Senate Bill No. 392
(By Senator Jackson)
____________
[Introduced February 2, 1999; referred to the Committee
on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section seventeen, article seven-a,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to allowing
officers in a regional educational laboratory credit within
the teachers' retirement system.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section 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-17. Statement and computation of teachers' 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 may credit no period of more than a month's
duration during which a member was absent without pay, nor shall
may 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 may not exceed ten years for any one member, nor shall it exceed twenty-five
percent of total service at the time of retirement.
(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 may 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 may 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 may
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 may
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 Members may not 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 A member may not 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 may 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 may 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 shall be 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 at a rate of six percent compounded annually from
the date of withdrawal to the date of payment. The interest paid
shall be deposited in the reserve fund.
(g) A member may not be considered absent from service as a
teacher while serving as an officer in a regional educational
laboratory authorized by 20 U.S.C. § 6041, or who has served in
that capacity, and no retired teacher, who served in that
capacity while a member, may 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 may
not exceed five years: Provided, however, That a member or
retired teacher who is serving or has served as an officer of the
multistate education organization 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.
(g) (h) 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 may 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) (i) If a member is not eligible for prior service credit
or pension as provided in this article, then his or her prior
service shall may not be considered a part of his or her total
service.
(i) (j) 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) (k) Subject to the provisions of subsection (a) through
(i) 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 may 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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow officers in a
regional educational laboratory credit within the teachers
retirement system.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.