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Introduced Version Senate Bill 331 History

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Senate Bill No. 331

(By Senators Foster, Minard and Unger)

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[Introduced February 24, 2009; referred to the Committee on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §16-5V-6, §16-5V-7 and §16-5V-8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System Act; specifying procedures for the transfer of contributions; clarifying actuarial valuation period; clarifying employer contribution amount; and specifying procedures for the correction of errors.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §16-5V-6, §16-5V-7 and §16-5V-8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5V.á EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES RETIREMENT SYSTEM ACT.
§16-5V-6. Members. (a) Any emergency medical services officer first employed by a county or political subdivision in covered employment after the effective date of this article shall be a member of this retirement plan as a condition of employment and upon membership does not qualify for membership in any other retirement system administered by the board, so long as he or she remains employed in covered employment.
(b) Any emergency medical services officer employed in covered employment by an employer which is currently a participating public employer of the Public Employees Retirement System shall notify in writing both the county commission in the county or officials in their the political subdivision in which he or she is employed and the board of his or her desire to become a member of the plan by December 31, 2007. Any emergency medical services officer who elects to become a member of the plan ceases to be a member or have any credit for covered employment in any other retirement system administered by the board and shall continue to be ineligible for membership in any other retirement system administered by the board so long as the emergency medical services officer remains employed in covered employment by an employer which is currently a participating public employer of this plan: Provided, That any emergency medical services officer who does not affirmatively elect to become a member of the plan continues to be eligible for any other retirement system as is, from time to time, offered to other county employees but is ineligible for this plan regardless of any subsequent termination of employment and rehire.
(c) Any emergency medical services officer who was employed as an emergency medical services officer prior to the effective date, but was not employed on the effective date of this article, shall become a member upon rehire as an emergency medical services officer. For purposes of this section, the member's years of service and credited service prior to the effective date shall not be counted for any purposes under this plan unless (1) the emergency medical services officer has not received the return of his or her accumulated contributions in the Public Employees Retirement Fund System pursuant to section thirty, article ten, chapter five of this code. or (2) the accumulated contributions returned to the member from the Public Employees Retirement System have been repaid pursuant to this article The member may request in writing to have his or her accumulated contributions and employer contributions from covered employment in the Public Employees Retirement System transferred to the plan. If the conditions of subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection are met, all years of the emergency medical services officer's covered employment shall be counted as years of service for the purposes of this article.
(d) Any emergency medical services officer employed in covered employment on the effective date of this article who has timely elected to transfer into this plan as provided in subsection (b) of this section shall be given credited service at the time of transfer for all credited service then standing to the emergency medical services officer's service credit in the Public Employees Retirement System regardless of whether the credited service (as that term is defined in section two, article ten, chapter five of this code) was earned as an emergency medical services officer. All credited service standing to the transferring emergency medical services officer's credit in the Public Employees Retirement System at the time of transfer into this plan shall be transferred into the plan created by this article and the transferring emergency medical services officer shall be given the same credit for the purposes of this article for all service transferred from the Public Employees Retirement System as that transferring emergency medical services officer would have received from the Public Employees Retirement System as if the transfer had not occurred. In connection with each transferring emergency medical services officer receiving credit for prior employment as provided in this subsection, a transfer from the Public Employees Retirement System to this plan shall be made pursuant to the procedures described in this article: Provided, That any member of this plan who has elected to transfer from the Public Employees Retirement System into this plan pursuant to subsection (b) of this section may not, after having transferred into and becoming an active member of this plan, reinstate to his or her credit in this plan any service credit relating to periods in which the member was not in covered employment as an emergency medical services officer and which service was withdrawn from the Public Employees Retirement System prior to his or her elective transfer into this plan.
(e) Once made, the election made under this section is irrevocable. All emergency medical services officers employed by an employer which is a participating public employer of the Public Employees Retirement System after the effective date and emergency medical services officers electing to become members as described in this section shall be members as a condition of employment and shall make the contributions required by this article.
(f) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article, any individual who is a leased employee is not eligible to participate in the plan. For purposes of this plan, a "leased employee" means any individual who performs services as an independent contractor or pursuant to an agreement with an employee leasing organization or 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.
§16-5V-7. Creation of Fund; investments; actuarial valuations.

