H. B. 2576
(By Delegate Michael)
[Introduced March 17, 1997; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]
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 public employees
retirement system and permitting county and municipal
employees who were paid under the comprehensive employment
training act to be granted service credit for that time for
retirement purposes.
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 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 five thousand dollars
per year and the salary for justices of the peace shall be deemed
to be 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 for
retirement purposes for county and municipal employees for the
time they were paid under the Comprehensive Employment Training
Act.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to permit employees who
were paid under the C.E.T.A. program to count that time of
service toward their retirement.
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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