requirement for payment of the Hybrid Plan hypothetical account balance as an ordinary death benefit for an individual who becomes a member after June 30, 2012 the same as the service requirement for an inter vivos withdrawal after the member has terminated service.

The Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement System testified in support of this measure.

     Act 163, Session Laws of Hawaii 2011, enacted more stringent age and service requirements for retirement by members of the Employees' Retirement System who become members of the system after June 30, 2012.  However, upon further review and consideration of the newly established and prospective requirements by the Employees' Retirement System, several technical errors and inconsistencies were discovered in that Act.  This measure corrects typographical errors, harmonizes service retirement, ordinary disability retirement, and ordinary death benefits for members of the Employees’ Retirement System who become members after June 30, 2012, and restores parity with respect to age and service requirements for current members who become judges after June 30, 2012.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2487 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,

____________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair