Senate Bill No. 440

(By Senator Helmick)

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[Introduced March 24, 1997; referred to the Committee
on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eleven, article seven-b, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the teachers' defined contribution retirement system; and authorizing transfer of service credit and retirement account to the public employees retirement system if a teacher's employment is terminated with a participating employer and the person is later employed by a state agency.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eleven, article seven-b, 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 7B. TEACHERS' DEFINED CONTRIBUTION RETIREMENT SYSTEM.

ยง18-7B-11. Termination of membership.

Any member whose employment with a participating employer terminates after the completion of six complete years of employment service shall be eligible to terminate his or her annuity account and receive a distribution from the member's annuity account, in an amount equal to the member's contribution plus one third of the employer contributions and any earnings thereon. Any member whose employment with a participating employer terminates after the completion of nine complete years of employment service shall be eligible to terminate his or her annuity account and receive a distribution from the member's annuity account, in an amount equal to the member's contribution plus two thirds of the employer's contributions and any earnings thereon. Any member whose employment with a participating employer terminates after the completion of twelve complete years of employment service shall be eligible to terminate his or her annuity account and receive a distribution of all funds contributed and accumulated in his or her annuity account. Any member whose employment with a participating employer terminates prior to the completion of six complete years of employment service shall be eligible to terminate his or her annuity account and receive a distribution from the member's annuity account, in an amount equal to the member's contribution plus any earnings thereon: Provided, That on the death or permanent, total disability of any member, that member shall be eligible to terminate his or her annuity account and receive all funds contributed to or accumulated in his or her annuity account.
The remaining balance, if any, in the member's account after the distribution shall be remitted and paid into a suspension account, hereby created, to be administered by the board. The board shall promulgate rules regarding the distribution of any balance in the special account created by this section: Provided, That any funds in the account shall be used solely for the purpose of reducing employer contributions in future years.
Any account balances remitted to the suspension account herein shall be maintained by the board in said the suspension account in the name of the terminated employee for a period of five years following initial remittance to the suspension account. For each said terminated employee at the culmination of the aforesaid five-year period, the board shall certify in writing to each contributing employer the amount of the account balances plus earnings thereon attributable to each separate contributing employers previously terminated employees' accounts which have been irrevocably forfeited due to the elapse of a five-year period since termination pursuant to section sixteen of this article.
Upon certification to the several contributing employers of the aggregate account balances plus earnings thereon which have been irrevocably forfeited pursuant to this section, the several contributing employers shall be permitted in the next succeeding fiscal year or years to reduce their total aggregate contribution requirements pursuant to section seventeen of this article, for the then current fiscal year by an amount equal to the aggregate amounts irrevocably forfeited and certified as such to each contributing employer.
Upon the utilization of the amounts irrevocably forfeited to any contributing employer as a reduction in the then current fiscal year contribution obligation and upon notification provided by the several contributing employers to the board of their intention to utilize irrevocably forfeited amounts, the board shall direct the distribution of said the irrevocably forfeited amounts from the suspension account to be deposited on behalf of the contributing employer to the member annuity accounts of its then current employees pursuant to section seventeen of this article.
If a member's employment terminates within the time periods provided for in this section and the member is then later employed by a state agency, the member may transfer the service time and retirement account, including all contributions made to that account by both the member and employer, from the defined contribution system to the public employees retirement system and shall receive full credit towards retirement for the service earned as a teacher.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to permit the transfer of service credit and retirement account to the public employees retirement system from the teachers' defined contribution retirement system if a teacher's employment is terminated with a participating employer in the defined contribution system and that person is later employed by a state agency.

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