Official Summary Text
AB 2519, as amended, McKinnor.
Cash Balance Benefit Program: member election: filing timeframe.
State Teachers’ Retirement System: positions subject to membership.
Existing law, the Teachers’ Retirement Law, establishes the State Teachers’ Retirement System (STRS) and creates the Defined Benefit Program of the State Teachers’ Retirement Plan, which provides a defined benefit to members of the program, based on final compensation, credited service, and age at retirement, subject to certain variations.
That law requires the Teachers’ Retirement Board to administer STRS and requires employers and employees to make contributions to STRS based on the member’s creditable compensation.
Existing law, among other things, defines “position subject to membership” to mean prescribed positions at various educational institutions, including, among other positions, a
position at a county office of education or school district, not including a charter school, where the position requires the holding of a valid credential, license, or certificate authorized by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing or the State Department of Health Care Services, as prescribed.
This bill would expand the above-described definition to also include permitholders. The bill would additionally include as a “position subject to membership” a comparable position at a charter school eligible to receive state apportionment that is performing, directing, coordinating, supervising, or administering one or more prescribed functions, as specified.
Existing law requires the board to determine the date that specified provisions related to this definition become operative based on when STRS has the capacity to implement those provisions and to post that date on the internet website of STRS no later than July 1, 2027.
This bill would delete that requirement and would, instead, make this
definition of “position subject to membership” operative on July 1, 2027.
Existing law creates the Teachers’ Retirement Fund, which is continuously appropriated for specified purposes, into which certain moneys are deposited, including employee contributions.
By expanding the category of positions subject to membership under STRS and affecting the contributions to the retirement fund, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law also creates the Cash Balance Benefit Program to provide a retirement plan for the benefit of participating employees who provide creditable service for less than 50% of full time. Existing law requires that the election to become a
participant of the Cash Benefit Balance Program be made in writing on a properly executed form prescribed by STRS and filed with the employer within 60 calendar days of the latest of specified dates, including the first day of employment. Existing law authorizes a member who elects to participate in the Cash Balance Benefit Program to subsequently elect that creditable service performed for the employer be subject to coverage by the Defined Benefit Program in lieu of the Cash Balance Benefit Program on a properly executed form, as prescribed. Existing law requires these election forms to be received at the STRS headquarters office within 60 calendar days after the date of the employee’s signature and prior to the submission of contributions.
This bill would extend the above-described periods for filing the election forms to 90 days, as specified, and would also extend the timeframe for receipt of the forms at the STRS headquarters office to within 90 days of
signature.