AB 838

Under current law the Employee Trust Fund Board (ETF board) administers

the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) under which public employees who are

covered under the WRS and their employers pay contributions to the WRS and the

WRS, from those contributions and the earnings on those contributions, provides

retirement annuities to those public employees.

This bill creates a Wisconsin private retirement security board (board) and

requires the board to establish a private retirement security plan (plan) to provide

retirement benefits for residents of this state who choose to participate in the plan.

Specifically, the bill requires the board to do all of the following:

1. Conduct a study to determine the feasibility of establishing a plan (feasibility

study). The feasibility study must estimate the potential population that is likely to

choose to participate in the plan and the potential cost of implementing the plan and

must recommend a design and structure for the plan that is most reasonable in light

of that potential population and cost.

2. Hold public hearings to receive testimony relating to the feasibility study

and the recommended design and structure of the plan (public hearings). The board

must hold not less than five public hearings and must hold those hearings over a

period of not more than three months. The board may hold no more than one public

hearing in Madison and must ensure that at one least one public hearing is held in

each geographic area of the state, including the southeastern part of the state, the

western part of the state, the northern part of the state, and the northeastern part

of the state.

3. Based on the feasibility study, the recommended design and structure of the

plan, and the testimony received at the public hearings, design the plan. The board

must design the plan so that, to the greatest extent possible, the design and structure

of the plan are reasonably commensurate with the design and structure of the WRS.

In designing the plan, the board must provide for the State of Wisconsin Investment

Board to assist the board in managing and investing the assets of the fund and the

assets of the accounts of participants in the plan and must provide for the ETF board

to assist the board in administering the plan.

4. By no later than the first day of the 18th month beginning after the effective

date of the bill, submit a report to the legislature, the governor, and the members of

the Joint Committee on Finance (JCF) summarizing the conclusions of the feasibility

study, the testimony received at the public hearings, and the design of the plan

(report). The report must also include an estimate of the cost of initial establishment

and administration of the plan, an estimate of the amount of time necessary to make

the plan viable, and a recommendation for any legislation that is necessary to

implement the plan. On enactment of that legislation, the board must implement

the plan in accordance with that legislation.

In addition, the bill requires the Department of Employee Trust Funds to: 1)