NOTE: As provided in LFC policy, this report is intended for use by the standing finance committees of the legislature.  The Legislative Finance Committee does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this report when used in any other situation.

The LFC is only preparing FIRs on bills referred to the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the House Appropriations and Finance Committee and the House Taxation and Revenue Committee. The chief clerks are responsible for preparing and issuing all other bill analyses.

Only the most recent FIR version, excluding attachments, is available on the Intranet. Previously issued FIRs and attachments may be obtained from the LFC office in Room 416 of the State Capitol Building.

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico (PERA)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

This bill would make willful disclosure of personal, confidential information contained in member files without the written consent of the member, by the association, board members, their employees, and their agents, a criminal (misdemeanor) offense.

This bill also provides that portions of public hearings and meetings of the board may be closed to the public when information of this nature is discussed.

Any personal information also contained in member files that is acquired from public, non-confidential sources, is not subject to the provisions of this proposed legislation.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

None.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) stresses concern over the application and interpretation of this proposed legislation. PERA believes that this bill would "impede and discourage" PERA board members and employees from appropriately sharing information with each other and with state agencies. PERA claims that even public access to PERA offices could only be made available under "the most controlled and limited circumstances".

TECHNICAL ISSUES

Section 10-11-130(I) NMSA 1978 of the PERA act states:

Neither the retirement board nor the association shall allow public inspection of, or disclosure of, information from any member or retiree file unless a prior release and consent, in the form prescribed by the association, has been executed by the member or retiree; except that applicable coverage plans, amounts of retirement plan contributions made by members and affiliated public employers, pension amounts paid, and the names and addresses of public employees retirement association members or retirees requested for election purposes by candidates for election to the retirement board may be produced or disclosed without release or consent.

The proposed legislation may conflict with this section of law if employee information that is currently

non-confidential as set forth above is deemed confidential by the current legislation. The conflict may be resolved by adding language specifying that PERA and information available to the public by PERA prior to the time of enactment, in accordance with other sections of the Public Employees Retirement Act, may be considered a public, non-confidential source.

At times, PERA must relate member information to other agencies like the state district attorneys office (DA), the legislative finance committee (LFC). The legislation as written may diminish the oversight of PERA by the Legislative Finance Committee as it relates to confidential member information.

The conflict may be resolved by adding language similar to the following:

"information requested by another agency that contains confidential member information as defined by this section, may be released by the public employees retirement association or their staff, to the requesting agency if the public employees retirement association is required by statute to respond to agency's requests; or if the information requested is necessary for the requesting agency to perform within its scope of duties as defined by law, judgement or decree. Information provided by PERA to other agencies pursuant to the standards in this section that would otherwise be personal and confidential information, will not be in violation of this section."

To insure protection of confidential information after it is delivered to the requesting agencies, additional language may be appropriate stipulating that information provided to other agencies will also be kept confidential, unless the request is made in writing by the attorney general's office for official purposes, or by an attorney through a request for production associated with a civil or criminal court action involving the member.

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