ENGROSSED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2538
(By Delegates Thompson, Johnson,
Jenkins, Cann, Underwood and Amores)
(Originating in the Committee on Pensions
and Retirement)
[March 26, 1997]
A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen, article ten, chapter
five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, relating to the public employees
retirement system; service credit; allowing transfer of
service with the state police and specifying conditions for
the transfer of service from the state police death,
disability and retirement system to the public employees
retirement system.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen, article ten, chapter five of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-14. Service credit.
(a) The board of trustees shall credit each member with the
prior service and contributing service to which he or she is entitled based upon such rules and regulations as the board of
trustees shall from time to time adopt: Provided, That in no case
shall less than ten days of service rendered by a member in any
calendar month be credited as a month of service; nor shall less
than ten months of service rendered in any calendar year be
credited as a year of service; nor shall more than one year of
service be credited any member for all service rendered by him or
her in any calendar year; nor shall any member who was not in the
employ of a political subdivision within a period of thirty years
immediately preceding the date the political subdivision became a
participating public employer be credited with prior service:
Provided, however, That said member is not required to have been
employed by a participating public employer of this state within a
period of fifteen years subsequent to the date that participating
public employer elected to become a participating employer.
(b) The board of trustees shall grant service credit to
employees of boards of health, the clerk of the House of Delegates
and the clerk of the state Senate, or to any former and present
member of the state teachers retirement system who have been
contributing members for more than three years, for service
previously credited by the state teachers retirement system and
shall require the transfer of the member's contributions to the
system and shall also require a deposit, with interest, of any
withdrawals of contributions any time prior to said member's
retirement. Repayment of withdrawals shall be as directed by the
board of trustees.
(c) Court reporters who are acting in an official capacity,
although paid by funds other than the county commission or state
auditor, may receive prior service credit for such the time as
served in such capacity.
(d) Employees of the state Legislature whose term of
employment is otherwise classified as temporary and who are
employed to perform services required by the Legislature for its
regular sessions or during the interim between regular sessions may
receive service credit for the time as served in that capacity in
accordance with subsection (a) of this section: Provided, That
employees of the state Legislature whose term of employment is
otherwise classified as temporary and who are employed to perform
services required by the Legislature for at least sixty days for
its regular sessions or during the interim between regular sessions
and who have been or are so employed during regular sessions or
during the interim between sessions for at least seven consecutive
legislative sessions may receive service credit for one-half year
for each year served, which shall be used for the purpose of
calculating that member's retirement annuity, notwithstanding any
other provision of this section: Provided, however, That the for
purposes of calculating the amount of service credit an employee
has served to become entitled to voluntary retirement shall be
calculated as provided in subsection (a) of this section.
(e) Former justices of the peace and constables shall be entitled to credit for retirement purposes for those years of
service as a justice of the peace or constable: Provided, That
they have a minimum of five years contributing service and they
compensate the retirement fund in an amount equal to the amount
which they would have contributed for a like period of time,
according to a formula determined by the retirement board, plus an
amount equal to the determined employer's contribution for the same
period. For purposes of calculating the contributions, the salary
for constables shall be deemed to be is five thousand dollars per
year and the salary for justices of the peace shall be deemed to be
is seven thousand five hundred dollars per year. In addition, they
shall deposit the compounded yearly interest on the aggregate of
the employee and employer contributions at a rate or rates to be
determined by the retirement board: Provided, however, That those
former justices of the peace and constables who elect to seek
credit under this subsection shall be allowed until the thirtieth
day of June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five, to compensate
the retirement fund as provided herein: Provided further, That any
retiree of the public employees retirement system who has received
retirement benefits for over five years and who has over twenty
years of credit service in the retirement plan will be allowed to
purchase up to ten years of service as a constable or justice of
the peace at an amount of one thousand dollars if the funds are
repaid to the public employees retirement system by the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five. Upon repayment,
the retirement benefit will be recalculated and the increased
benefit will be paid to the member prospectively from the first day
of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five.
(f) The board of trustees shall grant service credit to any
former or present member of the state police death, disability and
retirement fund who has been a contributing member for more than
three years, for service previously credited by the state police
death, disability and retirement fund: (1) Shall require the
transfer of the member's contributions to the 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 paragraph an
amount which shall be sufficient to equal the contributions he or
she would have made had the member been under the public employees
retirement system during the period of his or her membership in the
state police death, disability and retirement fund receiving at the same
compensation that the member actually received during the period
from the department of public safety plus interest at a rate
determined by the board.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow former members of
the state police to receive service credit under the public
employees retirement system for such service.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
FINANCE COMMITTEE TITLE AMENDMENT
"HB2538 H FIN AMT 3/28
The Committee on Finance moves to amend the title of the
bill to read as follows:
Com. Sub. for H. B. 2538--"A Bill to amend and reenact section fourteen, article ten,
chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the public employees
retirement system; service credit; allowing transfer of service
with the state police and specifying conditions for the transfer of
service from the state police death, disability and retirement
system to the public employees retirement system."