Senate Bill No. 441
(By Senators Walker and Wehrle)
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[Introduced February 21, 1994; referred to the Committee
on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section fifteen, article ten, chapter
five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended; to amend and reenact section
seventeen, article seven-a, chapter eighteen of said code;
and to amend and reenact section six, article nine, chapter
fifty-one of said code, all relating to limiting military
service credit for public retirement systems.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fifteen, article ten, chapter five of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; that section seventeen,
article seven-a, chapter eighteen of said code be amended and
reenacted; and that section six, article nine, chapter fifty-one
of said code be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 5. GENERAL POWERS AND AUTHORITY OF THE GOVERNOR,
SECRETARY OF STATE AND ATTORNEY GENERAL; BOARD
OF PUBLIC WORKS; MISCELLANEOUS AGENCIES, COMMISSIONS,
OFFICES, PROGRAMS, ETC.
ARTICLE 10. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-15. Military service credit.
Any member of the retirement system who entered or enters
the active service of the armed forces of the United States
during any period of compulsory military service shall receive
credited service for said time spent in the armed forces of the
United States, not to exceed five years if such member pays to
the members' deposit fund the amount he or she may have withdrawn
therefrom, together with regular interest from the date of
withdrawal to the date of repayment:
Provided, That any person
becoming a member after the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-four, shall not be entitled to receive a credit
for service in the armed forces of the United States if he or she
is receiving benefits from any other retirement system for the
service. In any case of doubt as to the period of service to be
so credited a member, the board of trustees shall have final
power to determine such period. During the period of such armed
service and until a return to the employ of a participating
public employer, a member's contributions to the retirement
system shall be suspended and any balance remaining to his or her
credit in the members' deposit fund shall be accumulated at
regular interest.
CHAPTER 18. EDUCATION.
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.
§18-7A-17. Statement and computation of teachers' service.
Under such rules as the retirement board may adopt, each
teacher shall file a detailed statement of the length of service
as a teacher for which credit is claimed. The retirement board
shall determine what part of a year is the equivalent of a year
of service. In computing such service, however, it shall credit
no period of more than a month's duration during which a member
was absent without pay, nor shall it credit for more than one
year of service performed in any calendar year.
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:
Provided,
That any person becoming a member of the system on or after the
first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, shall
not be granted service credit for service in any of the armed
forces of the United States if he or she is receiving benefits
from any other retirement system for the service. For purposes
of this section, "armed forces" shall include 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. Such
military service shall be deemed equivalent to public school
teaching and the salary equivalent for each year of such service
shall be 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 not exceed ten
years for any one member, nor shall it exceed twenty-five percent
of total service at the time of retirement.
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 such 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.
Such interest shall be deposited in the reserve fund and service
credit so granted at the time of retirement shall 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 not be used to
establish eligibility for a retirement allowance and the
retirement board shall grant credit for such transferred service
as additional service only:
Provided, however, That a transfer
of out-of-state service shall be prohibited if such 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 not be
used to compute the average final salary of such member under the
retirement system.
Service credit for members or retired members shall not bedenied on the basis of minimum income regulations 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 such minimum
income regulations of the teachers retirement board.
No members shall be deemed 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:
Provided, That the
member makes contributions to the system equal to what would have
been contributed during the period of absence had he or she
performed his or her duties.
No member shall be deemed absent from service as a teacher
while serving on leave of absence as an officer with a statewide
professional teaching association, or who has served in such
capacity, and no retired teacher, who served on such leave of
absence while a member, shall be deemed to have been absent from
service as a teacher by reason of such service on leave of
absence:
Provided, That the period of service credit granted for
such service on leave of absence shall not exceed two 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 such absence, in an amountdouble the amount which
he 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 paragraph an amount which shall be sufficient to equal
the contributions that 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.
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. Such interestshall be deposited in the reserve fund and service so granted at
the time of retirement shall 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 such transfer as additional service
only:
Provided, however, That a transfer of parochial school
service is prohibited if such service is used to obtain a
retirement benefit from another retirement system.
If a member is not eligible for prior service credit or
pension as provided in this article, then any prior service shall
not be deemed a part of his or her total service.
A member who withdrew from membership shall be permitted to
regain former membership rights as specified in section thirteen
of this article only in case he or she has served two years since
the last withdrawal.
Subject to the above provisions, 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 therefor under the provisions of this article.
Such certificates shall state the length of such prior service
credit, but in no case shall the prior service credit exceed
forty years.
CHAPTER 51. COURTS AND THEIR OFFICERS.
ARTICLE 9. RETIREMENT SYSTEM FOR JUDGES OF COURTS OF RECORD.
§51-9-6. Eligibility for and payment of benefits.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in sections five, twelve
and thirteen of this article, and subject to the provisions of
subsection (e) of this section, any person who is now serving, or
who shall hereafter serve, as a judge of any court of record of
this state and shall have served as such judge for a period of
not less than sixteen full years and shall have reached the age
of sixty-five years, or who has served as judge of such court or
of that court and other courts of record of the state for a
period of sixteen full years or more (whether continuously or not
and whether said service be entirely before or after this article
became effective, or partly before and partly after said date,
and whether or not said judge shall be in office on the date he
or she shall become eligible to benefits hereunder) and shall
have reached the age of sixty-five years, or who is now serving,
or who shall hereafter serve, as a judge of any court of record
of this state and shall have served as such judge for a period of
not less than twenty-four full years, regardless of age, shall,
upon a determination and certification of his or her eligibility
as provided in section nine hereof, be paid from the fund annual
retirement benefits, so long as he or she shall live, in an
amount equal to seventy-five percent of the annual salary of the
office from which he or she has retired based upon such salary of
such office and as such salary may be changed from time to time
during the period of his or her retirement and the amount of his
or her retirement benefits shall be based upon and be equal toseventy-five percent of the highest annual salary of such office
for any one calendar year during the period of his or her
retirement, and shall be payable in monthly installments:
Provided, That such retirement benefits shall be paid only after
such judge has resigned as such or, for any reason other than his
or her impeachment, his or her service as such has ended:
Provided, however, That every such person seeking to retire and
to receive the annual retirement benefits provided by this
subsection must have served a minimum of twelve years as a
sitting judge of any such court of record.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article,
any person who is now serving or who shall hereafter serve as a
judge of any court of record of this state and who shall have
accumulated sixteen years or more of credited service, at least
twelve years of which is as a sitting judge of a court of record,
and who has attained the age of sixty-two years or more but less
than the age of sixty-five years may elect to retire from his or
her office and to receive the pension to which he or she would
otherwise be entitled to receive at age sixty-five, but with an
actuarial reduction of pension benefit to be established as a
reduced annuity receivable throughout retirement. The reduced
percentage (less than seventy-five percent) actuarially computed,
determined and established at time of retirement in respect of
this reduced pension benefit shall also continue and be
applicable to any subsequent new annual salary set for the office
from which such judge has retired and as such salary may bechanged from time to time during the period of his or her
retirement.
(c) In determining eligibility for the benefits provided by
this section, active full-time duty (including leaves and
furloughs) in the armed forces of the United States shall be
eligible for qualification as credited military service for the
purposes of this article by any judge with twelve or more years
actual service as a sitting judge of a court of record, such
available military service to not exceed five years:
Provided,
That any person becoming a member of the judge's retirement
system after the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-four, shall not be entitled to receive a credit for
service in the armed forces of the United States if he or she is
receiving benefits from any other retirement system for the
service.
(d) If a judge of a court of record who is presently sitting
as such on the effective date of the amendments to this section
enacted by the Legislature at its regular session held in the
year one thousand nine hundred eighty-seven, and who has served
for a period of not less than twelve full years and has made
payments into the judges' retirement fund as provided in this
article for each month during which he or she served as judge,
following the effective date of this section, any portion of time
which he or she had served as prosecuting attorney in any county
in this state shall qualify as years of service, if such judge
shall pay those sums required to be paid pursuant to theprovisions of section four of this article:
Provided, That any
term of office as prosecuting attorney, or part thereof,
commencing after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand
nine hundred eighty-eight shall not hereafter in any way qualify
as eligible years of service under this retirement system.
(e) Any retirement benefit accruing under the provisions of
this section shall not be paid if otherwise barred under the
provisions of article ten-a, chapter five of this code.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prevent credit from
being awarded in the state's public retirement systems for
service with the armed forces when the member who is seeking
military service credit is already receiving benefits from
another retirement system on the basis of that service.)
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