H. B. 2323
(By Delegates Marshall, Yeager,
Proudfoot and L. White)
[Introduced
February 19, 2001
; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section one-d, article one, chapter
eighteen-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to raising the
allowable earnings limit of higher education faculty who
retired under the severance plan.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one-d, article one, chapter eighteen-b of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GOVERNANCE.
§18B-1-1d. Retirement and separation incentives.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this code to the
contrary, each state institution of higher education may include in its strategic plan, pursuant to section one-c of this article,
policies that offer various incentives for voluntary, early or
phased retirement of employees or voluntary separation from
employment when necessary to implement programmatic changes
effectively pursuant to the findings, directives, goals and
objectives of this article:
Provided, That such incentives for
voluntary, early or phased retirement of employees or voluntary
separation from employment must be submitted by the governing board
to the legislative joint committee on pensions and retirement and
approved before such policies are adopted as part of the
institution's strategic plan.
(b) Effective the first day of July, two thousand one, each
state institution of higher education may implement, under its
institutional compact, created pursuant to section two, article
one-a of this chapter, policies that offer various incentives for
voluntary, early or phased retirement of employees, or voluntary
separation from employment, when necessary to implement
programmatic changes effectively: Provided, That the institution
shall meet all the requirements, including the requirement for
obtaining legislative approval, set forth in this section.
(c) The policies may include the following provisions:
(1) Payment of a lump sum to an employee to resign or retire;
(2) Continuation of full salary to an employee for a
predetermined period of time prior to the employee's resignation or
retirement and a reduction in the employee's hours of employment
during the predetermined period of time;
(3) Continuation of insurance coverage pursuant to the
provisions of article sixteen, chapter five of this code for a
predetermined period;
(4) Continuation of full employer contributions to an
employee's retirement plan during a phased retirement period; and
(5) That an employee retiring pursuant to an early or phased
retirement plan may begin collecting an annuity from the employee's
retirement plan prior to the statutorily designated retirement date
without terminating his or her service with the institution.
(d) No incentive provided for in this section shall be granted
except in furtherance of programmatic changes undertaken pursuant
to the findings, directives, goals and objectives set forth in this
article.
(e) No incentive proposed by an institution pursuant to this
section shall become a part of the institution's approved strategic
plan or institutional compact or be implemented without approval of the legislative joint committee on pensions and retirement.
Any costs associated with any incentive adopted or implemented
in accordance with this section shall be borne entirely by the
institutions and no incentive shall be granted that imposes costs
on the retirement systems of the state or the public employees
insurance agency unless those costs are paid entirely by the
institutions.
(f) The Legislature further finds and declares that there is
a compelling state interest in restricting the availability and
application of these incentives to individual employees determined
by the institutions to be in furtherance of the aims of this
section and nothing herein shall be interpreted as granting a right
or entitlement of any such incentive to any individual or group of
individuals. Any employee granted incentives shall be ineligible
for reemployment by the institutions during or after the negotiated
period of his or her incentive concludes, including contract
employment in excess of five thousand dollars per fiscal year
amounts equivalent to those specified by the social security
administration's earnings test for retirees ages sixty-five through
sixty-nine.
(g) The West Virginia network for educational telecomputing may utilize the incentives contained in any policy approved by the
legislative joint committee on pensions and retirement pursuant to
this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to attract back into limited
teaching service the higher education faculty who retired under the
severance plan.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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