HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 388        FILED ON: 1/12/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2328

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act to limit public pensions to a level related to lifetime earnings.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION ONE:  Section One of Chapter Thirty-Two of the General Laws of Massachusetts is hereby amended by at the end the following new paragraphs: 

“Inflation adjustment reference month”, the calendar month including the date ninety days before the member’s retirement date

“Monthly inflation-adjusted regular compensation”, regular compensation multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers in the United States (“CPI-U”) for the inflation adjustment reference month, and the denominator of which is the CPI-U for the compensation month; provided that for months or part-months after the inflation-reference month, the fraction shall be one.

“Monthly average inflation-adjusted regular compensation”, the sum of the inflation-adjusted regular compensation for each month for which the member claims creditable service divided by the number of said months.

“Annualized average inflation-adjusted regular compensation”, the monthly average inflation-adjusted regular compensation multiplied by twelve.

“Seniority adjusted real compensation baseline”, annualized average inflation-adjusted regular compensation multiplied by a sum, the sum being one plus a product, the product being three one hundredths times the member’s years of creditable service.

SECTION TWO:  Section Five of Chapter Thirty-Two of the General Laws of Massachusetts by inserting before the period at the end of subsection (c) by inserting the following words: “nor shall it exceed four-fifths of the seniority-adjusted real compensation baseline.”