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| SPONSOR: | Silva | DATE TYPED: | 03/12/01 | HB | 885/aHAFC | ||
| SHORT TITLE: | Former Congressional Employee Service Credit | SB | |||||
| ANALYST: | Eaton | ||||||
| Recurring
or Non-Rec |
Fund
Affected | ||||
| FY01 | FY02 | FY01 | FY02 | ||
| NFI | |||||
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of HAFC amendment
The HAFC amendment adds one additional qualifier for the credit in that the member has not qualified for vesting in a federal government pension.
Synopsis of Original Bill
This bill amends the Public Employees Retirement Act to allow a member who was employed by an elected member of the US House of Representatives or US Senate to purchase service credit for the period of employment with Congress up to 5 years. The member must pay the actuarial present value of the time to be purchased and must have 5 or more years of service credit with a PERA affiliated employer.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) report that the actuaries will charge a fee for the additional calculations work, but it is unknown at this time what that added cost will be. Because the service credit requires public employees to pay the actuarial present value for the time, there will be no fiscal impact.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
Minimal. PERA asserts that this bill presents a significant plan change that the actuaries need to address.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
PERA currently has a provision that allows a member who has 15 years or more of service credit who goes to work for the federal government within 90 days of leaving the affiliated public employer to pay both the employee and employer member contributions to receive service credit. NMSA 1978, §10-11-6(B). Such a provision is available for all federal government service. This bill provides enhanced service credit provisions to a narrowly defined group of federal employees for anytime they worked for during their working careers.
JBE/ar