H. B. 2386
(By Delegates Hunt and Seacrist)
[Introduced March 4, 1997; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact sections two and seventeen, article
ten, chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to
clarifying the eligibility of legislative employees for
retirement benefits.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two and seventeen, article ten, chapter five
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 10. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-2. Definitions.
The following words and phrases as used in this article, unless a different meaning is clearly indicated by the context,
shall have the following meanings:
(1) "State" means the state of West Virginia;
(2) "Retirement system" or "system" means the West Virginia
public employees retirement system created and established by
this article;
(3) "Board of trustees" or "board" means the board of
trustees of the West Virginia public employees retirement system;
(4) "Political subdivision" means the state of West
Virginia, a county, city or town in the state; a school
corporation or corporate unit; any separate corporation or
instrumentality established by one or more counties, cities or
towns, as permitted by law; any corporation or instrumentality
supported in most part by counties, cities or towns; any public
corporation charged by law with the performance of a governmental
function and whose jurisdiction is coextensive with one or more
counties, cities or towns, any agency or organization established
by, or approved by the department of mental health for the
provision of community health or mental retardation services, and
which is supported in part by state, county or municipal funds;
(5) "Participating public employer" means the state of West
Virginia, any board, commission, department, institution or
spending unit, and shall include any agency created by rule of
the supreme court of appeals having full-time employees, which
for the purposes of this article shall be deemed a department of
state government; and any political subdivision in the state which has elected to cover its employees, as defined in this
article, under the West Virginia public employees retirement
system;
(6) "Employee" means any person who serves regularly as an
officer or employee, full time, on a salary basis, whose tenure
is not restricted as to temporary or provisional appointment, in
the service of, and whose compensation is payable, in whole or in
part, by any political subdivision, or an officer or employee
whose compensation is calculated on a daily basis and paid
monthly or on completion of assignment, including technicians and
other personnel employed by the West Virginia national guard
whose compensation, in whole or in part, is paid by the federal
government: Provided,
That members of the state Legislature, the
clerk of the House of Delegates, the clerk of the state Senate,
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 and who have been or
are so employed during regular sessions or during the interim
between regular sessions for eight seven or more years, members
of the legislative body of any political subdivision and judges
of the state court of claims shall be considered to be employees,
anything contained herein to the contrary notwithstanding. In
any case of doubt as to who is an employee within the meaning of this article the board of trustees shall decide the question;
(7) "Member" means any person who is included in the
membership of the retirement system;
(8) "Retirant" means any member who retires with an annuity
payable by the retirement system;
(9) "Beneficiary" means any person, except a retirant, who
is entitled to, or will be entitled to, an annuity or other
benefit payable by the retirement system;
(10) "Service" means personal service rendered to a
participating public employer by an employee, as defined in this
article, of a participating public employer;
(11) "Prior service" means service rendered prior to the
first day of July, one one thousand nine hundred sixty-one, to
the extent credited a member as provided in this article;
(12) "Contributing service" means service rendered by a
member within this state and for which such the member made
contributions to a public retirement system account of this
state, to the extent credited him or her as provided by this
article, such revised definition being retroactive and applicable
to the first day of April, one thousand nine hundred eighty-eight
and thereafter;
(13) "Credited service" means the sum of a member's prior
service credit and contributing service credit standing to his or
her credit as provided in this article;
(14) "Compensation" means the remuneration paid a member by
a participating public employer for personal services rendered by
him or her to the participating public employer. In the event a
member's remuneration is not all paid in money, his or her
participating public employer shall fix the value of the portion
of his or her remuneration which is not paid in money;
(15) "Final average salary" means either: (a) The average
of the highest annual compensation received by a member
(including a member of the Legislature who participates in the
retirement system in the year one thousand nine hundred
seventy-one or thereafter) during any period of three consecutive
years of his or her credited service contained within his or her
ten years of credited service immediately preceding the date his
or her employment with a participating public employer last
terminated; or (b) if he or she has less than five years of
credited service, the average of the annual rate of compensation
received by him or her during his or her total years of credited
service; and in determining the annual compensation, under either
(a) or (b) of this subdivision, (15), of a member of the
Legislature who participates in the retirement system as a member
of the Legislature in the year one thousand nine hundred
seventy-one or in any year thereafter, his or her actual
legislative compensation (the total of all compensation paid
under sections two, three, four and five, article two-a, chapter four of this code) in the year one thousand nine hundred
seventy-one or in any year thereafter, plus any other
compensation he or she receives in any such year from any other
participating public employer including the state of West
Virginia, without any multiple in excess of one times his or her
actual legislative compensation as aforesaid and other
compensation, shall be used: Provided,
That "final average
salary" for any former member of the Legislature or for any
member of the Legislature in the year one thousand nine hundred
seventy-one who, in either event, was a member of the Legislature
