ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 94
(Senators Bowman and Snyder, original sponsors)
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[Passed March 14, 1998; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact section thirty-five-b, article
seven-a, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
raising the earnings cap from two thousand five hundred
dollars to seven thousand five hundred dollars per year for
appointed or elected officials receiving incentive
retirement benefits; and removing obsolete provisions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirty-five-b, 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.
§18-7A-35b. Temporary early retirement incentives program;
legislative declarations and findings; termination date.
Under the prior enactment of this section, the Legislature
found and declared that a compelling state interest existed in
providing a temporary, early retirement incentives program for
encouraging the early, voluntary retirement of those public
employees who were current, active, contributing members of this
retirement system on the first day of April, one thousand nine
hundred eighty-eight, in the reduction of the number of the
employees and in reduction of governmental costs for the
employees. The Legislature further found that maintaining an
actuarily sound retirement fund is essential and that the
reemployment in any manner, including reemployment on a contract
basis, by the state of any person who retired under this section
is contrary to the intent of the early retirement program and
severely threatens the fiscal integrity of the retirement fund.
The early retirement program under the prior enactment of this
section, offered employees three retirement incentive options.
Any person who retired under the provisions of the prior
enactment of this section are subject to the restrictions
contained in this section.
(a) For the purposes of this section: (1) "Contract" means any personal service agreement, not involving the sale of
commodities, that cannot be performed within sixty days or for
which the total compensation exceeds seven thousand five hundred
dollars in any twelve-month period. The term "contract" does not
include any agreement obtained by a retirant through a bidding
process and which is for the furnishing of any commodity to a
government agency; (2) "governmental entity" means the state of
West Virginia; a constitutional branch or office of the state
government, or any subdivision of state government; a county,
city or town in the state; a county board of education; a
separate corporation or instrumentality established pursuant to
a state statute; any other entity currently permitted to
participate in any state public retirement system or the public
employees insurance agency; or any officer or official of any
entity listed in this subsection who is acting in his or her
official capacity; (3) "substitute teacher" means a teacher,
public school librarian, registered professional nurse employed
by the county board of education or any other person employed for
counselling or instructional purposes in a public school in this
state who is temporarily fulfilling the duties of an existing
person employed in a specific position who is temporarily absent
from that specific position; and (4) "part-time elected or
appointed office" means any elected or appointed office that compensates its members in an amount less than two thousand five
hundred dollars or requires less than sixty days of service in
any twelve-month period.
(b) Any member who participated in the retirement incentive
program under the prior enactment of this section is not eligible
to accept further employment or accept, directly or indirectly,
work on a contract basis from a governmental entity: Provided,
That the executive director may approve, upon written request for
good cause shown, an exception allowing a retirant to perform
work on a contract basis: Provided, however, That a person may
retire under this section and thereafter serve in an elective
office: Provided further, That he or she shall not receive the
incentive option he or she elected under the prior enactment of
this section during the term of service in that office for which
the total compensation exceeds seven thousand five hundred
dollars, but shall receive his or her annuity calculated on
regular basis, as if originally taken not under the prior
enactment of this section but on a regular basis. At the end of
the term and cessation of service in the office, the incentive
option resumes. In respect of an appointive office, as
distinguished from an elective office, any person retiring under
this section and thereafter serving in the appointive office for
which the total compensation exceeds seven thousand five hundred dollars shall not receive the incentive option he or she elected
under the prior enactment of this section during the term of
service in that office, but the incentive option resumes during
that period: And provided further, That at the end of the term
and cessation of service in the appointive office the incentive
option provided for under the prior enactment of this section
resumes: And provided further, That any person elected or
appointed to office by the state or any of its political
subdivisions who waives whatever salary, wage or per diem
compensation he or she may be entitled to by virtue of service in
that office and who does not receive any income from service in
that office except the reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs and
expenses that are permitted by the statutes governing the office
shall continue to receive the incentive option he or she elected
under this section. The service may not be counted as
contributed or credited service for purposes of computing
retirement benefits.
(c) If the elected or appointed office is a part-time
elected or appointed office, a person electing retirement under
this section may serve in the elective or appointive office with
no loss of the benefits provided under the prior enactment of
this section.
(d) Prior to the initiation or renewal of any contract for which the total compensation exceeds seven thousand five hundred
dollars and entered into pursuant to this section or the
acceptance of any elective or appointive office for which the
total compensation exceeds seven thousand five hundred dollars,
a person who has elected to retire under the early retirement
provisions of the prior enactment of this section shall complete
a disclosure and waiver statement executed under oath and
acknowledged by a notary public. The board shall propose rules
for promulgation, pursuant to article three, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code, regarding the form and contents of
the waiver and disclosure statement. The disclosure and waiver
statement shall be forwarded to the appropriate state public
retirement system administrator who shall take action to ensure
that the early retirement incentive option benefit is reduced in
accordance with the provisions of this section. The
administrator shall then certify that action in writing to the
appropriate governmental entity.
(e) In any event, an eligible member who retired under the
prior enactment of this section may continue to receive his or
her incentive annuity and be employed as a substitute teacher, as
adjunct faculty, as a school service personnel substitute, or as
a part-time member of the faculty of southern West Virginia
community college or West Virginia northern community college: Provided, That the board of directors determines that the
part-time employment is in accordance with policies to be adopted
by the board regarding adjunct faculty. For purposes of this
section, a "part-time member of the faculty" means an individual
employed solely to provide instruction for not more than twelve
college credits per semester.
(f) Any incentive retirants, under the prior enactment of
this section, may not receive an annuity and enter or reenter any
governmental retirement system established or authorized to be
established by the state, notwithstanding any provision of the
code to the contrary, unless required by constitutional
provision.
(g) The additional annuity allowed for temporary early
retirement is intended to be paid from the retirement incentive
account created as a special account in the state treasury and
from the funds in the special account established with moneys
required to be applied or transferred by heads of spending units
from the unused portion of salary and fringe benefits in their
budgets accruing in respect to the positions vacated and
subsequently canceled under this temporary early retirement
program. Salary and fringe benefit moneys actually saved in a
particular fiscal year constitute the fund source. No additional
annuity shall be disallowed even though initial receipts may not be sufficient, with funds of the system to be applied for the
purpose, as for the base annuity.
(h) The executive secretary of the retirement system shall
file a quarterly report to the Legislature detailing the number
of retirees who have elected to accept early retirement incentive
options, the dollar cost to date by option selected, and the
projected annual cost through the year two thousand.
(i) Termination of temporary retirement incentives program.
-- The right to retire under this section terminated on the
thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine.