This amendment changes how police and firefighter retirement systems handle late payments, updates rules for when a department shrinking in size must pay extra fees, and adds new signature requirements for officers opting out of the system.
Louisiana2026Enacted
HB1237
Changes to Police and Firefighter Retirement Rules
Last scannedAug 25, 2026, 3:26 AM
In one sentence
This law updates rules for police and firefighter retirement systems regarding membership choices, payment of debts when departments close or shrink, and how the state collects overdue money.
What it does
- Requires employees who choose not to join the retirement system to sign a notarized affidavit stating it is their own free choice.
- Sets rules for employers to pay back unfunded retirement debts over fifteen years with interest if they dissolve or partially close their departments.
- Allows payments on these debts to stop if the department hires enough staff again within fifteen years of leaving the system.
- Gives the state treasurer power to take money from a municipality's funds to cover late retirement contributions.
- Updates how much an employer must pay based on the drop in employee numbers when a fire or police department shrinks.
Who it affects
- Municipal police departments and their employees
- Fire departments and their employees
- City mayors and chiefs of police who sign retirement documents
- The state treasurer's office
Limits and unknowns
- The law does not collect payment for partial dissolutions that happened before July 1, 2025.
- Specific dollar amounts depend on calculations done by the system's actuary based on current data.
- The provided text ends abruptly while defining when a fire department is considered partially dissolved.
Plain language
Terms to know
- Unfunded accrued liability
- Money that is owed to the retirement system for benefits earned by workers but not yet paid into the fund.
- Partial dissolution
- When a police or fire department reduces its staff size significantly, such as dropping below 70% of its previous number.
- Actuary
- A professional hired by the retirement system to calculate how much money is owed and when payments should be made.
Official record
Sources
Official summary
RETIREMENT/STATEWIDE SYS: Provides relative to the Municipal Police Employees Retirement System and the Firefighters' Retirement System (EN SEE ACTUARIAL NOTE FC)
Official activity
Bill history
- Effective date: 06/16/2026.H
- Becomes Act No. 922 without the Governor's signature.H
- Sent to the Governor for executive approval.H
- Signed by the President of the Senate.S
- Enrolled and signed by the Speaker of the House.H
- Read by title, roll called, yeas 91, nays 0, Senate amendments concurred in.H
- Scheduled for concurrence on 05/20/2026.H
- Received from the Senate with amendments.H
- Rules suspended. Senate floor amendments read and adopted. Read by title, passed by a vote of 35 yeas and 0 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.S
- Reported without Legislative Bureau amendments. Read by title and passed to third reading and final passage.S
- Read by title and referred to the Legislative Bureau.S
- Reported favorably.S
- Read second time by title and referred to the Committee on Retirement.S
- Received in the Senate. Read first time by title and placed on the Calendar for a second reading.S
- Read third time by title, amended, roll called on final passage, yeas 97, nays 0. The bill, having received two-thirds vote of the elected members, was finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.H
- Scheduled for floor debate on 04/20/2026.H
- Read by title, ordered engrossed, passed to 3rd reading.H
- Read by title, substitute title adopted, lies over in the same order of business, substitute for HB No. 49 reported by the Committee on Retirement (11-0).H
- Read by title.H
Changes
Amendments
5 stored
This amendment changes how retirement payment debts are calculated for police and fire departments when they shrink in size and makes it harder to collect unpaid bills from them.
This amendment updates laws about how police and fire departments pay retirement costs if they close down or reduce their staff size.
This amendment records that the House voted to agree with changes made by the Senate to a bill about police and firefighter retirement systems.
This amendment adds rules to help retirement systems collect money that cities owe them when payments are late.