Committee approves retirees bonus (SB380) with friendly amendment; members urge broader consideration for state employees

Senate Bill 380, a retiree bonus that includes K–12 and some higher-education retirees, received a friendly amendment requested by the Retirement Systems Authority and then a favorable committee report. Members praised the effort to provide retirees some relief and discussed potential avenues to extend or supplement benefits to state employees more broadly in the future.

Several senators urged the committee to consider creative revenue sources—one suggested specialty tags as a model for funding—and others asked leadership to pursue a sustainable revenue source in the next quadrennium. The committee adopted the amendment and then gave the bill a favorable report (16 ayes, 0 nays).