Adopted by House 3-25-2009
HB3158 HFAT White #1 3-25McO
Com. Sub. for H. B. 3158 -- "A BILL to amend and reenact §8-13C-1, §8-13C-2, §8-13C-3, §8-13C-4, §8-13C-5, §8-13C-9, §8-13C-11 and §8-13C-14 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §8-13C-15; to amend and reenact §8-15-8a and §8-15-8b of said code; to amend said code by adding thereto two new sections, designated §8-15-8d and §8-15-8e; to amend and reenact §8-22-16, §8-22-17, §8-22-19, §8-22-20, §8-22-20a, §8-22-22, §8-22-22a, §8-22-23a, §8-22-26a and §8-22-27 of said code; to amend said code by adding thereto two new sections, designated §8-22-18a and §8-22- 18b; to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §11-21-12i; to amend and reenact §12-4-14 of said code; to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §33-2-15e; to amend and reenact §33-3-14d and §33-3-33 of said code; to amend said code by adding thereto three new sections, designated §33-3-14e, §33-3-34 and §33-3-35; and to amend and reenact §60-3- 17 of said code, all relating to providing assistance to certain political subdivision activities involving municipal policemen's and firemen's pensions and relief systems and volunteer fire departments generally; revising the conditions upon which municipalities may impose pension relief occupational taxes, pension relief sales and service and pension relief use taxes, and may issue bonds, dedicated solely to reducing the unfunded actuarial accrued liability of the municipality's policemen's and firemen's pensions and relief funds; modifying requirements for bonds issued by a municipality to eliminate the unfunded actuarial accrued liability; creating new West Virginia Municipal Pensions Matching Fund to which the alcohol beverage control commissioner is directed to transfer funds; providing for the investment, allocation and distribution of state funds on a matching fund basis for the purpose of reducing the unfunded actuarial accrued liability of policemen's and firemen's pension and relief funds; establishing eligibility for allocation and distribution of matching funds; adding requirements for eligibility for allocations to volunteer fire companies and departments from the Fire Protection Fund; providing for the disposition of assets and moneys derived from allocations from the Fire Protection Fund upon the sale of the assets by a volunteer fire company or department or the withdrawal of its certification; requiring sworn statements of expenditures or reports from volunteer fire companies and departments receiving allocations from the Fire Protection Fund to be filed with the Legislative Auditor; providing for disposition of funds withheld from distribution for failure to file the statements or reports; establishing criminal penalties; establishing eligibility criteria for volunteer fire companies and departments to receive funds allocated from the Volunteer Firefighters Length of Service Awards Program Fund; revising calculation of overtime for compensation and average adjusted salary for new employees who are members of municipal policemen's and firemen's pensions and relief systems; requiring additional duties of municipal policemen's and firemen's pensions and relief fund trustees; establishing the West Virginia Municipal Pensions Oversight Board; specifying powers, duties, liabilities and compensation of oversight board members; requiring reporting on local pension funds' investment returns; creating the West Virginia Municipal Pensions Security Fund; transferring certain duties from the State Treasurer to the oversight board and providing for efficient transition; requiring municipal contributions on a monthly basis; requiring deposits of certain revenues within five days of receipt; increasing employee contributions to the pension and relief funds for new employees to nine and one-half percent of salary and for current members to eight and one-half percent of salary; requiring the increased contributions as a condition of eligibility to receive certain insurance premium tax revenues; reducing time to qualify for insurance premium tax revenues allocation; providing for annual actuarial report, for periodic review of the actuarial process and for periodic actuarial audit; setting minimum standards for annual municipality contributions to pension funds; establishing target funding ratios of eighty, ninety and one hundred percent of unfunded liabilities; establishing amortization periods; eliminating alternative funding method; providing for contract actuary; establishing actuarial process; requiring reports; authorizing local pension boards of trustees to investment with the state Investment Management Board and Board of Treasury Investments; requiring compliance with the Uniform Prudent Investor Act; revising restrictions and conditions of authorized investments by municipal trustees; requiring reporting of municipal trustees' investment policy; requiring reporting of fees and transactions costs; providing for disability examinations; requiring completion of investigation of charge and any implementation of disciplinary action by board of trustees prior to consideration of disability retirement; authorizing light-duty work at discretion of the municipality and the employee; revising calculation of and requirements for supplemental benefits; providing for reinstatement to employment and payments of assessments for those returning from military service; establishing deduction of insurance premium surcharges assessed for volunteer fire companies and departments for state personal income tax purposes; requiring study of casualty and surety insurance by insurance commissioner; repeal of current fire and casualty insurance additional premium tax provisions; continuation and increase of fire and casualty insurance additional premium tax solely for municipality's policemen's and firemen's pensions and relief system and reallocation of the tax collections; providing amortization schedule for plans with funding level of at least one hundred ten percent; repeal of current fire and casualty insurance premium surcharge provisions; continuation of fire and casualty insurance premium surcharge solely for volunteer fire companies and departments; civil penalties for failure to collect the premium surcharge; allocating and distributing the surcharge collections; creating new Volunteer Firefighters Length of Service Awards Program Fund to which the alcohol beverage control commissioner is directed to transfer funds; providing for the allocation and distribution of state funds to volunteer fire companies and departments for the purpose of defraying the cost of participation in length of service awards programs; providing duties and expense allowance for State Treasurer and State Insurance Commissioner; imposing requirements for the use of distributed allocations; and providing disposition of undistributed portion of the funds.".