STAND. COM. REP. NO.418

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 860

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 860 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT SYSTEM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to provide a military service credit of up to four years to qualified retirants of the Employees' Retirement System.

Your Committee received testimony in favor of this bill from the Office of Veterans Services, the Hawaii Government Employees Association's retirees unit, the United Public Workers, two veterans of Maui County, and a representative from the Employees' Retirement System expressed concern over costs.

Your Committee finds that veterans who have since retired but did not have an opportunity to receive retirement credit for their years in the military possibly may want that opportunity now in order to raise their retirement pensions. Additional pension money may help with the cost of living, medical expenses, and other costs of aging, of which veterans make up a portion of elderly. Additionally, your Committee is aware that to date, eligibility for the military service credit has depended entirely upon whether a member had retired before or after the law was passed establishing the credit. Your Committee believes that the focus of eligibility should be the person's military service, rather than the date of their retirement from state or county government service.

Your Committee has amended this bill by making a substantive change to its effective date to July 1, 2020, to provide for further discussion.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor and Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 860, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 860, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor and Public Employment,

____________________________

TERRY NUI YOSHINAGA, Chair