H-4805              _______________________________________________

                                         HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 4234

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1988 Regular Session

By Representatives Grimm, H. Sommers, Schoon and Winsley

Read first time 2/11/88 and referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, IN LEGISLATIVE SESSION ASSEMBLED:

          THAT, At the next general election to be held in this state there shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the state for their approval and ratification, or rejection, an amendment to Article XXIX of the Constitution of the state of Washington, adding  new sections to read as follows:

Article XXIX, section ....     (1) It shall be a primary duty of the legislature to provide for the full funding of all public retirement systems established by state law to which the state contributes five percent or more of the funds of the system.  The legislature shall establish by statute, no later than June 1, 1989, a plan to provide for the systematic funding of the unfunded actuarial accrued liability of the retirement systems so as to ensure that each system is fully funded not later than June 30, 2017.

          (2) The legislature shall not appropriate less than the full amount required by the plan in subsection (1) of this section, unless a lower appropriation is adopted by two-thirds of the members of each house of the legislature.  Should the legislature appropriate, by less than a two-thirds vote, less than the full amount required by the plan, the state treasurer shall transfer the difference from any state revenues not required for funding of state debt.

          (3) The budget-writing committees of each house of the legislature during each regular session of the legislature held in an odd-numbered year shall review the progress made toward achieving the plan in subsection (1) of this section and shall recommend to the legislature such adjustments in contributions to the retirement systems that are required to satisfy the plan in an orderly manner no later than June 30, 2017.

Article XXIX, section ....     No statute which grants an increase in benefits to members or beneficiaries of a public retirement system funded by the state shall be effective unless it includes an appropriation or employee contribution increase sufficient to fund the actuarial present value of the increase in fully projected benefits.  This section shall not apply to retirement system plans in which employees contribute fifty percent or more of the costs of the retirement system plan.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the secretary of state shall cause notice of the foregoing constitutional amendment to be published at least four times during the four weeks next preceding the election in every legal newspaper in the state.