59-1355. POSTRETIREMENT ALLOWANCE ADJUSTMENTS. (1) Each retirement allowance payment shall, subject to the provisions of this section, equal the inflation factor for the adjustment year of payment multiplied by the amount of the retirement allowance payment for March of the previous year. During any adjustment year for which the ratio of the consumer price index for the index month of the previous year to the consumer price index for the index month of the second previous year is not more than one hundred one percent (101%), the inflation factor shall be such ratio or ninety-four percent (94%), whichever is greater, which inflation factor shall not be subject to legislative approval. Otherwise the inflation factor during such adjustment year shall be one hundred one percent (101%), except that the board, with legislative approval, may put into effect a greater factor which is no more than such ratio or one hundred six percent (106%), whichever is smaller, if it finds the value of the actuarial assets of the system to be no less than its actuarial liabilities, including those created by the increased factor. The actuarial assets comprise the sum of the actuarial present value of the amortization payments determined in accordance with the requirements of section 59-1322(5), Idaho Code, plus the amounts determined in paragraphs (e)(ii), (e)(iii), (e)(iv), (e)(v) and (g) of section 59-1322(4), Idaho Code. The actuarial liabilities are as defined in paragraph (e)(i) of section 59-1322(4), Idaho Code. The board’s proposed inflation factor for any adjustment year shall be communicated by letter to the legislature by not later than January 15 prior to that year.

(2) During an adjustment year following one in which there was at least one (1) retirement allowance payment but none in March, each retirement allowance payment shall equal the partial factor multiplied by the amount of the monthly retirement allowance payment in the earlier year. The partial factor shall equal 1.000 plus one-twelfth (1/12) of the product of the number of months in the earlier adjustment year in which member contributions were not made and the excess, if any, of the inflation factor for the later year over 1.000.

(3) During an adjustment year following one in which there was no retirement allowance payment, each retirement allowance payment shall equal the initial retirement allowance multiplied by the bridging factor between the first day of the month following the member’s final contribution and the date of the first retirement allowance payment.

(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection, the bridging factor between any two (2) dates shall be the ratio of the amounts of retirement allowance payable on the two (2) dates for any member who retired on the earlier date immediately following his final contribution.

(b) For any member not making a final contribution subsequent to 1974 whose initial retirement allowance is a minimum allowance provided in section 59-1342(1)(b) or 59-1342(2)(b), Idaho Code, the bridging factor shall be computed as if the member had made his final contribution in 1974.

(4) The consumer price index shall be that for all urban consumers published by the bureau of labor statistics, United States department of labor.

(5) The adjustments provided under this section shall in no event reduce a benefit payment below its initial amount.

(6) An adjustment year shall extend from March through the following February. The index month is October for adjustment years commencing before March, 1990, and is August for subsequent adjustment years.

(7) If, by the forty-fifth day of any regular legislative session, the legislature has not adopted a concurrent resolution rejecting or amending the proposed adjustments of the board allowed in subsections (1) and (8) of this section, such action on the part of the legislature shall constitute legislative approval of the board’s adjustments.

(8) Notwithstanding other provisions of this section, the board may grant a postretirement allowance adjustment for any previous year or years up to the full amount of the increase in the consumer price index for that year or those years, as provided in subsection (7) of this section.

History:

[(59-1355) 1979, ch. 26, sec. 3, p. 42; am. 1984, ch. 132, sec. 3, p. 314; am. 1986, ch. 122, sec. 1, p. 322; am. 1989, ch. 184, sec. 1, p. 459; am. and redesig. 1990, ch. 231, sec. 43, p. 638; am. 1990, ch. 249, sec. 5. p. 709; am. 1996, ch. 79, sec. 4, p. 258; am. 2009, ch. 144, sec. 3, p. 435.]