H. B. 2319
(By Delegates Hubbard, McGraw and Flanigan)
[Introduced
February 19, 2001
; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-five, article seven-a,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the state
teachers retirement system; the eligibility for retirement
allowance and early retirement; and providing for retirement,
with full pension rights, when a member's age plus years of
contributing service equals or exceeds eighty.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-five, 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-25. Eligibility for retirement allowance.
Any member who has attained the age of sixty years or who has
had thirty-five years of total service as a teacher in West
Virginia, regardless of age, shall be eligible for an annuity. No
new entrant nor present member shall be eligible for an annuity,
however, if either has less than five years of service to his or
her credit.
Any member who has attained the age of fifty-five years and
who has served thirty years as a teacher in West Virginia shall be
eligible for an annuity.
Any member who has served at least thirty but less than
thirty-five years as a teacher in West Virginia and is less than
fifty-five years of age shall be eligible for an annuity, but the
same shall be the reduced actuarial equivalent of the annuity the
member would have received if such member were age fifty-five at
the time such annuity was applied for.
Any member may retire with full pension rights, without
reduction of benefits, when the sum of the member's age plus total years of service equals or exceeds eighty. Ten years of a member's
total years of service may be out of state service or, prior
service or any combination thereof not exceeding an aggregate of
ten years.
The request for any annuity shall be made by the member in
writing to the retirement board, but in case of retirement for
disability, the written request may be made by either the member or
the employer.
A member shall be eligible for annuity for disability if he or
she satisfies the conditions in either subdivision (a) or
subdivision (b) and meets the conditions of subdivision (c) as
follows:
(a) His or her service as a teacher in West Virginia must
total at least ten years, and service as a teacher must have been
terminated because of disability, which disability must have caused
absence from service for at least six months before his or her
application for disability annuity is approved.
(b) His or her service as a teacher in West Virginia must
total at least five years, and service as a teacher must have been
terminated because of disability, which disability must have caused absence from service for at least six months before his or her
application for disability annuity is approved and said disability
is a direct and total result of an act of student violence directed
toward the member.
(c) An examination by a physician or physicians selected by
the retirement board must show that the member is at the time
mentally or physically incapacitated for service as a teacher, that
for such service the disability is total and likely to be
permanent, and that he or she should be retired in consequence
thereof.
Continuance of the disability of the retired teacher shall be
established by medical examination, as prescribed in the preceding
paragraph, annually for five years after retirement, and thereafter
at such times as the retirement board may require. Effective the
first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, a member
who has retired because of a disability may select an option of
payment under the provisions of section twenty-eight of this
article: Provided, That any option selected under the provisions
of section twenty-eight of this article shall be in all respects
the actuarial equivalent of the straight life annuity benefit the disability retiree receives or would receive if the options under
section twenty-eight of this article were not available and that no
beneficiary or beneficiaries of the disability annuitant may
receive a greater benefit, nor receive any benefit for a greater
length of time, than such beneficiary or beneficiaries would have
received had the disability retiree not made any election of the
options available under said section twenty-eight. In determining
the actuarial equivalence, the board shall take into account the
life expectancies of the member and the beneficiary: Provided,
however, That the life expectancies may at the discretion of the
board be established by an underwriting medical director of a
competent insurance company offering annuities. Payment of the
disability annuity provided in this article shall cease immediately
if the retirement board finds that the disability of the retired
teacher no longer exists, or if the retired teacher refuses to
submit to medical examination as required by this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide teacher
retirement eligibility, with full pension rights, when a member's
age plus years of total service equals or exceeds eighty.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.