FISCAL NOTE



FUND(S):

General Fund

Sources of Revenue:

General Fund

Legislation creates:

Neither Program nor Fund



Fiscal Note Summary


Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.


SB 71 would provide that a judge of a court of record first elected to the office after July 1, 2005, shall have his or her retirement benefit calculated on the basis of his or her salary at the time of retirement, and irrespective of any salary increases that may be granted to active members of the judiciary, the retired judge's benefit may not be increased unless expressly provided for by legislative enactment. The appropriation for Judicial Retirement appears with the other appropriations made for the West Virginia Judiciary in the Budget Bill section for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is dependent upon the Consolidated Public Employee's Retirement Board to make an annual actuarial calculation. Based upon these calculations, The Court includes appropriate funding for the Retirement System in its Budget Request. It is not anticipated that any savings would be seen for quite some time since the next election year for the 65 circuit court judgeships is 2008. If all circuit judges elected in 2008 are incumbents, the provisions of this bill will not change the retirement benefit for those judges. There is no way of determining the number of first-time officeholders in 2008. Any judges that would be elected for the first time after July 1, 2005 would have to participate in the judicial retirement system for 12 years before they would be eligible for retirement from that system.



Fiscal Note Detail


Effect of Proposal Fiscal Year
2005
Increase/Decrease
(use"-")
2006
Increase/Decrease
(use"-")
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation)
1. Estmated Total Cost 0 0 0
Personal Services 0 0 0
Current Expenses 0 0 0
Repairs and Alterations 0 0 0
Assets 0 0 0
Other 0 0 0
2. Estimated Total Revenues 0 0 0


Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):






Memorandum






    Person submitting Fiscal Note: Linda Richmond Artimez, Acting Administrative Dir.
    Email Address: