Senate Bill No. 172
(By Senators Foster, Barnes, Lanham, McCabe, Plymale and Hunter)
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[Introduced January 16, 2006; referred to the Committee
on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §5-10D-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to authorizing the Consolidated
Public Retirement Board to recover the payment and a surcharge
from a participating employer who fails to timely pay
contributions due; and requiring any amounts recovered to be
administered in the same manner as contributions are required
to be administered.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §5-10D-1 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10D. CONSOLIDATED PUBLIC RETIREMENT BOARD.
§5-10D-1. Consolidated Public Retirement Board continued; members;
vacancies; investment of plan funds.
(a)
The Consolidated Public Retirement Board is continued to
administer all public retirement plans in this state. It shall
administer the Public Employees Retirement System established in
article ten of this chapter; the Teachers Retirement System established in article seven-a, chapter eighteen of this code; the
Teachers Defined Contribution Retirement System created by article
seven-b of said chapter; the West Virginia State Police Death,
Disability and Retirement Fund created by article two, chapter
fifteen of this code; the West Virginia State Police Retirement
System created by article two-a of said chapter; the Deputy Sheriff
Death, Disability and Retirement Fund created by article
fourteen-d, chapter seven of this code; and the Judges' Retirement
System created under article nine, chapter fifty-one of this code.
(b) The membership of the Consolidated Public Retirement Board
consists of:
(1) The Governor or his or her designee;
(2) The State Treasurer or his or her designee;
(3) The State Auditor or his or her designee;
(4) The Secretary of the Department of Administration or his
or her designee;
(5) Four residents of the state, who are not members,
retirants or beneficiaries of any of the public retirement systems,
to be appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the
Senate; and
(6) A member, annuitant or retirant of the Public Employees
Retirement System who is or was a state employee; a member,
annuitant or retirant of the Public Employees Retirement System who
is not or was not a state employee; a member, annuitant or retirant
of the Teachers Retirement System; a member, annuitant or retirant
of the West Virginia State Police Death, Disability and Retirement Fund; a member, annuitant or retirant of the Deputy Sheriff Death,
Disability and Retirement Fund; and a member, annuitant or retirant
of the Teachers Defined Contribution Retirement System all to be
appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the
Senate.
(c) The appointed members of the board serve five-year terms.
A member appointed pursuant to subdivision (6), subsection (b) of
this section ceases to be a member of the board if he or she ceases
to be a member of the represented system. If a vacancy occurs in
the appointed membership, the Governor, within sixty days, shall
fill the vacancy by appointment for the unexpired term. No more
than five appointees may be of the same political party.
(d) The Consolidated Public Retirement Board has all the
powers, duties, responsibilities and liabilities of the Public
Employees Retirement System established pursuant to article ten of
this chapter; the Teachers Retirement System established pursuant
to article seven-a, chapter eighteen of this code; the Teachers
Defined Contribution System established pursuant to article seven-b
of said chapter; the West Virginia State Police Death, Disability
and Retirement Fund created pursuant to article two, chapter
fifteen of this code; the West Virginia State Police Retirement
System created by article two-a of said chapter; the Deputy Sheriff
Death, Disability and Retirement Fund created pursuant to article
fourteen-d, chapter seven of this code; and the Judges' Retirement
System created pursuant to article nine, chapter fifty-one of this
code and their appropriate governing boards.
(e) The Consolidated Public Retirement Board may propose rules
for legislative approval, in accordance with article three, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code, necessary to effectuate its powers,
duties and responsibilities: Provided, That the board may adopt
any or all of the rules, previously promulgated, of a retirement
system which it administers.
(f) The Consolidated Public Retirement Board shall continue to
transfer all funds received for the benefit of the retirement
systems within the consolidated pension plan as defined in section
three-c, article six-b, chapter forty-four of this code, including,
but not limited to, all employer and employee contributions, to the
West Virginia Investment Management Board: Provided, That the
employer and employee contributions of the Teachers Defined
Contribution System, established in section three, article seven-b,
chapter eighteen of this code, and voluntary deferred compensation
funds invested by the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement
Board pursuant to section five, article ten-b of this chapter may
not be transferred to the West Virginia Investment Management
Board.
(g) Notwithstanding any provision of this code or any
legislative rule to the contrary, all assets of the public
retirement plans set forth in subsection (a) of this section shall
be held in trust. The Consolidated Public Retirement Board shall
be a trustee for all public retirement plans, except with regard to
the investment of funds: Provided, That the Consolidated Public
Retirement Board shall be a trustee with regard to the investments of the Teachers' Defined Contribution System, the voluntary
deferred compensation funds invested pursuant to section five,
article ten-b of this chapter and any other assets of the public
retirement plans administered by the Consolidated Public Retirement
Board as set forth in subsection (a) of this section for which no
trustee has been expressly designated in this code.
(h) The board may employ the West Virginia Investment
Management Board to provide investment management consulting
services for the investment of funds in the Teachers' Defined
Contribution System.
(i) The board may recover from any participating public
employer who fails to make any payment due a retirement system by
the fifteenth day following the end of each calendar month in which
the payment is due the amount of the payment and an additional
amount equal to the actuarial rate of interest lost on the total
employee and employer contributions owed for each month the payment
is delinquent: Provided, That the board may recover from any
participating employer of the Teachers' Defined Contribution System
who fails to timely make any payment due the retirement system by
the fifteenth day following the end of each pay period the amount
of the payment and an additional amount equal to earnings lost on
the employer and employee contributions at the actuarial rate of
return determined by the Teachers' Defined Benefit Retirement
System. The minimum surcharge is fifty dollars per month. Any
amounts recovered shall be administered in the same manner in which
the contributions are required to be administered.
NOTE: The purpose of the bill is to authorize the Consolidated
Public Retirement Board to charge employers that participate in a
state retirement system and fail to pay the board its retirement
collections in a timely manner
delinquency surcharges approximating
interest or earnings lost as a result of late payment.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.