Senate Bill No. 180
(By Senators Foster, Unger, Kessler and Sypolt)
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[Introduced January 23, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §5-10D-6a, relating
to voluntary election by eligible public safety officers for
distributions from retirement plans for payment of qualified
health insurance premiums.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §5-10D-6a, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 10D. CONSOLIDATED PUBLIC RETIREMENT BOARD.
§5-10D-6a. Voluntary election by eligible retired public safety
officers to have amounts from eligible retirement
plan distributed to pay for qualified health
insurance premiums.
(a) Effective on or after the first day of January, two thousand seven, any eligible retired public safety officer who is
a participant or member under any eligible retirement plan
administered by the board may voluntarily elect to have amounts
from an eligible retirement plan distributed in order to pay for
qualified health insurance premiums. Such election shall be made
in writing, in a form and manner authorized by the board, and shall
be consistent with the provisions of Section 402(l)(6) of the
Internal Revenue Code as it may be amended from time to time.
(b) The definitions of the following terms contained in
Section 402(l)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, as it may be
amended from time to time, shall apply for purposes of this
section:
(1)"Eligible retirement plan";
(2)"Eligible retired public safety officer";
(3)"Public safety officer"; and
(4)"Qualified health insurance premiums".
(c) The amount which a participant or member may elect to have
distributed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall not
exceed three thousand dollars per taxable year of the participant
or member (or such other limitation amount as is specified in
Section 402(l)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code, as it may be
amended or as the limitation may be adjusted from time to time) and
any amounts so elected to be distributed shall be paid by the board
directly to the provider in payment of the qualified health
insurance premiums.
(d) For purposes of this section, all eligible retirement
plans administered by the board shall be treated as a single plan.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to implement new
amendments of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 by authorizing the
West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board to offer tax-
free distributions from governmental retirement plans to pay
premiums for health and long-term care insurance for public safety
officers.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.)