Public employees' retirement: benefit plans.

Existing law regulates state and local public retirement systems and generally requires public employees who are new members, as defined, of those systems, on and after January 1, 2013, to participate in specified benefit plans. Existing law permits a public employer that, before January 1, 2013, offers a defined benefit pension plan that provides a defined benefit formula with a lower benefit factor at normal retirement age, and results in a lower normal cost, than the defined benefit formula required for new employees on and after January 1, 2012, to continue to offer that defined benefit formula and excepts the employer from specified requirements regarding pensionable compensation. Existing law requires, in the case of these plans, if a new defined benefit formula is adopted on or after January 1, 2013, that the formula meet certain requirements and, among other things, be approved by the Legislature. Existing law prescribes the same requirements for a retirement benefit plan that consists solely of a defined contribution plan if the employer, on or after January 1, 2013, adopts a new defined benefit pension plan or defined benefit formula, as specified. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the Legislature approve the changes in the instances described above. This bill would also authorize a local agency public employer or public retirement system that offers a defined benefit pension plan to offer a benefit formula with a lower benefit factor at normal retirement age and that results in a lower normal cost than the benefit formulas that are currently required, for purposes of addressing a fiscal necessity.