SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 6325

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Majority Report: Do pass.

Signed by Senators Hill, Chair; Honeyford, Capital Budget Chair; Hargrove, Ranking Member; Keiser, Assistant Ranking Member on the Capital Budget; Ranker, Assistant Ranking Member on the Operating Budget; Bailey, Becker, Billig, Braun, Conway, Dammeier, Fraser, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hatfield, Hewitt, Kohl-Welles, Padden, Parlette, Rivers, Schoesler and Tom.

Background: Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are included in the membership of the Law Enforcement Officers' and Fire Fighters' Plan 2 (LEOFF 2) if they work on a full-time, fully compensated basis for public employers, including cities, towns, counties, districts, municipal corporations, general authority law enforcement agencies, or four-year institutions of higher education that had working fire departments before January 1, 1996. This change was made by including EMTs in the definition of firefighter in the LEOFF 2 chapter. Certain EMTs were moved from membership in the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) to LEOFF 2 by two bills enacted by the Legislature in 2005 and 2007. Each bill provided a mechanism to enable EMTs who became members of LEOFF 2 to transfer credit for past service as an EMT from PERS Plan 2 to LEOFF 2.

LEOFF 2 members transferring EMT service credit from PERS must pay the difference between the contributions paid into PERS, and those that would have been paid had the member earned the service originally in LEOFF 2, plus interest. The member payment must be completed within five years of electing to transfer the service. The provisions permitting EMT members of LEOFF 2 to transfer past service from PERS expire July 1, 2023.

The 2005 Act that added EMTs to the LEOFF 2 definition of firefighter and provided an opportunity to transfer EMT service from PERS to LEOFF 2, chapter 459 Laws of 2005, included a July 2013 expiration date for both provisions of the Act. The 2005 Act was modified in 2007 by a bill that included a provision that deleted the July 2013 expiration date for the section that added EMTs to the definition of firefighter in LEOFF 2. However the 2007 Act, chapter 304 Laws of 2007, also included an expiration date section that provided that it would expire in July 2023.

Summary of Bill: The current July 1, 2023, expiration date for the 2005 amendment to the LEOFF 2 chapter that added EMTs to the definition of firefighter is eliminated. The change is made by amending the expiration date section of chapter 304, Laws of 2007 to clarify that only sections 1 and 3 of that Act expire on on July 1, 2023. The addition of EMTs to LEOFF 2 membership does not expire, while the provision permitting EMT members of LEOFF 2 to transfer past service credit from PERS expires July 1, 2023.