SENATE
HOUSE
JOINT
BILL STATUS
STATE LAW
REPORTS
EDUCATIONAL
CONTACT
home
home
Introduced Version House Bill 2703 History

OTHER VERSIONS  -  Committee Substitute  |  Enrolled Committee Substitute  |     |  Email
Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 2703


(By Delegate Spencer)
[Introduced February 20, 2009; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]




A BILL to amend and reenact §18-7A-3, §18-7A-13, §18-7A-14, §18-7A-23, §18-7A-28c and §18-7A-34 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to State Teachers Retirement System; making technical changes; modifying definitions; specifying cessation of membership; clarifying loan offsets at time of withdrawal; specifying procedures for the correction of errors; permitting rollovers of any dollar amount; and permitting loan borrowers to receive retirement income or disability payments when outstanding loan balance is deducted from the actuarial reserve of accrued benefit.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That §18-7A-3, §18-7A-13, §18-7A-14, §18-7A-23, §18-7A-28c and §18-7A-34 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.
§18-7A-3. Definitions.
(a) As used in this article, unless the context clearly require a different meaning:
(1) "Accumulated contributions" means all deposits and all deductions from the gross salary of a contributor plus regular interest.
(2) "Accumulated net benefit" means the aggregate amount of all benefits paid to or on behalf of a retired member;
(3) "Annuities" means the annual retirement payments for life granted beneficiaries in accordance with this article.
(4) "Average final salary" means the average of the five highest fiscal year salaries earned as a member within the last fifteen fiscal years of total service credit, including military service as provided in this article, or if total service is less than fifteen years, the average annual salary for the period on which contributions were made.
(5) "Beneficiary" means the recipient of annuity payments made under the retirement system.
(6) "Contributor" means a member of the retirement system who has an account in the Teachers Accumulation Fund.
(7) "Deposit" means a voluntary payment to his or her account by a member.
(8) "Employer" means the agency of and within the state which has employed or employs a member.
(9) "Employer error" means an omission, misrepresentation, or violation of relevant provisions of the West Virginia Code or of the West Virginia Code of State Regulations or the relevant provisions of both the West Virginia Code and of the West Virginia Code of State Regulations by the participating public employer that has resulted in an underpayment or overpayment of contributions required. A deliberate act contrary to the provisions of this section by a participating public employer does not constitute employer error.
(9) (10) "Employment term" means employment for at least ten months, a month being defined as twenty employment days.
(10) (11) "Gross salary" means the fixed annual or periodic cash wages paid by a participating public employer to a member for performing duties for the participating public employer for which the member was hired. Gross salary shall also include includes retroactive payments made to a member to correct a clerical error, or made pursuant to a court order or final order of an administrative agency charged with enforcing federal or state law pertaining to the member's rights to employment or wages, with all such retroactive salary payments to be allocated to and deemed considered paid in the periods in which the work was or would have been done. Gross salary shall does not include lump sum payments for bonuses, early retirement incentives, severance pay, or any other fringe benefit of any kind including, but not limited to, transportation allowances, automobiles or automobile allowances, or lump sum payments for unused, accrued leave of any type or character.
(11) (12) "Internal Revenue Code" means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as it has been amended.
(12) (13) "Member" means a member of the retirement system any person who has accumulated contributions standing to his or her credit in the Teachers Retirement System. A member shall remain a member until the benefits to which he or she is entitled under this article are paid or forfeited, or until cessation of membership pursuant to section thirteen of this article.
(13) (14) "Members of the administrative staff of the public schools" means deans of instruction, deans of men, deans of women, and financial and administrative secretaries.
(14) (15) "Members of the extension staff of the public schools" means every agricultural agent, boys' and girls' club agent and every member of the agricultural extension staff whose work is not primarily stenographic, clerical or secretarial.
(15) (16) "New entrant" means a teacher who is not a present teacher.
(16) (17) "Nonteaching member" means any person, except a teacher member, who is regularly employed for full-time service by: (a) (A) Any county board of education, (b) (B) the State Board of Education, (c) (C) the Higher Education Policy Commission, (d) (D) the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education, or (e) (E) a governing board, as defined in section two, article one, chapter eighteen-b of this code: or (d) the Teachers Retirement Board Provided, That any person whose employment with the Higher Education Policy Commission, the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education or a governing board commences on or after July 1, 1991, is not considered a nonteaching member.
(17) "Pick-up service" means service that a member was entitled to, but which the employer has not withheld or paid for.
(18) "Plan year" means the twelve-month period commencing on July 1 and ending the following June 30 of any designated year.
(19) "Present member" means a present teacher who is a member of the retirement system.
(20) "Present teacher" means any person who was a teacher within the thirty-five years beginning July 1, 1934, and whose membership in the retirement system is currently active.
(21) "Prior service" means all service as a teacher completed prior to July 1, 1941, and all service of a present member who was employed as a teacher, and did not contribute to a retirement account because he or she was legally ineligible for membership during the service.
(22) "Public schools" means all publicly supported schools, including colleges and universities in this state.
(23) "Refund beneficiary" means the estate of a deceased contributor or a person he or she has nominated as beneficiary of his or her contributions by written designation duly executed and filed with the retirement board.
(24) "Refund interest" means interest compounded, according to the formula established in legislative rules, series seven of the Consolidated Public Retirement Board, 162 CSR 7.
(25) "Regular interest" means interest at four percent compounded annually, or a higher earnable rate if set forth in the formula established in legislative rules, series seven of the Consolidated Public Retirement Board, 162 CSR 7.
(26) "Regularly employed for full-time service" means employment in a regular position or job throughout the employment term regardless of the number of hours worked or the method of pay.
(27) "Required beginning date" means April 1 of the calendar year following the later of: (a) (A) The calendar year in which the member attains age seventy and one-half years; or (b) (B) the calendar year in which the member retires or ceases covered employment under the system after having attained the age of seventy and one-half years.
(28) "Retirement system" means the State Teachers Retirement System provided for in established by this article.
(29) "Teacher member" means the following persons, if regularly employed for full-time service: (a) (A) Any person employed for instructional service in the public schools of West Virginia; (b) (B) principals; (c) (C) public school librarians; (d) (D) superintendents of schools and assistant county superintendents of schools; (e) (E) any county school attendance director holding a West Virginia teacher's certificate; (f) (F) the executive Secretary director of the retirement board; (g) (G) members of the research, extension, administrative or library staffs of the public schools; (h) (H) the State Superintendent of Schools, heads and assistant heads of the divisions under his or her supervision, or any other employee under the State Superintendent performing services of an educational nature; (i) (I) employees of the state Board of Education who are performing services of an educational nature; (j) (J) any person employed in a nonteaching capacity by the State Board of Education, any county board of education, the State Department of Education or the Teachers Retirement Board, if that person was formerly employed as a teacher in the public schools; (k) (K) all classroom teachers, principals and educational administrators in schools under the supervision of the Division of Corrections, the Division of Health or the Division of Human Services; (l) (L) employees an employee of the state Board of School Finance, if that person was formerly employed as a teacher in the public schools; and (m) (M) any person designated as a 21st Century Learner Fellow pursuant to section eleven, article three, chapter eighteen-a of this code who elects to remain a member of the Teachers Retirement System provided for in this article.
(30) "Total service" means all service as a teacher while a member of the retirement system since last becoming a member and, in addition thereto, credit for prior service, if any.
The masculine gender shall be construed so as to include the feminine. Age in excess of seventy years shall be considered to be seventy years.
§18-7A-13. Membership in retirement system; cessation of membership; reinstatement of withdrawn service.

