Certain eligible employees get their service credit combined for retirement purposes and may receive retirement benefits from the municipal system and, in some cases, the employer retirement plan.
Sec. 803.204. COMBINED SERVICE CREDIT IN CERTAIN SYSTEMS. (a) This section applies only to an employee who: (1) is a member of a municipal retirement system described by Section 803.0021(1); (2) is employed by a hospital district, a charitable organization supervised, overseen, and effectively controlled by the hospital district, or an administrative agency created under Section 791.013, either before or after being employed by the employing municipality located in the same county as the hospital district, charitable organization, or administrative agency; and (3) participates in a public retirement system: (A) that is determined to be a qualified plan under Section 401(a), Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. Section 401(a)), of a hospital district, charitable organization, or administrative agency that is determined to be a governmental unit, or an agency or an instrumentality of a governmental unit; and (B) that records and reports service credit as defined by Section 803.001. (b) Any service credit earned by an employee described by Subsection (a) with a retirement system established by the hospital district, charitable organization, or administrative agency will be combined under Section 803.201 to determine whether the employee meets the length-of-service requirements for service retirement under the municipal retirement system. (c) On retirement, an employee described by Subsection (a) will receive a benefit from the municipal retirement system as determined by Subchapter D, and if the hospital district or administrative agency has established or participates in a retirement program or the charitable organization has a retirement plan, will receive a benefit from the hospital district, administrative agency, or charitable organization as determined by the terms of the district's, agency's, or organization's retirement plan. (d) For purposes of this section, a charitable organization supervised, overseen, and effectively controlled by a hospital district or an administrative agency created under Section 791.013 is an agency or instrumentality of a governmental unit. Added by Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 164 (S.B. 1107), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2007. Amended by: Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 217 (S.B. 1063), Sec. 2, eff. May 27, 2009. SUBCHAPTER D. BENEFITS