The Alabama House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday allowing retired state and local government workers to come out of retirement and return to work for the state or a local government agency, making as much as $52,000 per year while still drawing their state retirement.
House Bill 41 (HB41) is sponsored by State Rep. Rex Reynolds.
Reynolds explained that state and local retirees who are collecting their Retirement System of Alabama (RSA) benefits can already do this, but the law allowing them to do so capped their compensation at just $30,000. That has risen over time to $37,000. This legislation would raise the amount of money they can be offered to $52,000.
“This does not mean that they have to make all of that,” Reynolds explained.
“This would apply to law enforcement, corrections, educators, everybody,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds acknowledged that there is opposition to this bill.
“They want to hire new employees,” Reynolds said. “I am for that too, but the workforce won’t allow that.”
Opponents object to a worker retiring, drawing his RSA retirement benefits, and then going back to the state to draw a second check from the state treasury.
“They can already do that just by crossing a state line,” Reynolds said. “They are already trained.”
Reynolds said that all state agencies are having difficulties recruiting workers in this labor force.
HB41 passed the Alabama House of Representatives by a vote of 104 to 0.
Reynolds is the retired Huntsville police chief. He chairs the powerful House Rules Committee.
The legislation now goes to the Senate, where the bill failed to advance last year.
Sen. Sam Givhan has introduced a Senate companion bill. That bill was halted in committee when both budget Chairs, Sen. Arthur Orr and Greg Albritton, blocked the bill from coming out of the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee. They expressed concerns that this could encourage more employees to take retirement, which could cause stress to the state retirement fund and future budgetary complications.
Tuesday was the fifth legislative day of the 2023 Alabama Regular Legislative Session. The Alabama Constitution limits the length of a legislative session to no more than thirty legislative days.
The unemployment rate is just 2.5%, but Alabama has very low labor force participation.
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