H. B. 2651
(By Delegate Michael)
[Introduced February 4, 1999; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]
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 providing
public employee retirement system service credit for time
worked in CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act)
programs and other similar federal programs.
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; retroactive provisions.
(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 as the board of trustees shall
from time to time adopt 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
each ten days employed in 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) Ten or more months of service credit earned in any
calendar year shall be credited as a year of service;
(3) 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; and
(4) 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.
(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 the 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 time served in that
capacity.
(d) County employees who work in CETA (Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act) and other similar programs, although paid by funds other than the county commission or state auditor,
may receive service credit for time served in that capacity:
Provided, That what constitutes "other similar programs" under
this section shall be determined by the consolidated public
retirement board established pursuant to article ten-d, chapter
five of this code.
(d) (e) Employees of the state Legislature whose terms of
employment are 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
shall receive service credit for the time served in that capacity
in accordance with 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 its regular sessions or during the interim
between regular sessions and who have been or are employed during
regular sessions or during the interim between regular sessions
in seven consecutive calendar years, as certified by the clerk of
the houses in which the employee served, shall receive service
credit of six months for all regular sessions served as certified
by the clerk of the houses in which the employee served, or shall receive service credit of three months for each regular thirty- day session served prior to one thousand nine hundred seventy- one, as certified by the clerk of the houses 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.
Service credit awarded for legislative employment pursuant to
this section shall be used for the purpose of calculating that
member's retirement annuity, pursuant to section twenty-two of
this article, and determining eligibility as it relates to
credited service, notwithstanding any other provision of this
section. Certification of employment for a complete legislative
session and for days of interim sessions shall be determined by
the clerk of the houses 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, and service of twenty-seven days of a
thirty-day regular session occurring prior to one thousand nine
hundred seventy-one constitutes a presumption of service for a complete legislative session. Once a legislative employee has
been employed during regular sessions for seven consecutive years
or has become a full-time employee of the Legislature, that
employee shall receive the service credit provided in this
section for all regular and interim sessions worked by that
employee, as certified by the clerk of the houses in which the
employee served, regardless of when the session or interim
legislative employment occurred: Provided, That regular session
legislative employment for seven consecutive years may be served
in either or both houses of the Legislature.
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 the year one thousand nine hundred
eighty-nine 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 the year one
thousand nine hundred eighty-nine, the employee shall pay the
employee's share. Other employees shall pay the state's share and the employee's share to purchase retroactive service credit.
Where an employee purchases service credit for employment which
occurred after the year one thousand nine hundred eighty-eight,
that employee shall pay for the employee's share and the employer
shall pay its share for the purchase of retroactive service
credit: Provided, That no legislative employee may be required
to pay any interest or penalty upon the purchase of retroactive
service credit in accordance with the provisions of this section
where the employee was not eligible to become a member during the
years he or she is purchasing retroactive credit for or had the
employee attempted to contribute to the system during the years
he or she is purchasing retroactive service credit for and such
contributions would have been refused by the board: Provided,
however, That a legislative employee purchasing retroactive
credit under this section does so within twenty-four months of
becoming a member of the system or no later than the last day of
December, two thousand two, whichever occurs last: Provided
further, That once a legislative employee becomes a member of the
retirement system, he or she may purchase retroactive service
credit for any time he or she was employed by the Legislature and
did not receive service credit. Any service credit purchased shall be credited as six months for each sixty-day session worked
and three months for each thirty-day session worked, and credit
for interim sessions as provided in this subsection: And
provided further, That this legislative service credit shall also
be used for months of service in order to meet the sixty-month
requirement for the payments of a member's retirement annuity:
And provided further, That no legislative employee may be
required to pay for any service credit beyond the actual time he
or she worked regardless of the service credit which is credited
to him or her pursuant to this section: And provided further,
That any legislative employee may request a recalculation of his
or her credited service to comply with the provisions of this
section at any time.
(e) (f) Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, the
seven consecutive calendar years requirement and the service
credit requirements set forth in this section shall be applied
retroactively to all periods of legislative employment prior to
the passage of this section, including any periods of legislative
employment occurring before the seven consecutive calendar years
referenced in this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide public
employee retirement system service credit for time worked in CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) programs and other
similar federal programs.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.