The membership of the retirement system shall consist of the following:
(a) New entrants, whose membership in the system is compulsory upon employment as teachers and nonteachers.
(b) The membership of the retirement system shall not include any person who is an active member of or who has been retired by the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System, the judge's retirement system, or the retirement system of the department of public safety West Virginia State Police or the supplemental retirement system as provided in section four-a, article twenty-three of this chapter. The membership of any person in the retirement system ceases:
(1) Upon the withdrawal of accumulated contributions after the cessation of service; or (2) upon effective retirement date; or (3) at death; or (4) if service amounts to fewer than five years in any period of ten consecutive years upon the date, if any, when after the cessation of service, the outstanding balance of any loan obtained by the member pursuant to section thirty-four of this article or section five, article seven-d of this chapter, plus accrued interest, equals or exceeds the member's accumulated contributions.
(c) Any former member of the retirement system who has withdrawn accumulated contributions but subsequently reenters the retirement system may repay to the retirement fund the amount withdrawn, plus interest at a rate set by the board, compounded annually from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment: Provided, That no repayment may be made until the former member has completed two years of contributory service after reentry; and the member shall be accorded all the rights to prior service and experience as were held at the time of withdrawal of the accumulated contributions: Provided, however, That no withdrawn service may be reinstated that has been transferred to another retirement system from which the member is currently or will in the future draw benefits based on the same service. The interest paid shall be deposited in the reserve fund.
(d) No member is eligible for prior service credit unless he or she is eligible for prior service pension, as prescribed by section twenty-two of this article; however, a new entrant who becomes a present teacher as provided in this subdivision shall be considered eligible for prior service pension upon retirement.
(e) Any individual who is a leased employee is not eligible to participate in the system. For purposes of this system, a "leased employee" means any individual who performs services as an independent contractor or pursuant to an agreement with an employee leasing organization or other similar organization. If a question arises regarding the status of an individual as a leased employee, the board has final power to decide the question.
§18-7A-14. Contributions by members; contributions by employers;
correction of errors.

