Bill > SB3199

This bill amends the Illinois Pension Code to allow firefighters and police officers in downstate Illinois to benefit from the Retirement Systems Reciprocal Act, which is a set of rules that allows individuals who have worked in multiple public pension systems to combine their service credits for retirement purposes. Specifically, this bill makes the Retirement Systems Reciprocal Act (Article 20 of the Code) applicable to individuals who are eligible for a retirement annuity (a pension paid to a retired person) or a survivor's annuity (a pension paid to a surviving spouse or dependent) under the Downstate Firefighter or Downstate Police Articles, provided they choose to use the Reciprocal Act. The bill also amends the State Mandates Act, which typically requires the state to reimburse local governments for the costs of implementing state-imposed requirements, to exempt this particular change from reimbursement, meaning local governments will not receive state funding for implementing this new pension provision.