Senate Bill No. 106

(By Senators Schoonover, Sharpe, Grubb, Wiedebusch,

Love, Anderson, Bailey, White, Dittmar, Bowman, Miller

and Macnaughtan)

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[Introduced January 22, 1996;

referred to the Committee on Pensions;

then to the Committee on Education;

and then to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-five, article seven-a, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the state teachers retirement system; and allowing for retirement at age fifty, with full pension rights, when a member's age plus years of contributing service equals or exceeds eighty.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-five, article seven-a, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.

ยง18-7A-25. Eligibility for retirement allowance.

Any member who has attained the age of sixty years or who has had thirty-five years of total service as a teacher in West Virginia, regardless of age, shall be eligible for an annuity. No new entrant nor present member shall be eligible for an annuity, however, if either has less than five years of service to his credit.
Any member who has attained the age of fifty-five years and who has served thirty years as a teacher in West Virginia shall be eligible for an annuity.
Any member who has served at least thirty but less than thirty-five years as a teacher in West Virginia and is less than fifty-five years of age shall be eligible for an annuity, but the same shall be the reduced actuarial equivalent of the annuity the member would have received if such member were age fifty-five at the time such annuity was applied for.
Any member may retire with full pension rights, without reduction of benefits, who has attained the age of fifty years and if the sum of such member's age plus years of contributing service equals or exceeds eighty: Provided, That the member has at least twenty years of contributing service, two years of which may be military service, or prior service or any combination thereof not exceeding an aggregate of two years.
The request for any annuity shall be made by the member in writing to the retirement board, but in case of retirement for disability, the written request may be made by either the member or the employer.
A member shall be eligible for annuity for disability if he satisfies the conditions in both (a) and (b) as follows:
(a) His service as a teacher in West Virginia must total at least ten years, and service as a teacher must have been terminated because of disability, which disability must have caused absence from service for at least six months before his application for disability annuity is approved.
(b) An examination by a physician or physicians selected by the retirement board must show that the member is at the time mentally or physically incapacitated for service as a teacher, that for such service the disability is total and likely to be permanent, and that he should be retired in consequence thereof.
Continuance of the disability of the retired teacher shall be established by medical examination, as prescribed in the preceding paragraph, annually for five years after retirement, and thereafter at such times as the retirement board may require. Payment of the disability annuity provided in this article shall cease immediately if the retirement board finds that the disability of the retired teacher no longer exists, or if the retired teacher refuses to submit to medical examination as required by this section.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow members of the teachers retirement system to retire with full pension rights when a member's age plus years of contributing service equals or exceeds eighty.

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