By Doug Aldeen
Don’t let your babies grow up to be Cowboys or Texas state legislators.
HB 2911 was recently introduced into the 89th Texas legislative session. HB 2911 permits Texas school districts that opted out of TRS-Active Care the ability to opt back in to the state’s largest pool of teachers and staff BUT also provides equitable funding for those school districts that either do not want to re-enroll in TRS-Active Care or desire to leave for whatever reason and set sail on their own and manage their own risk.
Thoughts moving forward and political maneuvering:
TRS-Active Care, during the prior legislative session, received a $689mm bailout or subsidy ( depending upon one’s view) from the state solely to keep the rate increases to less than 10 percent. Simultaneously and during the same session, SB1441 was passed which gave Texas school districts both the option to leave or remain with TRS-Active Care. However, in either case, a school district could not leave or re-enroll for a period of five years. The only problem was that for school districts that left, they did not receive the same level of funding that those received who stayed. BIG difference.
HB 2911 remedies the situation and allows Texas school districts to look at alternative arrangements other than TRS-Active Care and exercise bargaining power outside of the current system.
Fake renewals showing fake rate increases designed to make plan members feel better, touting the power of large numbers, low administrative expenses and the threat of excommunication, banishment to a competitive commercial market for 60 months, is in alignment with “Lipstick on a Pig!”
TRS ActiveCare supplemental funding over the past two years, when factored in, effectively produces funding increases of +30% each of those years. That’s worse than average renewals in the commercial market.
