08 LC 21
9803S
The
House Committee on Retirement offers the following substitute to HR
1271:
A
RESOLUTION
Creating
the Joint Public Retirement System COLA Study Committee; and for other
purposes.
WHEREAS,
in 1967, the General Assembly authorized the Board of Trustees of the
Employees´ Retirement System of Georgia to adopt a method of providing
postretirement benefit adjustments "for the purpose of maintaining essentially
no less purchasing power for a beneficiary in his postretirement years," and
such provision is codified in O.C.G.A. Section 47-2-29; and
WHEREAS,
this year, for the first time in four decades, the retired members of the
Employees´ Retirement System of Georgia were not granted the standard cost
of living allowance established in 1967, and indications are there will not be
sufficient funds to grant a full COLA in the foreseeable future, and a
possibility exists that no COLA at all will be granted; and
WHEREAS,
state employees are compensated at only 80 percent of industry standard wages,
and there is a very real possibility without annual cost-of-living benefit
adjustments, those retired employees, many of whom worked their entire career
for modest wages and who had every reason to expect that their benefits would be
maintained in such a way as to keep up with inflation, will subside into poverty
even as their age makes them wholly dependent upon the promised retirement
benefits; and
WHEREAS,
the percentage of the employer contribution made on behalf of state employees
through appropriations is at an historic low, even at a time of economic
instability which adversely affects the earning power of the retirement system
investments; and
WHEREAS,
the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, the sister to the Employees´
Retirement System of Georgia, has securely funded cost-of-living adjustments at
the guaranteed rate of 3 percent per year into the future, and most other public
retirement systems are comfortable that they will be able to grant such
adjustments in the future; and
WHEREAS,
the Georgia Judicial Retirement System, while currently able to fund
cost-of-living benefit adjustments, is projected to be in a situation soon in
which it will no longer be able to do so, thus adversely affecting judges and
district attorneys throughout the state, and logic would dictate that the
problem be addressed now rather than waiting for a crisis to arise; and
WHEREAS,
concerns of equity and basic humanity demand that the General Assembly not
abandon its promise to state employees that their retirement benefits will not
be permitted to erode to insufficiency, but rather that their ability to
purchase the things necessary to life will remain level during their retirement
years.
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA that there is
created the Joint Public Retirement System COLA Study Committee to be composed
of four members of the House of Representatives and one retired member of the
Employees´ Retirement System of Georgia to be appointed by the Speaker of
the House of Representatives and four members of the Senate and one retired
member of the Employees´ Retirement System of Georgia to be appointed by
the President of the Senate. The Speaker of the House of Representatives shall
designate a member of the House and the President of the Senate shall designate
a member of the Senate who shall serve as cochairpersons of the committee. The
committee shall meet at the call of the cochairpersons.
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the committee shall undertake a study of the
conditions, needs, issues, and problems mentioned above or related thereto and
recommend any actions or legislation which the committee deems necessary or
appropriate. The committee may conduct such meetings at such places and at such
times as it may deem necessary or convenient to enable it to exercise fully and
effectively its powers, perform its duties, and accomplish the objectives and
purposes of this resolution. The legislative members of the committee shall
receive the allowances authorized for legislative members of interim legislative
committees but shall receive the same for not more than ten days unless
additional days are authorized. The funds necessary to carry out the provisions
of this resolution shall come from the funds appropriated to the House of
Representatives and Senate. In the event the committee makes a report of its
findings and recommendations, with suggestions for proposed legislation, if any,
such report shall be made on or before December 31, 2008. The committee shall
stand abolished on December 31, 2008.