"An Act relating to prepayments of accrued actuarial liabilities of government retirement systems; relating to the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority; permitting the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority or a subsidiary of the authority to assist state and municipal governmental employers by issuing bonds, notes, commercial paper, or other obligations to enable the governmental employers to prepay all or a portion of the governmental employers' shares of the unfunded accrued actuarial liabilities of retirement systems; authorizing a governmental employer to issue obligations to prepay all or a portion of the governmental employer's shares of the unfunded accrued actuarial liabilities of retirement systems and to enter into a lease or other contractual agreement with a trustee or the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority or a subsidiary of the authority in connection with the issuance of obligations for that purpose, and relating to those obligations; and providing for an effective date. "

HB 278 provides governmental employers the opportunity to utilize a financial mechanism generally referred to as a "Pension Obligation Bond" (POB) to help reduce the ultimate cost of satisfying the unfunded accrued actuarial liabilities of their retirement systems. A POB is essentially a legal arbitrage transaction where money is borrowed a lower rate of interest than the money earns when invested by the retirement system.

HB 278 clarifies the ability of municipal entities to include POBs in their strategy to reduce the cost of meeting unfunded pension liabilities and expands the authority of the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority to support governmental employers wishing assistance engaging in such transactions.

This bill does not authorize any debt instruments to be issued. Separate specific action would be required to initiate any transaction under the authority provided by HB 278.

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