Bill > A5158

Introduced Session

This bill removes the membership tiers established in the Teachers' Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF) and transfers all current non-retired members of TPAF to the membership tier referred to as "Tier 1" by the Division of Pensions and Benefits. All transferred members will be considered eligible for any benefits associated with Tier 1. Under the bill, employees of public employers who earn more than the minimum salary requirement, but do not currently meet the minimum hour eligibility requirements, will be considered eligible to be enrolled as members of TPAF. The employer is to process the compulsory enrollment of each affected employee within two months following the enactment of the bill. Any affected employees who are currently enrolled as participants of the Defined Contribution Retirement Program (DCRP) will be eligible for an automatic transfer of all years of service credit to TPAF, if the employee elects to transfer their membership from DCRP to TPAF. Any years of service credit transferred to TPAF from DCRP will be used to qualify members for retirement and health benefits associated with TPAF, but will not be used to calculate the amount of pension benefit. A participant's prior contributions into the DCRP will not be transferred into TPAF and will remain in the fund. The employee will receive a notice of the transfer of service credit to TPAF within two months following the enactment of the bill. Upon receiving the notice, the affected employee has six months to notify their employer if they do not wish to become enrolled as a member and transfer their service credit to TPAF. Employees in the DCRP who opt out of the transfer will remain in the DCRP. Additionally, any members of TPAF who are receiving long term disability insurance will be eligible to apply for disability retirement as long as they apply within two calendar years following the enactment of the bill. Any changes to the early retirement, deferred retirement, service retirement, and maximum base salary resulting from the transfer of members to Tier 1 of TPAF will only affect members who begin processing a retirement application after the bill is enacted.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Linda Carter (D)*,  Carmen Morales (D)*,  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D)*,  Anthony Verrelli (D)*,  Alaa Abdelaziz (D),  Rosaura Bagolie (D),  David Bailey (D),  Alixon Collazos-Gill (D),  Joe Danielsen (D),  Wayne DeAngelo (D),  Margie Donlon (D),  Mitchelle Drulis (D),  Vicky Flynn (R),  Roy Freiman (D),  Don Guardian (R),  Shama Haider (D),  Garnet Hall (D),  Dan Hutchison (D),  Robert Karabinchak (D),  Andrea Katz (D),  Jim Kennedy (D),  Yvonne Lopez (D),  Michele Matsikoudis (R),  Barbara McCann Stamato (D),  Antwan McClellan (R),  Tennille McCoy (D),  Cody Miller (D),  Luanne Peterpaul (D),  Jessica Ramirez (D),  Gabriel Rodriguez (D),  William Sampson (D),  Heather Simmons (D),  Erik Simonsen (R),  Balvir Singh (D),  Sterley Stanley (D),  Shavonda Sumter (D),  Lisa Swain (D),  Claire Swift (R),  Cleopatra Tucker (D),  Chris Tully (D),  Michael Venezia (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee (on 01/14/2025)

Official Document