Elizabeth Althoff
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Overview of 2019 Legislative Session
The first regular session of the 100th General Assembly came to a close on May 17th. This year, the legislature tackled some major, and often controversial, issues and the final weeks of session were unsurprisingly not without little drama.
Reflecting back over the entire session, however, both chambers demonstrated discipline in not allowing a handful of hot issues to derail all of the other important measures taken up this year.
Pension Issues On the pension front, this session could be described as relatively quiet. There were a total of 27 pieces of legislation filed relating to pension issues, compared to 45 in 2018. Of those 27 bills, many were simply ‘clean up’ bills for various retirement systems in the state.
LAGERS only had one legislative priority this session which was the Public Safety Bill. The Public Safety Bill would give LAGERS employers the option to classify EMS personnel, jailors, and dispatchers as public safety personnel for purpose of determining a normal retirement age of 55. Out of the 27 bills filed, 3 were Truly Agreed and Finally Passed, and we are pleased to report that a version of the Public Safety Bill language was included in Senate Bill 17, which was among the 3 bills passed! The final version of the bill will extend this option to employers who reside or have service areas within 3rd class counties. Now that the Governor has signed Senate Bill 17, LAGERS will begin to share more information on how employers may begin the process of exploring this option!
In Summary Overall, we believe this session was a great success. We continue to work to build our relationships in the capitol, and LAGERS’ reputation is as strong as ever. We are proud to serve such an awesome membership and remain committed to being your premier retirement system for many years to come!
Advocacy Day One of the most important things our retirees can do to help protect the LAGERS retirement system is speak up and join the conversation about the value of public pensions in Missouri. 
This year, LAGERS hosted our 2nd annual Advocacy Day which gives our members and retirees an opportunity to visit with their elected officials in Jefferson City about the importance of what they do for their local communities and the critical role LAGERS plays in helping Missouri’s public servants prepare for a secure retirement. Our retirees have a particularly important message to share because you can share firsthand the impact of having a secure retirement and what that has meant to you over your career in public service and retirement.
We have been amazed at the impact our advocacy work is having on public opinion in our state’s capitol! We appreciate all of our members and retirees who have taken time out of their busy schedule to join us in our advocacy efforts – your work is helping to ensure the LAGERS system remains a valuable tool in our local communities for generations to come!
