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Minutes for SB282 - Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance
Short Title
Enacting the Kansas retirement investment and savings plan (KRISP) act and establishing terms, conditions, requirements, membership elections, accounts, benefits, contributions and distributions related to such plan.
Minutes Content for Thu, Mar 13, 2025
Chairperson Dietrich called the meeting to order and opened the hearing on SB282. Revisor Eileen Ma provided a summary of the bill. (Attachment 1)
Alan Conroy of KPERS gave the Committee an informational briefing on the differences between the current retirement plan, which is a defined benefit, and the proposed plan, which is a defined contribution retirement plan. (Attachment 2)
Senator Tyson was a proponent of the bill testifying of the need for a plan that is more sustainable than KPERS and will not increase the states unfunded actuarial liability. (Attachment 3)
Dennis Hull of the American for Tax Reform also spoke in favor of the bill via WebEx noting that a direct contribution plans are objectively simpler and less expensive. (Attachment 4)
Ernie Claudel of the KCPR and KARSP spoke in opposition to the bill testifying that the bill would remove guarantees that the current KPERS plan offers. There is concern that future retirees under the proposed plan would not know how much money they would need to have to fund their retirement. (Attachment 5)
Leah Fliter of the Kansas Association of School Boards testified as an opponent of the bill. She stated that their members are concerned that this type of retirement plan would not incentivize recruitment and retention of educators and support staff. (Attachment 6)
Wendi Stark of the League of Kansas Municipalities was an oral opponent of the bill. They too are concerned about the ability of local governments to hire and retain qualified employees. Their members consistently prefer a defined benefits plan not a defined contribution plan. (Attachment 7)
Nate Glassey of National Tax Deferred Savings Association spoke against the bill addressing the unintended consequences if adopted. Adverse effects include a lack of education and support through the auto-enroll feature, eliminates educator choice as to where participants place their supplemental retirement assets and removes access to a trusted advisor of their choice. (Attachment 8)
Oral neutral testimonies were received from Brandon Converse of Converse Team Financial Services and Zachary Christensen of Reason Foundation via WebEx. Mr. Converse stated that there are great points about the proposed bill from the standpoint of the client. However, education of employees will be key to the plan. (Attachment 9) Mr. Christensen explained that this plan is more advantageous to the majority of new hires since they can begin to accrue benefits sooner. Actuarial analysis shows that this type of plan could reduce current unfunded liabilities by as much as $20 billion over the next 30 years. (Attachment 10)
Written opponent testimony was received from the following:
Timothy Graham from the Kansas National Education Association (Attachment 11) and Sarah LaFrenz of Keeping the Kansas Promise Coalition (Attachment 12).
Chairperson Dietrich closed the hearing on SB282.
