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Senate carries over bill on retired state employees after debate over pension effects
Summary
The Alabama Senate carried over Senate Bill 28, which would let certain retired state employees (including law enforcement and bus drivers) return to work and raises a salary cap from about $40,000 to about $52,000; senators debated potential impacts on the state's retirement system (RSA) and requested more data before final action.
The Alabama State Senate on the day's session carried over Senate Bill 28 after extended floor debate about its potential impact on the state's retirement system. Senator Elliott moved to carry the bill over after describing the measure as a way to allow certain retired public employees — including law enforcement officers and school bus drivers — to return to work and, in some cases, serve full routes as employees.
Senator Elliott, the bill’s sponsor, said the proposal “moves that cap from about $40,000 to about $52,000, annually,” and that the committee amendment would allow part-time school bus drivers to be treated as full-time employees so they can cover an entire route. He described the measure as targeted at positions with high training costs and recruitment challenges.
Senator Orr and other senators pressed for more information about workforce demand and actuarial effects. Senator Orr warned of risks to the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA), saying that the systems are “floating around 70% funded,” and cautioned that allowing retirees to return to paid work could reduce employer contributions that support the pension fund. Orr said, “When these retirees come back to work, the employer doesn't pay their retirement,” and raised concerns about the potential for double-dipping (collecting a retirement check while receiving salary) and the longer-term fiscal effects if the program expanded beyond the intended small subset of workers.
Other senators urged data-driven steps. A colleague asked agencies that would employ returning retirees to identify current vacancies so lawmakers could better estimate how many people the bill would affect. Senator Elliott acknowledged the need for those numbers and noted the bill includes a sunset provision intended to allow evaluation of results after the trial period.
Rather than taking a final vote, the Senate carried SB 28 over to allow sponsors and staff to collect additional vacancy and fiscal information and to give fiscal offices time to analyze potential actuarial impacts. The motion to carry the bill over was agreed to by voice vote.
Next steps: SB 28 will return to the Senate calendar for further consideration once requested data and fiscal analysis are available.
