By Mr. Kulik of Worthington, petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 2636) of Stephen Kulik and others relative to the establishment of retiree health care funding schedules in cities and towns.  Public Service.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PETITION OF:

Stephen Kulik

Barbara A. L'Italien

Thomas M. Stanley

John W. Scibak

Denise Provost

David Paul Linsky

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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.

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An Act relative to retiree healthcare funding.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1.  Chapter 32B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004

Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting at the end thereof

the following new section:—

Section 20. A town, city, district, or county, if it accepts the

provisions of this section, may establish a retiree health care

funding schedule. The schedule, and future updates to it, shall be

designed, consistent with standards issued by the Governmental

Accounting Standards Board, to reduce the unfunded actuarial liability

of health care and other post-employment benefits to zero as

of an actuarially acceptable period of years and to meet the

normal cost of all future such benefits for which the governmental

unit is obligated. The schedule, and any future updates thereto,

shall be developed by the governmental unit’s chief executive

office and approved by the actuary in the division of insurance.

The funding schedule shall be reviewed triennially by the chief

executive officer and any future updates to the schedule shall be

approved by the actuary.

The legislative body of the governmental unit may appropriate

such amounts, as required by the schedule, which shall be credited

to a separate fund to be known as the retiree health care liability

fund. Any interest or other income shall be added to and become

part of the fund. Amounts that a governmental unit receives as a

participant in the Retiree Drug Subsidy Program created under the

Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization

Act of 2003 (Public Law No. 108-173), may be added to and

become part of the fund.

The treasurer of the town, city, district, or county shall be the

custodian of the fund. Notwithstanding any general or special law

to the contrary, the selectmen in a town, the mayor in a city,

the governing board in a district, or the county commissioners in a

county, may assign responsibility for the investment and reinvestment

of the fund to the retirement board of which the employees

of the governmental unit are members or may assign responsibility

for the investment and reinvestment of the fund to the pension

reserves investment management board, in accordance with

section 23 of chapter 32.

The provisions of this section may be accepted in a town by

vote of the town at a town meeting; in a city having a Plan D or

Plan E charter by majority vote of its city council; in any other

city by vote of its city council, approved by the mayor; in a district

by vote of the governing board of the district; and in a county

by vote of the county commissioners.