AR SB155

Amends Arkansas Code § 24-5-119(b) to modify benefit redetermination for the Arkansas State Highway Employees' Retirement System to include a cost-of-living adjustment calculated as the lesser of 3% or the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers over the one-year period ending in December immediately preceding the redetermination date.

Requires that redetermined benefit amounts shall not be less than the redetermined amount paid in the preceding year, establishing a floor for benefit payments.

Declares an emergency effective July 1, 2017, citing concerns that the current redetermination method would cause the retirement system's unfunded actuarial accrued liabilities to exceed a thirty-year amortization period without immediate resolution.

Emergency clause finds that state law prohibits publicly supported retirement systems from implementing benefit enhancements that would exceed thirty-year amortization standards for unfunded liabilities unless the unfunded liability is reduced to prescribed levels.