(a) At the end of each month every member of the retirement system shall contribute six percent of that member's monthly gross salary to the retirement board: Provided, That any member employed by a state institution of higher education shall contribute on the member's full earnable compensation, unless otherwise provided in section fourteen-a of this article. The sums are due the Teachers Retirement System at the end of each calendar month in arrears and shall be paid not later than fifteen days following the end of the calendar month. Each remittance shall be accompanied by a detailed summary of the sums withheld from the compensation of each member for that month on forms, either paper or electronic, provided by the Teachers Retirement System for that purpose.
(b) Annually, the contributions of each member shall be credited to the member's account in the Teachers' Retirement System Fund. The contributions shall be deducted from the salaries of the members as prescribed in this section, and every member shall be considered to have given consent to the deductions. No deductions, however, shall be made from the earnable compensation of any member who retired because of age or service, and then resumed service unless as provided in section thirteen-a of this article.
(c) The aggregate of employer contributions, due and payable under this article, shall equal annually the total deductions from the gross salary of members required by this section. Beginning July 1, 1994, the rate shall be seven and one-half percent; beginning July 1, 1995, the rate shall be nine percent; beginning July 1, 1996, the rate shall be ten and one-half percent; beginning July 1, 1997, the rate shall be twelve percent; beginning July 1, 1998, the rate shall be thirteen and one-half percent; and beginning July 1, 1999, and thereafter, the rate shall be fifteen percent: Provided, That the rate shall be seven and one-half percent for any individual who becomes a member of the Teachers Retirement System for the first time on or after July 1, 2005, or any individual who becomes a member of the Teachers Retirement System as a result of the voluntary transfer contemplated in article seven-d of this chapter.
(d) Payment by an employer to a member of the sum specified in the employment contract minus the amount of the employee's deductions shall be considered to be a full discharge of the employer's contractual obligation as to earnable compensation.
(e) Each contributor shall file with the retirement board or with the employer to be forwarded to the retirement board an enrollment form showing the contributor's date of birth and other data needed by the retirement board.
(f) If any change or employer error in the records of any participating public employer or the retirement system results in any person receiving from the system more or less than he or she would have been entitled to receive had the records been correct, the board shall correct the error, and as far as is practicable shall adjust the payment of the benefit in a manner that the actuarial equivalent of the benefit to which the person was correctly entitled shall be paid. Any employer error resulting in an underpayment to the retirement system may be corrected by the employee remitting the required employee contribution and the participating public employer remitting the required employer contribution. Interest shall accumulate in accordance with the Legislative Rule, Retirement Board Reinstatement Interest, 162 CSR 7, and any accumulating interest owed on the employee and employer contributions resulting from the employer error shall be the responsibility of the participating public employer. The participating public employer may remit total payment and the employee reimburse the participating public employer through payroll deduction over a period equivalent to the time period during which the employer error occurred.
§18-7A-23. Withdrawal and death benefits.
(a) Benefits upon withdrawal from service prior to retirement under the provisions of this article shall be as follows:
(1) A contributor who withdraws from service for any cause other than death, disability or retirement shall, upon application, be paid his or her accumulated contributions up to the end of the fiscal year preceding the year in which application is made, after offset of any outstanding loan balance, plus accrued interest, pursuant to section thirty-four of this article, but in no event shall interest be paid beyond the end of five years following the year in which the last contribution was made: Provided, That such the contributor, at the time of application, is then no longer under contract, verbal or otherwise, to serve as a teacher; or
(2) If such the contributor has completed twenty years of total service, he or she may elect to receive at retirement age an annuity which shall be computed as provided in this article: Provided, That if such the contributor has completed at least five, but fewer than twenty, years of total service in this state, he or she may elect to receive at age sixty-two an annuity which shall be computed as provided in this article. The contributor must notify the retirement board in writing concerning the election. If the contributor has completed fewer than five years of service in this state, he or she shall be subject to the provisions as outlined in subdivision (1) of this subsection.
(b) Benefits upon the death of a contributor prior to retirement under the provisions of this article shall be paid as follows:
(1) If the contributor was at least fifty years old and if his or her total service as a teacher was at least twenty-five years at the time of his or her death, then the surviving spouse of the deceased, provided the spouse is designated as the sole refund beneficiary, is eligible for an annuity computed as though the deceased were actually a retired teacher at the time of death and had selected a survivorship option which pays the spouse the same monthly amount which would have been received by the deceased; or
