STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2647

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2244

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2244, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RETIREMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the retirement benefits of Employees' Retirement System members who first earn credited service as a judge after June 30, 2016.

 

     Specifically, the measure:

 

(1)  Provides that a member of the Employees' Retirement System who first earned credited service as a judge after June 30, 2016, and has at least twelve years of credited service and attained age sixty, or has at least twenty-five years of credited service and has attained age fifty-five, is eligible to receive a pension after retirement; and

 

(2)  Reduces the retirement allowance for a member who first earns credited service as a judge after June 30, 2016, to two per cent of the member's average final compensation, reduced for each month the member's age at the date of retirement is below age sixty.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from the Judiciary.  Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Employees' Retirement System and the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure brings the retirement benefits of prospective judges more in line with the retirement benefits of other public employees who are members of the Employees' Retirement System.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2244, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair