DEPARTMENT
OF
AUDITS
AND
ACCOUNTS
270 Washington Street, S.W., Suite 1-156
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-8400
270 Washington Street, S.W., Suite 1-156
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-8400
Russell W.
Hinton
State Auditor
(404) 656-2174
State Auditor
(404) 656-2174
April
4, 2008
The
Honorable Bill Heath, Chairman
Senate Retirement Committee
State Capitol, Room 109
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
Senate Retirement Committee
State Capitol, Room 109
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
SUBJECT: State
Auditor’s
Certification
Substitute to SB 327 (LC 21 9934S) As Amended (AM 21 3621)
Dear Chairman Heath:
Substitute to SB 327 (LC 21 9934S) As Amended (AM 21 3621)
Dear Chairman Heath:
As
amended, this bill would revise provisions relating to re-employment of retired
teachers under the Teachers Retirement System. Specifically, this bill would
allow retired teachers, who have been retired for at least 12 calendar months,
to return to full-time employment in certain positions and continue to receive
retirement benefits. This bill would only apply to teachers who retired under a
‘normal service retirement’ as defined by this legislation. Under
the provisions of this substitute bill, public school systems would be
authorized to employ retired teachers as full-time classroom teachers,
principals, superintendents, media specialists, or counselors. Public school
systems would not be authorized to employ retired teachers as full-time
improvement specialists. However, this bill would continue to allow regional
education service agencies to hire retired teachers into such positions.
This
bill also specifies that the salary paid to any retired teacher shall be
determined pursuant to an agreement between the retired teacher and the
employing school system. Additionally, this legislation would require the
public school system employing a retired teacher to pay all employee and
employer contributions to the retirement system. Currently, the public school
system only pays the employer contribution. Finally, this bill establishes an
automatic repeal date of June 30, 2016.
The
amendment offered by (AM 21 3621) would revise provisions relating to retirement
bills in the General Assembly. Specifically, this amendment would revise the
definition of ‘retirement bill having a fiscal impact’ to include
any bill requiring a public retirement system to divest or refrain from
investing in specific investments or classes of investments. Under the
provisions of this amendment, any bill requiring a public retirement system to
divest or refrain from investing in specific investments or classes of
investments may only be introduced in the first year of the biennial session.
At the time such bill is introduced, it must be accompanied by a statement from
the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or the Speaker of the House of
Representatives describing the primary goal that the bill is attempting to
achieve and must include a fiscal analysis from each affected public retirement
system stating the cost of compliance with the legislation and the anticipated
annual fiscal losses which will be incurred as a result of complying with the
legislation.
This
is to certify that this amendment is a nonfiscal amendment as defined in the
Public Retirement Systems Standards Law. Therefore, the actuarial investigation
and State Auditor’s Summary for Senate Bill 327 (LC 21 9848S) would apply
to (LC 21 9934S), as amended (AM 21 3621). It should be noted that Senate Bill
327 also incorporates the provisions previously addressed in (LC 21 9690S).
Therefore, a copy of the actuarial investigations and State Auditor Summaries
for (LC 21 9848S) and (LC 21 9690S) are attached to this
certification.
Respectfully,
/s/ Russell W.
Hinton
State Auditor
State Auditor
RWH/cs