(2) If the facts do not permit payment under subdivision (1) of this subsection, then the following sum shall be paid to the refund beneficiary of the contributor: The contributor's accumulated contributions up to the year of his or her death plus an amount equal to his or her employee contributions. The latter sum shall emanate from the Employer's Accumulation Fund.
§18-7A-28c. Direct rollovers.
(a) This section applies to distributions made on or after January 1, 1993. Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary that would otherwise limit a distributee's election under this system, a distributee may elect, at the time and in the manner prescribed by the board, to have any portion of an eligible rollover distribution that is equal to at least five hundred dollars paid directly to an eligible retirement plan specified by the distributee in a direct rollover. For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Eligible rollover distribution" means any distribution of all or any portion of the balance to the credit of the distributee, except that an eligible rollover distribution does not include any of the following: (i) (A) Any distribution that is one of a series of substantially equal periodic payments not less frequently than annually made for the life or life expectancy of the distributee or the joint lives or the joint life expectancies of the distributee and the distributee's designated beneficiary, or for a specified period of ten years or more; (ii) (B) any distribution to the extent such the distribution is required under Section 401(a)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code; (iii) (C) the portion of any distribution that is not includable in gross income determined without regard to the exclusion for net unrealized appreciation with respect to employer securities; and (iv) (D) any hardship distribution described in Section 401(k)(2)(B)(i)(iv) of the Internal Revenue Code. and (v) any other distribution reasonably or distributions expected to total less than two hundred dollars during a year For distributions after December 31, 2001, a portion of a distribution shall not fail to be an eligible rollover distribution merely because the portion consists of after-tax employee contributions which are not includable in gross income. However, this portion may be paid only to an individual retirement account or annuity described in Section 408(a) or (b) of the Internal Revenue Code, or to a qualified defined contribution plan described in Section 401(a) or 403(a) of the Internal Revenue Code that agrees to separately account for amounts transferred, including separately accounting for the portion of the distribution which is includable in gross income and the portion of the distribution which is not includable.
(2) "Eligible retirement plan" means an individual retirement account described in Section 408(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, an individual retirement annuity described in Section 408(b) of the Internal Revenue Code, an annuity plan described in Section 403(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, or a qualified plan described in Section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, that accepts the distributee's eligible rollover distribution: Provided, That in the case of an eligible rollover distribution to the surviving spouse, an eligible retirement plan is an individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity. For distributions after December 31, 2001, an eligible retirement plan also means an annuity contract described in Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code and an eligible plan under Section 457(b) of the Internal Revenue Code which is maintained by a state, political subdivision of a state, or any agency or instrumentality of a state or political subdivision of a state and which agrees to separately account for amounts transferred into the plan from this system.
(3) "Distributee" means an employee or former employee. In addition, the employee's or former employee's surviving spouse and the employee's or former employee's spouse or former spouse who is the alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order, as defined in Section 414(p) of the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable to governmental plans, are distributees with regard to the interest of the spouse or former spouse.
(4) "Direct rollover" means a payment by the system to the eligible retirement plan.
(b) Nothing in this section may be construed as permitting rollovers into this system or any other retirement system administered by the board.
§18-7A-34. Loans to members.
(a) An actively
contributing member of the retirement system upon written application may borrow from his or her individual account in the Teachers Retirement System, subject to these restrictions:
(1) Loans shall be made in multiples of $10, the minimal loan being $100 and the maximum being $8,000: Provided, That the maximum amount of any loan when added to the outstanding balance of all other loans shall not exceed the lesser of the following: (A) $8,000 reduced by the excess, if any, of the highest outstanding balance of loans during the one-year period ending on the day before the date on which the loan is made, over the outstanding balance of loans to the member on the date on which the loan is made; or (B) fifty percent of the member's contributions to his or her individual account in the Teachers Retirement System: Provided, however, That if the total amount of loaned money outstanding exceeds $40 million, the maximum shall not exceed $3,000 until the retirement board determines that loans outstanding have been reduced to an extent that additional loan amounts are again authorized: Provided further, That the amount of any loan made pursuant to article seven-d of this chapter is not included for the purposes of determining if the $40 million threshold has been exceeded.
(2) Interest charged on the amount of the loan shall be six percent per annum, or a higher rate as set by the board: Provided, That interest charged shall be commercially reasonable in accordance with the provisions of Section 72(p)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code, and the federal regulations issued thereunder. If repayable in installments, the interest shall not exceed the annual rate so established upon the principal amount of the loan, for the entire period of the loan, and such the charge shall be added to the principal amount of the loan. The minimal interest charge shall be for six months.
