Senate Bill No. 560
(By Senators Plymale, Sprouse, Fanning, Kimble, Walker, Jackson,
and Prezioso))
____________
[Originating in the Committee on Pensions;
reported April 2, 1997.]
_____________
A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen, article ten, chapter
five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, relating to calculation of retirement
service credit for public employees, legislative employees and
former constables and justices of the peace; and purchase of
retroactive retirement service credit.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen, article ten, chapter five of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-14. Service credit.
(a) The board of trustees shall credit each member with the
prior service and contributing service to which he or she is
entitled based upon such rules and regulations as the board of
trustees shall from time to time adopt: Provided, That in no case
shall less than ten and based upon the following:
(1) Ten or more days of service rendered by a member in any
calendar month shall be credited as a month of service: Provided,
That for employees of the state Legislature whose term of
employment is otherwise classified as temporary and who are
employed to perform services required by the Legislature for its
regular sessions or during the interim between regular sessions and
who have been or are so employed during regular sessions or during
the interim between regular sessions in seven consecutive calendar
years, service credit of one month shall be awarded
for all or any
part of each calendar month encompassed within a regular
legislative session, notwithstanding that the actual number of days
served in any one month of the regular session is less than ten
days, and service credit of one month shall be awarded for each ten
days served during the interim between regular sessions, which
interim days shall be cumulatively calculated so that any ten days,
regardless of calendar month or year, shall be calculated toward
any award of one month of service credit
;
(2) nor shall less than Ten or more months of service rendered
in any calendar year shall be credited as a year of service;
(3) nor shall No more than one year of service may be credited
to any member for all service rendered by him or her in any
calendar year;
(4) nor shall any member who was not in the employ of Service
may be credited to a member who was employed by a political
subdivision if his or her employment occurred within a period of
thirty years immediately preceding the date the political subdivision became a participating public employer be credited with
prior service: Provided, however, That said member is not required
to have been employed by a participating public employer of this
state within a period of fifteen years subsequent to the date that
participating public employer elected to become a participating
employer.
(b) The board of trustees shall grant service credit to
employees of boards of health, the clerk of the House of Delegates
and the clerk of the state Senate, or to any former and present
member of the state teachers retirement system who have been
contributing members for more than three years, for service
previously credited by the state teachers retirement system and
shall require the transfer of the member's contributions to the
system and shall also require a deposit, with interest, of any
withdrawals of contributions any time prior to said member's
retirement. Repayment of withdrawals shall be as directed by the
board of trustees.
(c) Court reporters who are acting in an official capacity,
although paid by funds other than the county commission or state
auditor, may receive prior service credit for such time as served
in such capacity.
(d) Employees of the state Legislature whose term of employment
is otherwise classified as temporary and who are employed to
perform services required by the Legislature for its regular
sessions or during the interim between regular sessions may receive
service credit for the time as served in that capacity in accordance with subsection (a) of this section: Provided, That the
following. Employees of the state Legislature whose term of
employment is otherwise classified as temporary and who are
employed to perform services required by the Legislature for at
least sixty days for its regular sessions or during the interim
between regular sessions and who have been or are so employed
during regular sessions or during the interim between regular
sessions for at least seven in seven consecutive legislative
sessions calendar years, as certified by the clerk of the house in
which the employee served, may shall receive service credit for of
six months for each regular session served as certified by the
clerk of the house in which the employee served, and shall receive
service credit of one month for each ten days served during the
interim between regular sessions, which interim days shall be
cumulatively calculated so that any ten days, regardless of
calendar month or year, shall be calculated toward any award of one
month of service credit. one-half year for each year served, which
Service credit awarded for legislative employment pursuant to this
subsection shall be used for the purpose of calculating that
member's retirement annuity only, pursuant to section twenty-two of
this article, and notwithstanding any other provision of this
section: Provided, however, That the for purposes of calculating
the amount of service credit an employee has served to become
entitled to voluntary retirement shall be calculated as provided in
subsection (a) of this section. Service credit awarded for
legislative service pursuant to this subsection shall not be used to determine when an employment period begins or ends, or to
determine when the period of eligibility or filing for retirement
begins to run. Certification of employment for a complete
legislative session and for days of interim sessions shall be
determined by the clerk of the house in which the employee served,
based upon employment records. Service of fifty-five days of a
regular session constitutes a presumption of service for a complete
legislative session.
Any employee may purchase retroactive service credit for
periods of employment in which contributions were not deducted from
the employee's pay. In the purchase of service credit for
employment prior to 1989 in any department, including the
Legislature, which operated from the general revenue fund and which
was not expressly excluded from budget appropriations in which
blanket appropriations were made for the state's share of public
employees' retirement coverage in the years prior to 1989, the
employee shall pay the employee's share only, and not the state's
share. Other employees shall pay the state's share and the
employee's share to purchase retroactive service credit.
(e) Former justices of the peace and constables shall be
entitled to credit for retirement purposes for those years of
service as a justice of the peace or constable: Provided, That
they have a minimum of five years contributing service and they
compensate the retirement fund in an amount equal to the amount
which they would have contributed for a like period of time,
according to a formula determined by the retirement board, plus an amount equal to the determined employer's contribution for the same
period. For purposes of calculating the contributions, the salary
for constables shall be deemed to be five thousand dollars per year
and the salary for justices of the peace shall be deemed to be
seven thousand five hundred dollars per year. In addition, they
shall deposit the compounded yearly interest on the aggregate of
the employee and employer contributions at a rate or rates to be
determined by the retirement board: Provided, however, That those
former justices of the peace and constables who elect to seek
credit under this subsection shall be allowed until the thirtieth
day of June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five, to compensate
the retirement fund as provided herein.
(e) Former constables and justices of the peace may purchase
retroactive service credit by making contributions to the
retirement system per year of service credit in amounts based upon
the current age of the retiree as follows:
(1) Age sixty or under: one thousand three hundred thirty-one
dollars per year;
(2) Age sixty through sixty-five: one thousand fifty-three
dollars per year;
(3) Age sixty-five through seventy: seven hundred fifty-five
dollars per year;
(4) Age seventy through seventy-five: five hundred seventy-one
dollars per year;
(5) Age seventy-five through eighty: three hundred forty-nine dollars per year;
(6) Age eighty through eighty-five: one hundred ninety-nine
dollars per year;
(7) Age eighty-five through ninety: one hundred twenty-four
dollars per year;
(8) Age ninety through ninety-five: eighty-nine dollars per
year;
(9) Age ninety-five through one hundred: sixty-one dollars per
year; and
(10) Age one hundred through one hundred five: fifty dollars
per year.
(f) The purchase of retroactive service credit by former
constables and justices of the peace pursuant to this section shall
be made on or before the thirty-first day of December, one thousand
nine hundred ninety-seven.
(g) Service credit purchased retroactively by former constables
and justices of the peace pursuant to this section shall not be
used to
determine when an employment period begins or ends, or to
determine when the period of eligibility or filing for retirement
begins to run, but
shall be used for the purpose of calculating
that member's retirement annuity only, pursuant to section twenty- two of this article, and notwithstanding any other provision of
this section
.