The Florida Senate

121.45  Interstate compacts relating to pension portability.--

(1)  SHORT TITLE.--This section shall be known as the "Interstate Pension Portability Act."

(2)  PURPOSE AND FINDINGS.--The Legislature finds that:

(a)  Interstate mobility of employees serves the public interest by providing for a more flexible workforce in order to be better able to match available jobs to available employees, and to avoid labor shortages in particular geographic areas.

(b)  Interstate mobility of employees is impeded by the fact that, under the pension plans in which most of them participate, employees who move from one state to another generally suffer a substantial forfeiture of earned pension benefits.

(c)  An agreement among states to provide for increased pension portability for public employees will reduce a major barrier to the interstate mobility of such employees.

(d)  The purpose of this section is to attract employees to Florida through compacts with other states developed in a fiscally sound and responsible manner.

(3)  ESTABLISHMENT OF COMPACTS.--

(a)  The Department of Management Services is authorized and directed to survey other state retirement systems to determine if such retirement systems are interested in developing an interstate compact with Florida.

(b)  If any such state is interested in pursuing the matter, the department shall confer with the other state and the consulting actuaries of both states, and shall present its findings to the committees having jurisdiction over retirement matters in the Legislature, and to representatives of affected certified bargaining units, in order to determine the feasibility of developing a portability compact, what groups should be covered, and the goals and priorities which should guide such development.

(c)  Upon a determination that such a compact is feasible and upon request of the Legislature, the department, together with its consulting actuaries, shall, in accordance with said goals and priorities, develop a proposal under which retirement credit may be transferred to or from Florida in an actuarially sound manner.

(d)  Once a proposal has been developed, the department shall contract with its consulting actuaries to conduct an actuarial study of the proposal to determine the cost to the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund and the State of Florida.

(e)  After the actuarial study has been completed, the department shall present its findings and the actuarial study to the Legislature for consideration. If either house of the Legislature elects to enter into such a compact, it shall be introduced in the form of a proposed committee bill to the full Legislature during the same or next regular session.

History.--s. 1, ch. 90-281; s. 53, ch. 99-255.