S Sub for HB 2194

Background. The Wednesday, May 4, 2011 meeting was the fifth conference committee of House and Senate negotiators on S Sub 2194, the Senate’s KPERS legislation. Since the first meeting of the conference committee on March 31, 2011, House negotiators, led by House Pensions committee chair Rep. Mitch Holmes (R-114th, St. John), sought to include the provisions of House Substitute for HB 2333 (“H Sub 2333″).

The Senate’s bill, the product of a gut-and-go on the House’s version of House Bill 2194, originally passed the House on Friday, February 25, 2011 as the Council on Efficient Government Act, was gutted by the Senate’s Select KPERS Committee on March 21, 2011 and a Senate substitute bill was passed for HB 2194. On Wednesday, March 23, 2011, the Senate Committee of the Whole passed S Sub 2194 on a vote of 35 to 4. Though the bill experienced significant substantive amendments, procedurally the bill had passed both the House and Senate chambers.

Because the bill experienced significant substantive changes, it was required to return to the House of Representatives to face either a motion to concur or a motion to nonconcur with the Senate on the changes to HB 2194 as amended by the Senate’s substitute bill. On Monday, March 29, 2011, House Pensions and Benefits Chair Rep. Mitch Holmes made a motion to nonconcur with the Senate’s substitute language for HB 2194.

The House bill, H Sub 2333, was originally a bill that would have increased the retirement age for Tier I state, school and local government employees by increasing the point-based retirement system from 85-points to 95-points. Though a substitute bill, H Sub 2333 has not previously passed the Senate chamber, rather the substitute provisions for HB 2333 were inserted during House Pensions and Benefits Committee on Wednesday, March 9, 2011.

Upon successful passage of Rep. Mitch Holmes motion to noncur, the House Speaker appointed Reps. Holmes, John Grange and Louis Ruiz to the conference committee for Senate Substitute for HB 2194. In the Senate, the Select KPERS Committee Vice Chair Sen. Jeff King, Select KPERS Committee ranking Democrat Sen. Anthony Hensley and Sen. Jeff Longbine were appointed to the conference committee.