Opinion ID: 835784
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Cost-of-Living Adjustments

Text: As noted, retired PERS members are entitled to annual COLAs on their service retirement allowances not to exceed two percent per year. Under the 2003 PERS legislation, PERS must calculate two alternative service retirement allowances for certain members who retired on or after April 1, 2000, and before April 1, 2004  a revised service retirement allowance and a fixed service retirement allowance. The revised service retirement allowance calculates the amount that the member would have received if PERB had credited all members' regular accounts with 11.33 percent interest in 1999  instead of the 20 percent interest that PERB actually credited to members' regular accounts for that year. [23] The fixed service retirement allowance essentially fixes each member's allowance as of July 1, 2003, or the effective date of the member's retirement (whichever is later), but then is not subject to an annual COLA. The legislation further provides that each member in the identified group shall receive the greater of the revised and fixed service retirement allowances.