ENROLLED
H. B. 2778
(By Delegates Hubbard
and Harrison)
[Passed April 14, 2001; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT
to amend and reenact sections thirteen and seventeen,
article seven-a, chapter eighteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
relating to the teachers retirement system and providing that
the interest rate charged members for repayment of service
previously withdrawn shall be as set by the consolidated
public retirement board in legislative rules.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections thirteen and seventeen, 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-13. Membership in retirement system; cessation of
membership; reinstatement of withdrawn service.
The membership of the retirement system shall consist of the
following:
(a) New entrants, whose membership in the system is compulsory
upon employment as teachers and nonteachers.
(b) The membership of the retirement system shall not include
any person who is an active member of or who has been retired by
the West Virginia public employees retirement system, the judge's
retirement system, or the retirement system of the department of
public safety or the supplemental retirement system as provided in
section four-a, article twenty-three of this chapter. The
membership of any person in the retirement system ceases:
(1) Upon the withdrawal of accumulated contributions after the
cessation of service; or (2) upon retirement; or (3) at death; or
(4) if service amounts to fewer than five years in any period of
ten consecutive years.
(c) Any former member of the retirement system who has
withdrawn accumulated contributions but subsequently reenters the
retirement system may repay to the retirement fund the amount
withdrawn, plus interest at a rate set by the board, compounded
annually from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment: Provided, That no repayment may be made until the former member has
completed two years of contributory service after reentry; and the
member shall be accorded all the rights to prior service and
experience as were held at the time of withdrawal of the
accumulated contributions: Provided, however, That no withdrawn
service may be reinstated that has been transferred to another
retirement system from which the member is currently or will in the
future draw benefits based on the same service. The interest paid
shall be deposited in the reserve fund.
(d) No member is eligible for prior service credit unless he
or she is eligible for prior service pension, as prescribed by
section twenty-two of this article; however, a new entrant who
becomes a present teacher as provided in this subdivision shall be
considered eligible for prior service pension upon retirement.
(e) Any individual who is a leased employee is not eligible to
participate in the system. For purposes of this system, a "leased
employee" means any individual who performs services as an
independent contractor or pursuant to an agreement with an employee
leasing organization or other similar organization. If a question
arises regarding the status of an individual as a leased employee,
the board has final power to decide the question.
§18-7A-17. Statement and computation of teachers' service;
qualified military 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. Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this
subsection, contributions, benefits and service credit with respect
to qualified military service shall be provided in accordance with
Section 414(u) of the Internal Revenue Code. For purposes of this
section, "qualified military service" has the same meaning as in
Section 414(u) of the Internal Revenue Code. The retirement board
is authorized to determine all questions and make all decisions
relating to this section and, pursuant to the authority granted to
the retirement board in section one, article ten-d, chapter five of
this code, may promulgate rules relating to contributions, benefits
and service credit to comply with Section 414(u) of the Internal
Revenue Code.
(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 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
public employees retirement system plus interest compounded
annually from the date of withdrawal to the date of payment
at a
rate set by the board. 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 subsections (a) through (i),
inclusive, 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: Provided, however, That nothing in this
section may be construed to relieve the employer from making the
employer contribution at the member's regular salary rate or rate
of pay from that employer on the contributing service credit earned
while the member is discharging his or her official legislative
duties. These employer payments shall commence as of the first day
of June, two thousand: Provided further, That any member to which
the provisions of this subsection apply may elect to pay to the board an amount equal to what his or her contribution would have
been for those periods of time he or she was serving in the
Legislature. The periods of time upon which the member paid his or
her contribution shall then be included for purposes of determining
his or her final average salary as well as for determining years of
service: And provided further, That a member utilizing the
provisions of this subsection is not required to pay interest on
any contributions he or she may decide to make.