House Finance reviews HB 2 retirement changes for Group 2; actuaries say costs lower than 2023 version

Lede: New Hampshire Retirement System officials told the House Finance Committee on Feb. 28 that the Group 2 ("Tier B") provisions in House Bill 2 (2025) would restore pre‑2011 definitions of earnable compensation and average final compensation for certain employees and that, based on preliminary actuarial work, the 2025 package appears less costly than a similar 2023 proposal.

Nut graf: The committee heard a detailed legal and actuarial briefing from the retirement system’s executive director and deputy counsel. Presenters flagged a drafting error they want fixed, explained how the bill would change how overtime, special duty pay and payouts for accrued sick and vacation are counted in final compensation, and described how a $25–27 million annual appropriation figure in recent drafts interacts with actuarial assumptions and prior legislation.

Body: Jan Goodwin, executive director of the New Hampshire Retirement System, opened the system’s presentation and introduced Mark Kavanaugh, deputy chief counsel, who summarized the Group 2 (Tier B) comparison between House Bill 2 in 2025 and earlier proposals, including the 2023 House Bill and HB 727 (2024 drafting/numbering discussed at the hearing). Kavanaugh told the committee the two bills are “almost identical” in many respects but that the 2025 bill does not include a maximum‑benefit increase that appeared in the 2023 proposal.

Kavanaugh and Goodwin…