on the thirtieth day of November, thirty, one thousand nine
hundred sixty-eight, or the thirtieth day of November, thirty,
one thousand nine hundred sixty-nine, or the thirtieth day of
November, thirty, one thousand nine hundred seventy, or on the
thirtieth day of November thirty in any one or more of said three
years, and who participated in the retirement system as a member
of the Legislature in any one or more of such the years of one
thousand nine hundred sixty-eight, one thousand nine hundred
sixty-nine or one thousand nine hundred seventy, means: (i)
Either (notwithstanding the provisions of this subdivision
preceding this proviso) one thousand five hundred dollars
multiplied by eight, plus the highest other compensation such
the former member or member received in any one of said the
three years from any other participating public employer including the state of West Virginia; or (ii) "final average
salary" determined in accordance with (a) or (b) of this
subdivision, (15), whichever computation shall produce the higher
final average salary (and in determining the annual compensation
under (ii) of this proviso, the legislative compensation of any
such former member shall be computed on the basis of one thousand
five hundred dollars multiplied by eight, and the legislative
compensation of any such member shall be computed on the basis
set forth in the provisions of this subdivision (15) immediately
preceding this proviso or on the basis of one thousand five
hundred dollars multiplied by eight, whichever computation as to
such the member shall produce the higher annual compensation);
(16) "Accumulated contributions" means the sum of all
amounts deducted from the compensations of a member and credited
to his or her individual account in the members' deposit fund,
together with regular interest thereon;
(17) "Regular interest" means such the rate or rates of
interest per annum, compounded annually, as the board of trustees
shall from time to time adopt;
(18) "Annuity" means an annual amount payable by the
retirement system throughout the life of a person. All annuities
shall be paid in equal monthly installments, using the upper cent
for any fraction of a cent;
(19) "Annuity reserve" means the present value of all payments to be made to a retirant or beneficiary of a retirant on
account of any annuity, computed upon the basis of such the
mortality and other tables of experience, and regular interest,
as the board of trustees shall from time to time adopt;
(20) "Retirement" means a member's withdrawal from the
employ of a participating public employer with an annuity payable
by the retirement system;
(21) "Actuarial equivalent" means a benefit of equal value
computed upon the basis of such the mortality table and regular
interest as the board of trustees shall from time to time adopt;
and
(22) The masculine gender shall include the feminine gender,
and words of the singular number with respect to persons shall
include the plural number, and vice versa.
§5-10-17. Retirement system membership.
The membership of the retirement system shall consist of the
following persons:
(a) All employees, as defined in section two of this
article, who are in the employ of a political subdivision the day
preceding the date it becomes a participating public employer
and who continue in the employ of the said participating public
employer on and after the said date shall become members of the
retirement system; and all persons who become employees of a
participating public employer on or after the said date shall thereupon become members of the system; except as provided in
subdivisions (b) and (c) of this section.
(b) The membership of the retirement system shall may not
include any person who is a member of, or who has been retired
by, the state teachers retirement system, the judges retirement
system, the retirement system of the division of public safety,
or any municipal retirement system for either, or both, policemen
or firemen; and the bureau of employment programs, by the
commissioner of such the bureau, may elect whether its employees
will accept coverage under this article or be covered under the
authorization of a separate enactment: Provided, That such the
exclusions of membership shall may not apply to any member of the
state Legislature, the clerk of the House of Delegates, the clerk
of the state Senate or to any member of the legislative body of
any political subdivision provided he or she once becomes a
contributing member of the retirement system: Provided, however,
That any retired member of the retirement system of the division
of public safety, and any retired member of any municipal
retirement system for either, or both, policemen or firemen may
on and after the effective date of this section become a member
of the retirement system as provided in this article, without
receiving credit for prior service as a municipal policeman or
fireman or as a member of the division of public safety.
(c) Any member of the state Legislature, the clerk of the House of Delegates, the clerk of the state Senate and any
employee of the state Legislature whose employment is otherwise
classified as temporary and who is employed to perform services
required by the Legislature for its regular sessions or during
the interim between regular sessions and who has been or is so
employed during regular sessions or during the interim between
sessions for ten seven or more years, or any member of the
legislative body of any other political subdivision shall become
a member of the retirement system provided he or she notifies the
retirement system in writing of his or her intention to be a
member of the system and files a membership enrollment form as
the board of trustees shall prescribe, and each person, upon
filing his or her written notice to participate in the retirement
system, shall by said the act authorize the clerk of the House of
Delegates or the clerk of the state Senate or such the person or
legislative agency as the legislative body of any other political
subdivision shall designate to deduct such member's contribution,
as provided in subsection (b), section twenty-nine of this
article, and after said the deductions have been made from said
the member's compensation, such the deductions shall be forwarded
to the retirement system.
(d) Should any question arise regarding the membership
status of any employee, the board of trustees has the final power
to decide the question.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify that
Legislative employees are eligible for retirement benefits after
seven consecutive years of service.
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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