HB1326

House Bill 1326 amends existing Arkansas law to grant public colleges and universities greater flexibility in managing early retirement incentives for both tenured and non-tenured faculty and staff. The bill allows institutional boards of trustees to negotiate special retirement allowances to achieve personnel cost savings, provided these allowances do not exceed 5% of the institution's total personnel costs from the previous fiscal year. It updates criteria for employee eligibility for retirement window incentives to include those meeting requirements for any state-sponsored retirement program. Additionally, the bill mandates that institutions report the disposition of these special allowances to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee by July 1 of each year. Finally, the bill includes an emergency clause, allowing it to take effect immediately upon approval to facilitate contract negotiations before the end of the spring 2025 semester.