2015 Legislative Bulletin #4

LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN NUMBER FOUR

There isn’t a lot to report for this week except for one good thing that happened late last week:

The Appropriations Committee met to consider SB 492. This is the bill that had a clause making a Defined Contribution the default option for new hires for the state.
Senator Karen Tallian proposed an amendment that, among other items, dropped the DC clause. The amendment was accepted, and the clause is no longer part of the bill.
The bill passed the Senate yesterday and will now go to the House. We will watch to be sure no other amendments are added back in that would refer to a DC.

I have to give you the credit for the way this went. We were surprised at the ease in which they adopted Senator Tallian’s amendment, and we feel it may have been because they were hearing from all of you that we were opposed to the DC clause.
Please thank Senator Tallian: s4@iga.in.gov
And Senator Boots for allowing the amendment: s23@iga.in.gov
At any rate, if you wrote about SB 492. Thank you, and please keep up the good work.

What needs to happen now is a note to Representative Cherry to say we hope they will hear and pass his bill, HB 1493, in the Ways and Means Committee. This must happen within two weeks. A note to Chairman Brown of the Ways and Means Committee would also be appropriate.
HB 1493 is the hybrid bill that gives both a permanent increase and a one-time increase. We feel it has the best chance of becoming law, as its fiscal impact will be lower than the traditional COLA, but it still increases your monthly pension.

There is still a long way to go, but we are hoping to make the case for this bill. Representative Cherry: h53@iga.in.gov Representative Brown: h4@iga.in.gov

If any of your representatives are on the Ways and Means Committee, please write to them also. You should have the list of those names from Legislative Bulletin Two.

As always, we can’t do it without your support. THANK YOU FOR THE HELP!

Your legislative team