(3) No member is eligible for more than one outstanding loan at any time: Provided, That the foregoing provision does not apply to any loan made pursuant to article seven-d of this chapter. Upon full payment of a loan, a member may apply for a subsequent loan after sixty days beginning the first day of the month following receipt of final payment.
(4) If a refund of accumulated contributions is payable to the borrower or his or her beneficiary before he or she repays the loan with interest, the balance due with interest to date shall be deducted from the refund. A member with an unpaid loan balance who wishes to retire or becomes eligible to receive disability benefits under any provision of this article may have the loan repaid in full by accepting retirement income or disability payments reduced by deducting from the actuarial reserve for the accrued benefit the amount of the unpaid balance plus accrued interest, if any, and then converting the remaining of the reserve to a monthly pension or disability benefit payable in the form of the annuity desired by the member.
(5) From his or her monthly salary as a teacher or a nonteacher the member shall pay the loan and interest by deductions which will pay the loan and interest in substantially level payments in not more than sixty nor less than six months. Upon notice of loan granted and payment due, the employer is responsible for making the salary deductions and reporting them to the retirement board. At the option of the board, loan deductions may be collected as prescribed herein for the collection of members' contribution, or may be collected through issuance of warrant by employer. If the borrower is no longer employed as a teacher or nonteaching member, the borrower must make monthly loan payments directly to the Consolidated Public Retirement Board and the board must accept the payments.
(6) The entire unpaid balance of any loan, and interest due thereon, shall, at the option of the board, become due and payable without further notice or demand upon the occurrence with respect to the borrowing member of any of the following events of default: (A) Any payment of principal and accrued interest on a loan remains unpaid after it becomes due and payable under the terms of the loan or after the grace period established in the discretion of the board; (B) the borrowing member attempts to make an assignment for the benefit of creditors of his or her refund or benefit under the retirement system; or (C) any other event of default set forth in rules promulgated by the board in accordance with the authority granted pursuant to section one, article ten-d, chapter five of this code: Provided, That any refund or offset of an unpaid loan balance shall be made only at the time the member is entitled to receive a distribution under the retirement system.
(7) Loans shall be evidenced by such form of obligations and shall be made upon such additional terms as to default, prepayment, security, and otherwise as the board determines.
(8) Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, the loan program authorized by this section shall comply with the provisions of Section 72(p)(2) and Section 401 of the Internal Revenue Code, and the federal regulations issued thereunder, and accordingly, the retirement board is authorized to: (A) Apply and construe the provisions of this section and administer the plan loan program in such a manner as to comply with the provisions of Section 72(p)(2) and Section 401 of the Internal Revenue Code and the federal regulations issued thereunder; (B) adopt plan loan policies or procedures consistent with these federal law provisions; and (C) take such actions as it deems considers necessary or appropriate to administer the plan loan program created hereunder in accordance with these federal law provisions. The retirement board is further authorized in connection with the plan loan program to take any actions that may at any time be required by the Internal Revenue Service regarding compliance with the requirements of Section 72(p)(2) or Section 401 of the Internal Revenue Code, and the federal regulations issued thereunder, notwithstanding any provision in this article to the contrary.
(b) Notwithstanding anything in this article to the contrary, the loan program authorized by this section shall not be available to any teacher or nonteacher who becomes a member of the Teachers Retirement System on or after July 1, 2005: Provided, That a member is eligible for a loan under article seven-d of this chapter to pay all or part of the Actuarial Reserve, or if available in accordance with the provisions of subsection (d), section six, article seven-d of this chapter, the one and one-half percent contribution for service in the Teachers' Defined Contribution System for the purpose of receiving additional service credit in the State Teachers Retirement System pursuant to section six, article seven-d, of this chapter.
(c) A member who ceases service with an unpaid loan balance will no longer be a member when the unpaid loan balance, plus accrued interest, equals or exceeds the member's accumulated contributions.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make technical changes to the Teachers' Retirement System Act; to define "employer error"; to clarify the definition of "member"; to specify cessation of membership; to provide for the correction of errors; to clarify loan offsets at time of withdrawal; to permit rollovers of any dollar amount; and to permit loan borrowers to receive retirement income or disability payments when outstanding loan balance is deducted from the actuarial reserve of accrued benefit.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

This Web site is maintained by the West Virginia Legislature's Office of Reference & Information.  |  Terms of Use  |   Email WebmasterWebmaster   |   © 2024 West Virginia Legislature **


X

Print On Demand

Name:
Email:
Phone:

Print