SB 153-PEACE OFFICERS/FIRE FIGHTER RETIREMENT  2:49:25 PM CHAIR ELLIS announced SB 153 to be up for consideration. SENATOR FRENCH, sponsor of SB 153, read his sponsor statement: Current law allows a police officer or firefighter who has also served in the armed forces to count five years of military service towards their Public Employees Retirement System retirement, provided that two conditions are met. First, the employee must not be eligible for a federal retirement benefit and second, the employee must "buy" those military service years by paying for them. The shortcoming with the current system is that the military years purchased towards a state retirement do not count towards qualifying for retiree medical benefits. Moreover, many of those who are buying in presume that they are getting just that coverage. Thus the need for SB 153. This legislation corrects what many with former military service assume when purchasing military time: that the time purchased will be credited to their medical benefits as well as their retirement. This bill simply allows for the same purchase of years to count towards retirement and medical benefits. The bill does not allow any double dipping because the potential state retiree must not be eligible for federal military benefits in order to qualify for the purchase in the first place. SB 153 recognizes the contribution made by police officers and fire fighters who have both served our country through the military and now pursue careers to protect and defend our state and communities. 2:51:11 PM SENATOR FRENCH asked the committee to remember there is no double-dipping. If you have served 20 years in the military and you are eligible for a military pension, you cannot buy into this program. You have to be eligible for either one or the other. He explained that as the program stands now you can buy those five years of retirement time, but you don't get medical benefits. So the idea is to just complete the step that was made when the program was first extended to the state's police officers and firefighters and to let it be applied evenly across the board. 2:51:57 PM SENATOR BUNDE asked if this would apply to people who worked for a fairly short time for the state, because if they had worked for an extended period of 10 or 15 years, they would automatically qualify for the health benefit through vesting. SENATOR FRENCH replied you first have to get to 20 years of service with the state. You can't buy your 25 years in essence by having served only 10 years. You have to have the 20 years in in order to buy the last 5 - and you can only buy 5. SENATOR BUNDE asked how much it would cost the individual to buy the health benefit. SENATOR FRENCH replied that it would cost the same as was indicated on the PERS chart. SENATOR BUNDE clarified that his concern was on the fiscal impact to the health care system. SENATOR FRENCH replied that SB 153 has two department fiscal notes; a zero fiscal note from the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and two from the Department of Administration (DOA) - first a small one and then a much bigger one arrived today. He said communication is going on with the administration about what the problem was with its assumptions. CHAIR ELLIS said he wanted a well-reasoned fiscal note before the committee before the bill would be considered again. SENATOR FRENCH said the most recent fiscal note he received walked into his office an hour ago. 2:55:27 PM COLONEL AUDIE HOLLOWAY, Director, Alaska State Troopers, Department of Public Safety (DPS), supported the concept of SB 153 because it would help with recruiting and keeping older troopers. He had some concerns, however, and for one didn't want to make the PERS liability worse. He could testify much more confidently with a more definite fiscal note. CHAIR ELLIS said that he would hold the bill until they could pin the numbers down.