ENGROSSED

H. B. 2157


(By Delegate Proudfoot)

[Introduced January 13, 2000; referred to the

Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]





A BILL to amend and reenact section seventeen, article seven-a, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to education; the state teachers retirement system; statement and computation of teacher's service; and permitting prior service credit for prior employment with the West Virginia state police or the former department of public safety.

 Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections seventeen and 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-17. Statement and computation of teachers' service.

(a) Under rules adopted by the retirement board, each teacher shall file a detailed statement of his or her length of service as a teacher for which he or she claims credit. The retirement board shall determine what part of a year is the equivalent of a year of service. In computing the service, however, it shall credit no period of more than a month's duration during which a member was absent without pay, nor shall it credit for more than one year of service performed in any calendar year.
(b) For the purpose of this article, the retirement board shall grant prior service credit to new entrants and other members of the retirement system for service in any of the armed forces of the United States in any period of national emergency within which a federal Selective Service Act was in effect. For purposes of this section, "armed forces" includes women's army corps, women's appointed volunteers for emergency service, army nurse corps, spars, women's reserve and other similar units officially parts of the military service of the United States. The military service is considered equivalent to public school teaching, and the salary equivalent for each year of that service is the actual salary of the member as a teacher for his or her first year of teaching after discharge from military service. Prior service credit for military service shall not exceed ten years for any one member, nor shall it exceed twenty-five percent of total service at the time of retirement.
(c) For service as a teacher in the employment of the federal government, or a state or territory of the United States, or a governmental subdivision of that state or territory, the retirement board shall grant credit to the member: Provided, That the member shall pay to the system double the amount he or she contributed during the first full year of current employment, times the number of years for which credit is granted, plus interest at a rate to be determined by the retirement board. The interest shall be deposited in the reserve fund and service credit granted at the time of retirement shall not exceed the lesser of ten years or fifty percent of the member's total service as a teacher in West Virginia. Any transfer of out-of-state service, as provided in this article, shall not be used to establish eligibility for a retirement allowance and the retirement board shall grant credit for the transferred service as additional service only: Provided, however, That a transfer of out-of-state service is prohibited if the service is used to obtain a retirement benefit from another retirement system: Provided further, That salaries paid to members for service prior to entrance into the retirement system shall not be used to compute the average final salary of the member under the retirement system.
(d) Service credit for members or retired members shall not be denied on the basis of minimum income rules promulgated by the teachers retirement board: Provided, That the member or retired member shall pay to the system the amount he or she would have contributed during the year or years of public school service for which credit was denied as a result of the minimum income rules of the teachers retirement board.
(e) No members shall be considered absent from service while serving as a member or employee of the Legislature of the state of West Virginia during any duly constituted session of that body or while serving as an elected member of a county commission during any duly constituted session of that body.
(f) No member shall be considered absent from service as a teacher while serving as an officer with a statewide professional teaching association, or who has served in that capacity, and no retired teacher, who served in that capacity while a member, shall be considered to have been absent from service as a teacher by reason of that service: Provided, That the period of service credit granted for that service shall not exceed ten years: Provided, however, That a member or retired teacher who is serving or has served as an officer of a statewide professional teaching association shall make deposits to the teachers retirement board, for the time of any absence, in an amount double the amount which he or she would have contributed in his or her regular assignment for a like period of time.
The teachers retirement board shall grant service credit to any former or present member of the West Virginia public employees retirement system who has been a contributing member for more than three years, for service previously credited by the public employees retirement system and: (1) Shall require the transfer of the member's contributions to the teachers retirement system; or (2) shall require a repayment of the amount withdrawn any time prior to the member's retirement: Provided, That there shall be added by the member to the amounts transferred or repaid under this subsection an amount which shall be sufficient to equal the contributions he or she would have made had the member been under the teachers retirement system during the period of his or her membership in the public employees retirement system plus interest at a rate of six percent compounded annually from the date of withdrawal to the date of payment. The interest paid shall be deposited in the reserve fund.
The teachers retirement board shall grant service credit to any former member of the state police death, disability and retirement system who has been a contributing member for more than three years, for service previously credited by the state police death, disability and retirement system; and: (1) Shall require the transfer of the member's contributions to the teachers retirement system; or (2) shall require a repayment of the amount withdrawn any time prior to the member's retirement: Provided, That the member shall add to the amounts transferred or repaid under this paragraph an amount which is sufficient to equal the contributions he or she would have made had the member been under the teachers retirement system during the period of his or her membership in the state police death, disability and retirement system plus interest at a rate of six percent compounded annually from the date of withdrawal to the date of payment. The interest paid shall be deposited in the reserve fund.
(g) For service as a teacher in an elementary or secondary parochial school, located within this state and fully accredited by the West Virginia department of education, the retirement board shall grant credit to the member: Provided, That the member shall pay to the system double the amount contributed during the first full year of current employment, times the number of years for which credit is granted, plus interest at a rate to be determined by the retirement board. The interest shall be deposited in the reserve fund and service granted at the time of retirement shall not exceed the lesser of ten years or fifty percent of the member's total service as a teacher in the West Virginia public school system. Any transfer of parochial school service, as provided in this section, may not be used to establish eligibility for a retirement allowance and the board shall grant credit for the transfer as additional service only: Provided, however, That a transfer of parochial school service is prohibited if the service is used to obtain a retirement benefit from another retirement system.
(h) If a member is not eligible for prior service credit or pension as provided in this article, then his or her prior service shall not be considered a part of his or her total service.
(i) A member who withdrew from membership may regain his or her former membership rights as specified in section thirteen of this article only in case he or she has served two years since his or her last withdrawal.
(j) Subject to the provisions of subsection (a) through (i) of this section, the board shall verify as soon as practicable the statements of service submitted. The retirement board shall issue prior service certificates to all persons eligible for the certificates under the provisions of this article. The certificates shall state the length of the prior service credit, but in no case shall the prior service credit exceed forty years.
Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary, when a member is or has been elected to serve as a member of the Legislature, and the proper discharge of his or her duties of public office require that member to be absent from his or her teaching or administrative duties, the time served in discharge of his or her duties of the legislative office are credited as time served for purposes of computing service credit: Provided, That the board may not require any additional contributions from that member in order for the board to credit him or her with the contributing service credit earned while discharging official legislative duties.
§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 counseling 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 the Legislature or 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.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

FINANCE COMMITTEE TITLE AMENDMENT


H. B. 2157 - "A Bill to amend and reenact sections seventeen and thirty-five-b, article seven-a, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to education; the state teachers retirement system; statement and computation of teacher's service; permitting prior service credit for prior employment with the West Virginia state police or the former department of public safety; providing for election for certain members who hold public office; providing for certain time periods to be included for purposes of determining final average salary; temporary early retirement program; providing that service in the Legislature is not subject to a penalty for government service for those persons who took early retirement incentive; and setting forth circumstances where no interest may be charged."