STAND. COM. REP. NO. 697

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1209

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1209 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE RETIREMENT OF JUDGES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to harmonize age and service requirements for members of the Employees' Retirement System who become judges with the requirements for other contributory plan members who joined the system at the same time.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Employees' Retirement System and the Judiciary.

     Your Committee finds that under present law, members of the Employees' Retirement System who become judges after June 30, 2012, are subject to more stringent age and service requirements for retirement than other contributory plan members who became members of the system at the same time.  This disparity may serve as a disincentive for current, qualified members who might otherwise pursue a career on the bench.  Your Committee further finds that this measure will bring parity to age and service requirements for similarly situated members of the system.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by amending the prefatory language of section 2 to conform to customary drafting conventions.

     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. 1209, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1209, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair