The House Retirement Committee on April 24 handled a package of retirement-related measures for the 2025 legislative session, moving several bills to the next step while deferring or rejecting others after testimony from agency actuaries and stakeholder groups.

Votes at a glance

- HB 20 (Reemployment earnings cap for retired teachers): Representative Moore voluntarily deferred the bill after the author agreed a study was needed; motion to voluntarily defer was made and carried without objection.
- HB 8 (MERS-to-LASERS option): Reported favorably by the committee without recorded opposition. The bill would let some municipal employees who move to state service remain in MERS rather than move into LASERS; sponsors said the change is budgetarily neutral.
- HB 10 (Reemployment exemptions for retirees in unclassified positions): Reported as amended to allow retirees with 25 or more years of service to be rehired into certain unclassified positions without suspension of their retirement benefits; the committee adopted an in‑concept amendment lowering a 30-year threshold to 25 years at the governor's office's request.
- HB 18 (Firefighters: one-time payment and authority to prefund COLAs): Reported favorably. The bill would authorize the Firefighters Retirement System to use a funding deposit account to pay a one-time $2,000 payment to eligible retirees (estimated ~2,857 recipients, estimated cost ~$5.7 million) and to pre-fund future cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs); testimony explained the account holds employer contributions above minimum rates. The committee adopted the bill after discussion about trade-offs between plan health and retiree relief.
- HB 28 (Survivor designation for disabled children): Reported as amended. The amendment lets a surviving spouse designate a disabled child within 30 days of the member's death to receive a continued benefit; system staff asked for time to brief their board on amendment language before floor consideration.
- HB 19 (Firefighters: disability retiree earned income rules / DROP adjustments): Reported favorably. The bill extends certain earned‑income protections for disability retirees older than 62 and adjusts DROP rules for long-serving members; proponents compared the measure to police-system changes passed in 2024.
- HB 17 (Municipal police DROP technical fix): Reported as amended; the amendment allows members already participating in DROP to elect to extend a participation period consistent with recent statutory changes (affects roughly 130 members according to system staff).
- HB 24 (Optional Retirement Plan reforms for higher education / ORP): Reported as amended. The bill bundles multiple study recommendations for Optional Retirement Plans (ORP): it would extend the window for ORP members to elect TRSL membership from 5 to 7 years (to match tenure), add an ORP advisory track for participants, permit post‑secondary/technical colleges to participate, and include an in‑concept change to add the commissioner of higher education (or designee) as an ex officio voice to TRSL trustees. The bill also includes a provision to increase employer ORP contributions from 6.2% to 8% (a provision with a fiscal note that will require appropriations review).

Other committee action

- The committee adopted a separate report following a January study on survivors whose public‑safety family members were killed by an intentional act of violence. Recommendations included statutory changes to provide 100% of a member's retirement benefit to survivors in those cases and a $250,000 survivor payment subject to appropriation.

What lawmakers said

Committee members frequently deferred to actuaries and system staff. Greg Curran, the firefighter system actuary, explained how the funding deposit account works (employers can hold contribution rates above actuarially required minimums and segregate the excess into that account) and said the account is invested and can be used for limited purposes set by statute. Chad Major and representatives of firefighter groups pressed for a one-time payment to retirees who have not had a meaningful COLA in years and argued the account's balance made a limited payment reasonable. Several members expressed concern about using reserve funds earmarked to improve plan funding for one-time payments but ultimately allowed the firefighters' proposal to proceed.

For the higher education ORP reforms, faculty leaders told the committee the measures would improve recruitment and retention of research faculty and technical staff. "If we want to hire the best for higher education in our state and if we want to retain the best, we have to step up," said Parampreet Singh, a member of the ORP task force.

What happens next

Bills reported favorably will move to the House floor or to the House Appropriations Committee where fiscal provisions require additional review. Several measures that create or change employer contribution rates or long‑term liabilities (notably the ORP contribution-change proposal) were discussed as items the authors would carry to appropriations for further scoring and potential amendment.

The committee also recorded the failed vote on HB 9 (LASERS 30‑year rule), which was considered separately and rejected 3–8.