Amendment No. 3: Question & Answer
LRTA supports this amendment, because it will positively impact TRSL.
On May 16, you will be asked to approve Constitutional Amendment No. 3 to liquidate the educational trust funds (8g & tobacco) and move those monies to the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) to pay down the UAL (system debt). This stand-alone measure is unlike the one attempted in 2025 and has no other purpose. If approved employer contribution rates will drop which will result in savings for school systems. School systems will then be required to use those savings to make permanent the “one-time stipends” that school staff have been getting. These amounts of $2250 (teachers) and $1125 (support staff) will then become permanent parts of the salary schedules statewide. With this payment TRSL’s funded ratio will grow to approximately 85% and their debt will drop to below $5 billion.
1. What will Amendment 3 do?
If Amendment 3 passes it will take money currently in three educational trust funds and send those funds over to TRSL to pay down the UAL or their debt. These trust funds are commonly referred to as 8g funds, tobacco money, or EEF funds. There is a total of between $2.0 and $2.3 billion dollars in these funds.
2. Will TRSL or retirement monies be used to fund teacher raises?
No. TRSL will only gain from the passage of Amendment 3. Its funded ratio will go from approximately 80% to 85% and its debt will go from $7 billion to less than $5 billion. This makes TRSL much stronger moving forward.(See #5)
3. Will all teachers statewide get a raise? If so, how much?
All public school teachers will receive $2250 and support staff $1125. These monies will be permanent salary increases and will be placed in salary schedules statewide. School districts will have no choice as the law clearly prescribes what will happen with the funds.
4. Weren’t teachers already getting these funds?
Not exactly. Teachers for the last two to three years have gotten one-time stipends from the legislature. These were not permanent raises and were not in salary schedules. They were dependent on a state allocation each year and not guaranteed. Those one-time stipends were $2000 and $1000.
5. How will this all work?
If Amendment 3 passes the state treasurer will liquidate the educational trust funds and send the monies over to TRSL. TRSL will use the funds to pay down their UAL which will allow TRSL to lower the employer contribution rate. This large payment from the liquidated trust funds will cause the required debt payments from school systems to drop which means the amount that school boards pay to TRSL as part of their employees’ salaries will go down. For example, if the school board pays approximately 19% of a teacher salary to TRSL that number will drop to about 14%. The 5% savings caused by this drop will be used to permanently fund the raises. This is required by the law so districts and TRSL have set items in statute that they must do. These steps are not optional.
6. Where does the UAL or debt come from?
When TRSL was founded in 1936 it began sending out retirement checks without having those funds in the bank and without a clear plan to fund them. Over time additional groups of employees were added to the plan, and the debt grew as the state never properly funded TRSL but continued to pay out retirement benefits.
7. How much does it cost to run TRSL in relation to how much my school board pays?
If the school board is paying TRSL 20% of your salary as a teacher, it only costs TRSL about 5% of your salary to fund retirement benefits and to run TRSL. This is called the “actual cost.” The remaining 15% or three quarters of the payment is going to be paid on debt. Think about it like paying only the minimum payment on your credit card. You will never pay off your balance. The state has been doing this for years in relation to the UAL.
8. Will this move save school districts money in the long run?
Yes, estimates are that between now and 2040, approximately $1 billion dollars in interest payments will be saved as the employer contribution rates drop. Think about it like inheriting $20,000 from a rich uncle and using that lump sum to pay on your mortgage. It will save you money both in the length of time you pay on the mortgage and the overall interest that you would have paid overtime. Your total costs for the mortgage decrease because of that lump payment. The same principle applies here.
9. Do school districts benefit from these trust funds?
Yes, school districts receive small amounts of monies each year from 8g and the tobacco (EEF) funds to use for various programs. School districts are basically receiving a portion of the interest or investment earnings that the trust funds earned the previous year. Some school districts use these funds to help fund their PreK programs or other programs.
10. Do these 8g monies make up a large portion of a school district budget?
No. Generally 8g monies are a very small portion of a school district’s total budget. This would be a question for your local school district.
11. Will the state make up the lost revenue for districts?
Yes, there was a law passed last year contingent on the amendment passing which allocates $11 million of state revenue to backfill monies for Pre-K programs.
12. What about the other funds districts were receiving?
The governor’s office and legislative leadership have pledged to backfill this $50-60 million for K-12 through the MFP. This $50-60 million is considerably less than the costs of the one-time stipends that the state has been paying for teachers and support staff. That was in the $190-200 million dollar range.
13. Will the passage of Amendment 3 help retirees get a COLA?
Yes, since Amendment 3 will pay the IUAL or oldest TRSL debt it will help speed up the process for a COLA. Estimates are that in 2028 the system will begin to grant regular COLAs to retirees every other year. This is change from the past.
14. Will teachers get a raise without the passage of Amendment 3?
That would be contingent on the state legislature and governor allocating funds to cover the one-time stipends they have been getting.
15. Is LRTA supporting the passage of Amendment 3?
Yes, the passage of Amendment 3 strengthens TRSL by paying down system debt and increasing its funded ratio while providing teachers with a permanent pay raise. This means that the funded ratio for TRSL would have gone from 57% in 2010 to 85% in 2026. Great strides in the right direction!
16. My daughter teaches at a non-TRSL charter school will she get the $2250?
Yes, since charter schools are public schools, their staffs will also receive the raises but it will come through a required state allocation as part of the amendment.
17. When is the election?
Election Day is Saturday, May 16, but early voting is currently going on through Saturday, May 9.
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