88th Regular Legislative Session
TRS follows a collaborative process in responding to the needs of the legislature by involving all departments at TRS. Strong working relationships are developed with all stakeholders and maintained in providing cost estimates and impact statement analysis for agency bill assignments. TRS is prohibited by law from advocating or influencing legislative action or inaction. During the
88th Regular Legislative Session, a total of 8,345 bills and joint resolutions were filed. Of those, 1,246 passed the legislature. The following list summarizes prominent TRS-related legislation.
HB 1 – General Appropriations Act
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Includes funding for state contribution rate increases to the TRS Pension Trust Fund per SB 12 (86R): 8.25% for FY 2024 and 8.25% for FY 2025.
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Maintains the 1.25% state contribution and the 0.75% district contribution to TRS-Care.
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Provides one-time appropriation of $588.5 million to keep the average premium rate increase in TRS-ActiveCare below 10%.
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Includes a new rider relating to high-cost hospital claims directing TRS to engage a third-party vendor to conduct a review of hospital claims of TRS-Care and TRS-ActiveCare enrollees that exceeded $100,000 during FY 2022.
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Includes a new rider that authorizes TRS to expend additional funds and employ additional employees upon a finding of fact by the board that additional resources are necessary to open an additional regional office. The board shall notify the Legislative Budget board (“LBB") and the governor no later than 30 business days after such a finding.
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Includes a new rider relating to legal counsel that directs TRS to confer with the LBB before approving any settlement sought by TRS with its outside legal counsel contracted in FY 2023 and FY 2024 for health care related claims and litigation.
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Includes a contingency rider for benefit enhancements: $1.645 billion for the stipend and $3.355 billion for the COLAs. The appropriation of $3.355 billion is contingent upon voter approval of HJR 2 in Nov. 2023.
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Maintains other existing riders, including: updated actuarial valuation; intern exemption; settle-up dollars are to be directed to TRS-Care; GASB implementation, TRS is to incentivize members of TRS-Care and TRS-ActiveCare to shop for lower cost care within health plans to achieve shared savings; an exception to the FTE limitation is permitted with a board fiduciary finding and a report to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) and the governor.
SB 10 and HJR 2 – Benefit Enhancements
Senate Bill (SB) 10 and House Joint Resolution (HJR) 2 were passed to provide two types of benefit enhancements to eligible annuitants.
Stipends, regardless of annuity amount, to be paid in late September 2023:
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A one-time $7,500 stipend to eligible annuitants who are 75 years of age and older.
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A one-time $2,400 stipend to eligible annuitants age 70 to 74.
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Annuitants must meet the qualifying age on or before Aug. 31, 2023.
Cost-Of-Living-Adjustments to be paid in Jan. 2024 if HJR 2 is approved by Texas voters in the November 2023 election:
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2% COLA for eligible retirees who retired between Sept. 1, 2013 through Aug. 31, 2020.
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4% COLA for eligible retirees who retired between Sept. 1, 2001 through Aug. 31, 2013.
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6% COLA for eligible retirees who retired on or before Aug. 31, 2001.
For more information, please visit the 2023
TRS Retiree Benefit Enhancements webpage. Here, you can find frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the one-time stipends and COLAs, important upcoming dates, and helpful links to additional resources.
