Sec. 73.503.  EMPLOYEES.  (a)  Present institute personnel shall be allowed to apply for employment with The University of Texas System, Harris County, or the Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD and be given priority consideration for such employment.
(b)  If employed by The University of Texas System, when the Texas Research Institute of Mental Sciences is transferred to The University of Texas System, employees of the institute who become employees of The University of Texas System shall become members of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, if they are otherwise eligible under the law and rules governing membership, and all their service and salary credit shall be transferred from the Employees Retirement System to the Teacher Retirement System, subject to Subsections (c) and (d) of this section.
(c)  Service of those employees that was covered by the Employees Retirement System before the transfer shall thereafter be regarded as service that was covered by the Teacher Retirement System.  The law and rules of the Teacher Retirement System pertaining to membership, service and salary credit, member contributions, and reinstatement of withdrawn accounts shall apply to service occurring before the transfer, except that the member contribution rate for such service shall be that in effect for members of the Employees Retirement System.  Member contributions previously withdrawn from the Employees Retirement System may be reinstated in the Teacher Retirement System only subject to the laws and rules governing reinstatement of accounts and credit in the Teacher Retirement System.
(d)  Military service credit already established with the Employees Retirement System will be credited by the Teacher Retirement System only when the employee's service credit, excluding military credit, in the Teacher Retirement System consists of at least 10 years.  Deposits for military credit transferred under Subsection (e) of this section will be placed in the member savings account of the employee and refunded if the employee dies or retires on a disability benefit before obtaining 10 years of credit.  An employee may obtain a total of no more than five years of military service credit in the Teacher Retirement System, including military credit transferred pursuant to this section, and may not receive duplicate credit for the same military duty.
(e)  When credit is transferred pursuant to this section or as soon thereafter as possible, the Employees Retirement System shall transfer to the Teacher Retirement System the following:
(1)  all amounts in the individual member accounts with the Employees Retirement System of employees described in Subsection (b) of this section and any member contributions subsequently received for these employees for service before the date of transfer;  and
(2)  an amount from the state accumulation fund determined by the actuary of the Employees Retirement System to be such that the transfer of funds and service credit under this section will neither increase nor diminish the period required to amortize the unfunded liability of that system.
(f)  An employee described in Subsection (b) of this section shall not be entitled to a refund of contributions or retirement from the Employees Retirement System in lieu of the transfer of credit provided by this Act.  After the transfer of the institute to The University of Texas System, the employee shall not be entitled to credit in the Employees Retirement System for service subject to transfer to the Teacher Retirement System under this section.
(g)  The legislature may appropriate to the Teacher Retirement System an amount determined necessary to finance the additional actuarial liabilities created by this section and not financed by the transfer of funds provided by Subsection (e) of this section.
(h)  The Employees Retirement System, the Health and Human Services Commission, and The University of Texas System shall provide the Teacher Retirement System with information necessary to establish employees' rights to credit under this section.  The Employees Retirement System and the Teacher Retirement System shall establish procedures to prevent duplication of retirement credit for the same service.
(i)  If employed by The University of Texas System, such employees shall be subject to the personnel policies, rules, and regulations of the board of regents of The University of Texas System, after the transfer provided for in this section.
Added by Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 848, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1985.
Amended by: 
Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1279 (H.B. 965), Sec. 15, eff. September 1, 2019.