"The Legislature is authorized to arrange for one-time payments to eligible retirees. To accomplish such payments, the Legislature may appropriate funds directly to the Teacher Retirement System of Texas ("TRS") and the Employee Retirement System of Texas ("ERS") for distribution to retirees of the respective systems. In enacting section 17.13 of the General Appropriations Act, the Legislature chose not to pursue that path. The Legislature instead appropriated funds to the Comptroller for the purpose of providing payments to the recipients outside of the TRS and ERS trust funds. By utilizing this approach, the Legislature chose to bypass the trustees and therefore prevented the funds from becoming trust funds of the respective retirement systems. The path chosen by the Legislature calls into question a reliance on article XVI, section 67 of the Texas Constitution as authority for such payments and raises questions about whether the payments would violate article III, sections 44 and 53 of the Texas Constitution. Because the language of section 17.13 requires a "conclusive opinion that such one-time payments are constitutionally and statutorily permissible" and because the appropriation raises questions about compliance with article III, sections 44 and 53 of the Texas Constitution, the appropriation provision on its very face makes it impossible for us to conclusively opine that such payments "are constitutionally and statutorily permissible."

As a result, the Legislature has mandated that the relevant appropriated funds must be transferred to TRS and ERS in accordance with the directive of section 17.13. Such transfers will bring the trust funds closer to actuarial soundness and thus increase the long-term financial stability of the funds, a result that should benefit both current and future retirees. Moreover, when the funds are actuarially sound, the trustees of the respective systems are independently authorized to consider increases in the benefits paid to retirees."