With no negative votes, the Missouri Senate on Thursday sent the House a bill allowing local governments to ask the Local Government Employees Retirement System (LAGERS) to take over older retirement plans.
This is the second year Jefferson City's Firefighters Pension Board has been among the groups asking lawmakers to OK that plan.
Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed last year's version, saying it "would place the authority to exercise (the transfer) option solely in the hands of the political subdivision employer, even if the transfer was opposed by the plan trustees" or if the process violated provisions of the local government's charter.
Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, told colleagues during Wednesday's brief debate on the bill and again Thursday before the final vote: "We worked with the governor's office to address his concerns.
"This simply allows local governments that have pre-existing retirement plans that are closed, to contract with LAGERS to run out that plan."
Two weeks ago, Jefferson City Firefighters Board Vice Chairman Norm Robinson told the state Senate's General Laws and Pensions Committee: "All of the other (city) employees - the general employees, the police, the active firefighters - are already in LAGERS.
"We have this separate group of ... 49 retired firefighters and 10 surviving spouses out here in this separate plan that we administer and, for some time, we've wanted to move those folks into the LAGERS system."
Robinson also told lawmakers last month Jefferson City's Firefighters Pension Plan is "fully funded at $18 million - a fund which, if added into LAGERS' other funds for investment purposes - could grow more quickly, benefiting both the local fund and LAGERS."
Kehoe said Thursday: "It affects about 600 folks across the state, and it's a big savings for the municipalities and city entities that want to take advantage of it."
Last month, LAGERS Director Keith Hughes told the Senate Committee the board unanimously supported the bill.
"It is voluntary in nature, and requires the local government and LAGERS to enter into an agreement," Hughes said.
The board has the final say about accepting a plan, which is a permanent decision by both parties.
"We now require a vote by the active members of the plan and then a concurring resolution from the pension board to approve the move - that will insure that the members of the plan have a say in who administers the plan," Kehoe said last month in addressing Nixon's concerns from last year.
The law also states the transfer can't be made until after local officials make "the necessary changes to the statute, city ordinance, city charter, or governing documents of the employer's prior plan."
The Senate passed the measure on a 33-0 vote, sending it to the House, where a companion measure has not been debated yet.