ATRS wishes everyone a safe and happy 2015. A busy time for ATRS is about to start. The start of 2015 brings new members to the ATRS Board and the beginning of the 90th General Assembly. The attached executive director update provides greater detail on the two new ATRS Board Members, the 90th General Assembly, and the seven bill legislative package of ATRS. As in past sessions, ATRS plans to provide weekly updates on the ATRS package bills and all other bills filed that impact ATRS.
ATRS Welcomes Two New Board Members
Treasurer-Elect Dennis Milligan and Auditor-Elect Andrea Lea are to be sworn in on Tuesday as the new Arkansas Treasurer and Arkansas Auditor respectively. As they enter these constitutional offices, both also become members of the ATRS Board of Trustees. Both have already been monitoring ATRS communications and are ready to begin full service on Tuesday. The ATRS Board and ATRS staff welcome both Treasurer-Elect Dennis Milligan and Auditor-Elect Andrea Lea to ATRS.
90th General Assembly begins on Monday, January 12, 2015
On Monday, January 12, 2015, the 90th General Assembly of Arkansas begins. This is the regular session of the General Assembly that includes the swearing in of dozens of new legislators and the introduction of bills and passage of acts to enact new general laws for Arkansas.
The Speaker-Elect of the House of Representatives is Representative Jeremy Gillam of Judsonia. The President Pro Tempore of the Arkansas Senate is Senator Jonathan Dismang of Searcy. ATRS looks forward to the strong leadership and direction provided by these two hard-working and well respected leaders of the 90th General Assembly.
Many may have been expecting ATRS to have 15 to 20 general purpose bills in this legislative session. The 7 package bills are fewer bills than in recent sessions. Importantly, recent sessions have addressed many of the major issues facing ATRS and the changes are still being integrated into the ATRS processes. Most of the 7 new package bills are general "housekeeping" bills. This executive director update will provide a basic summary of each bill.
Almost all bills affecting Arkansas' public retirement systems are assigned to the Joint Public Retirement & Social Security Committee, commonly referred to as the Joint Retirement Committee. The Joint Retirement Committee has a total of 20 members with 10 from the Arkansas House of Representatives and 10 from the Arkansas State Senate. The Joint Retirement Committee's leadership includes a House Co-Chair and a Senate Co-Chair along with a House Co-Vice Chair and a Senate Co-Vice Chair. The chairmanship of the Joint Retirement Committee alternates each meeting between the House and the Senate during the session.
Remember that ATRS has a new website that allows members to have direct access to specific member account information. Retirees can see all the details on totals and deduction on monthly benefits. T-DROP members can see all past and current deposits and interest payments. T-DROP retirees with a CBA account can see monthly benefits and the current status of the CBA account. Active members can see service and salary amounts along with a handy benefits calculator to see how retirement would look now or at a future time. Over the last year, ATRS has focused a major amount of energy to redesign the website to be more user friendly with updated information and forms. ATRS now has over 2,500 registered members since registration started on August 1st. The available information and interactive ability of member access will be enhanced over time based upon member input and resources. Here is the link to an update that provides instructions on the 10 to 15 minute process it takes for a member to register to have direct access to specific ATRS account information: https://www.artrs.gov/general/director-updates/716-08-15-2014-executive-director-update-the-new-atrs-website.
If you have not signed up to obtain the executive director updates through your private email address, you can obtain the executive director update on the ATRS website. The update attached to this email is also available on the ATRS website at https://www.artrs.gov/general/director-updates. Now, almost 5,000 people have signed up to receive this executive director email update and other ATRS information via this email list. In addition, over 8,000 people have access to ATRS information via the listserve, member internet access, and employer access. It is always a great pleasure for ATRS staff to learn of more ways to provide information to ATRS members, employers, and beneficiaries. The ATRS Board is committed to providing a system that is member friendly and transparent.
You can also get helpful ATRS information on the ATRS Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/arkansasteacherretirementsystem under the name of Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Over 1,800 Facebook users get updates via the ATRS Facebook page. Go to the Facebook page and "like" ATRS to get daily updates. I try to go to the Facebook page every day to answer member questions about ATRS. In addition, if you use Twitter, you can follow events at ATRS and issues of interest by finding the Twitter ID of ATRS or find George Hopkins in the Twitter directory. The link is https://twitter.com/atrs.
Respectfully,
George Hopkins
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