News from Santa Fe for Thursday, Jan. 24

The sol­vency pro­posal for edu­ca­tion retire­ment that was crafted over many months by Edu­ca­tion Retire­ment Board stake­holder groups has passed its first com­mit­tee hear­ing of the 2013 leg­isla­tive ses­sion by a 5–4 vote.

HB 64, spon­sored by Rep. Mimi Stew­art (D-Albuquerque), calls for an increase in employee con­tri­bu­tions to 10.7 per­cent and estab­lishes a min­i­mum retire­ment age and new COLA require­ments for future employees.

On the same 5–4 vote this after­noon, the House Labor and Human Rela­tions com­mit­tee rejected an amend­ment from Rep. Candy Spence Ezzell (R-Roswell) that would tie the COLA to sol­vency suc­cess as well as the CPI. There was also con­cern, expressed by Reps Young­blood and Pacheco, both Albu­querque Rs, that the rate of return on invest­ment built into the pro­posal is too high.

Details of the ERB stake­holder pro­posal will be pre­sented to a joint meet­ing of House Edu­ca­tion and Sen­ate Edu­ca­tion at 8 a.m. tomor­row morning.

Susan McK­in­sey, Office of Gov­ern­ment and Com­mu­nity Relations