(a) There is hereby created the "West Virginia Emergency Medical Services Retirement Fund" for the benefit of the members of the retirement system created pursuant to this article and the dependents of any deceased or retired member of the system.
(b) All moneys paid into and accumulated in the fund, except amounts designated by the board for payment of benefits as provided in this article, shall be held in trust and invested in the consolidated pensions fund administered by the West Virginia Investment Management Board as provided by law.
(c) The board shall employ a competent actuary or actuarial firm to prepare an actuarial valuation of the assets and liabilities of the fund. The actuarial valuation period shall coincide with the fiscal year of the state.
§16-5V-8. Members' contributions; employer contributions; correction of errors.

(a) There shall be deducted from the monthly salary of each member and paid into the fund an amount equal to eight and one-half percent of his or her monthly salary. An additional amount shall be paid to the fund by the county commission or political subdivision in which the member is employed in covered employment in an amount determined by the board: Provided, That in no year may the total of the employer contributions provided in this section, to be paid by the county commission or political subdivision, exceed ten and one-half percent of the total payroll for the members in the employ of the county commission or political subdivision.
(b) Any active member who has concurrent employment in an additional job or jobs and the additional employment requires the emergency medical services officer to be a member of another retirement system which is administered by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board pursuant to article ten-d, chapter five of this code shall contribute to the fund the sum of eight and one-half percent of his or her monthly salary earned as an emergency medical services officer as well as the sum of eight and one-half percent of his or her monthly salary earned from any additional employment which additional employment requires the emergency medical services officer to be a member of another retirement system which is administered by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board pursuant to article ten-d, chapter five of this code. An additional ten and one-half percent of the monthly salary of each member shall be paid to the fund by the concurrent employer by which the member is employed in an amount determined by the board: Provided, That in no year may the total of the employer contributions provided in this section, to be paid by the concurrent employer, exceed ten and one-half percent of the monthly salary of the employee.
(c) All required deposits shall be remitted to the board no later than fifteen days following the end of the calendar month for which the deposits are required. If the board upon the recommendation of the board actuary finds that the benefits provided by this article can be actuarially funded with a lesser contribution, then the board shall reduce the required member and employer contributions proportionally. Any county commission or political subdivision which fails to make any payment due the Emergency Medical Services Retirement Fund by the fifteenth day following the end of each calendar month in which contributions are due may be required to pay the actuarial rate of interest lost on the total amount owed for each day the payment is delinquent. Accrual of the loss of earnings owed by the delinquent county commission or political subdivision commences after the fifteenth day following the end of the calendar month in which contributions are due and continues until receipt of the delinquent amount. Interest compounds daily and the minimum surcharge is $50.
(d) If any change or employer error in the records of any participating public employer or the retirement system results in any member or retirant receiving from the system more or less than he or she would have been entitled to receive had the records been correct, the board shall correct the error and as far as is practicable shall adjust the payment of the benefit in a manner that the actuarial equivalent of the benefit to which the member or retirant was correctly entitled shall be paid. Any employer error resulting in an underpayment to the retirement system may be corrected by the member or retirant remitting the required employee contribution and the participating public employer remitting the required employer contribution. Interest shall accumulate in accordance with the Legislative Rule 162 CSR 7 retirement board reinstatement interest, and any accumulating interest owed on the employee and employer contributions resulting from the employer error shall be the responsibility of the participating public employer. The participating public employer may remit total payment and the employee reimburse the participating public employer through payroll deduction over a period equivalent to the time period during which the employer error occurred.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to specify procedures for the transfer of contributions from the Public Employees Retirement System to the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System for those who were not emergency medical services officers on the effective date of the article; to clarify the actuarial valuation period; clarify the employer contribution amount; and to specify procedures for the correction of errors.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
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