COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 539
___________
(By Senators Plymale, Minear, Walker and Ross)
____________
[Originating in the Committee on Pensions;
reported February 24, 2000.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact section forty-eight, article ten,
chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the public
employees' retirement system; and allowing an elected public
official who has met age-plus-service requirements for normal
or early retirement to be considered an in-service retirant.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section forty-eight, 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.
§5-10-48. Reemployment after retirement; option for holder of
elected public office.
(a) In the event a retirant becomes employed by a
participating public employer, payment of his or her annuity shall
be suspended during the period of his or her reemployment and he or
she shall become a contributing member to the retirement system.
If his or her reemployment is for a period of one year or longer,
his or her annuity shall be recalculated and he or she shall be
granted an increased annuity due to such additional employment,
said annuity to be computed according to section twenty-two of this
article. A retirant may continue or accept temporary employment
from a participating employer so long as he or she does not receive
compensation in excess of ten thousand dollars.
(b) In the event a retirant is an elected official, is elected
to public office or appointed to hold an elected public office, he
or she has the option, notwithstanding subsection (a) of this
section, to either:
(1) Receive or continue to receive payment of his or her annuity while holding such public office, in addition to the salary
he or she may be entitled to as such office holder, without making
further contributions to the retirement system; or
(2) Suspend the payment of his or her annuity and become a
contributing member of the retirement system as provided in
subsection (a) of this section.
(c) For purposes of subsection (b) of this section, the word
"retirant" means any member who is eligible to receive an annuity
payable by the retirement system created in this article by virtue
of having satisfied the age and service requirements of any one of
the various provisions contained in section twenty or twenty-one of
this article and who may or may not have received his or her first
such annuity check from the public employees retirement system.
______
(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow an elected public
official who has reached normal or early retirement age/service to
be considered an in-service retirant of PERS.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)