The Texas House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Article III met Monday, February 24, 2025, to review HB 1, the state budget. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) testified, and the Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA) provided a public statement.
TRS Executive Director Brian Guthrie provided an overview of the pension fund and healthcare programs. Guthrie’s testimony echoed the information he provided to the full Appropriations Committee on February 19.
TRS manages an approximately $210.5 billion trust fund. The TRS Pension Trust Fund provides current and future retirement benefits for over two million individuals, including over 500,000 annuitants and over 1.5 million active employees with approximately $15.1 billion paid in retirement benefits in FY 2024.
Right now, the fund is considered actuarially sound by state law, with a funding period of 28 years. TRS will perform another valuation of the fund this Friday, February 28. The new valuation will determine if the fund is considered actuarially sound during the current legislative session. Guthrie says he does not expect any material changes in the system’s funding period or unfunded liabilities.
The TRS Board of Trustees meets this Thursday, February 27 at 8:00 a.m. The meeting may be viewed online from this link.
Guthrie reminded the committee members that the TRS-Care health insurance fund is healthy. This resulted in TRS lowering premiums for the first time ever for TRS-Care participants in the Medicare Advantage program.
TRTA Executive Director Tim Lee laid out the association’s priorities, including full funding for the TRS-Care program and the pension fund, which are already included in the state budget. Lee also discussed the recent repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), noting that not all TRS retirees will benefit from the repeals, and that public education retirees continue to struggle to make ends meet amid historically high inflation.
Lee reminded the committee that, on average, TRS retirees are still 30% behind inflation.
There have been bills filed this session to provide either supplemental payments (13th checks) or cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for TRS retirees. As those bills are considered by the House or Senate in their respective committees, TRTA will provide an update to our members.
Please stay tuned to the Inside Line for any urgent updates or action alerts. The session is just now getting underway with committee hearings and continues through June 2.
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