[atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to allowing port employees to join more than one retirement plan subject to a labor agreement; and amending RCW 53.08.170.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 53.08.170 and 1991 sp.s. c 30 s 22 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The port commission shall have authority to create and fill positions, to fix wages, salaries and bonds thereof, to pay costs and assessments involved in securing or arranging to secure employees, and to establish such benefits for employees, including holiday pay, vacations or vacation pay, retirement and pension benefits, medical, surgical or hospital care, life, accident, or health disability insurance, and similar benefits, already established by other employers of similar employees, as the port commissioner shall by resolution provide((~~: PROVIDED, That~~)). However, any district providing insurance benefits for its employees in any manner whatsoever may provide health and accident insurance, life insurance with coverage not to exceed that provided district employees, and business related travel, liability, and errors and omissions insurance, for its commissioners, which insurance shall not be considered to be compensation.

(2)(a)(i) Subject to chapter 48.62 RCW, the port commission shall have authority to provide or pay such benefits directly, or to provide for such benefits by the purchase of insurance policies or entering into contracts with and compensating any person, firm, agency or organization furnishing such benefits, or by making contributions to vacation plans or funds, or health and welfare plans and funds, or pension plans or funds, or similar plans or funds, already established by other employers of similar employees and in which the port district is permitted to participate for particular classifications of its employees by the trustees or other persons responsible for the administration of such established plans or funds((~~: PROVIDED FURTHER, That no~~)). However, except under (a)(ii) of this subsection, a port district employee shall not be allowed to apply for admission to or be accepted as a member of the state employees' retirement system after January 1, 1965, if admission to such system would result in coverage under both a private pension system and the state employees' retirement system((~~, it being~~)). The purpose of this ((~~proviso~~)) restriction is that port districts shall not at the same time contribute for any employee to both a private pension or retirement plan and to the state employees' retirement system, except under (a)(ii) of this subsection.

(ii) A port employee shall be allowed to join a private pension system and the state employees' retirement system, if eligibility for a supplemental pension program, deferred compensation program, or both, are part of a negotiated labor agreement.

(b) The port commission shall have authority by resolution to utilize and compensate agents for the purpose of paying, in the name and by the check of such agent or agents or otherwise, wages, salaries and other benefits to employees, or particular classifications thereof, and for the purpose of withholding payroll taxes and paying over tax moneys so withheld to appropriate government agencies, on a combined basis with the wages, salaries, benefits, or taxes of other employers or otherwise; to enter into such contracts and arrangements with and to transfer by warrant such funds from time to time to any such agent or agents so appointed as are necessary to accomplish such salary, wage, benefit, or tax payments as though the port district were a private employer, notwithstanding any other provision of the law to the contrary. The funds of a port district transferred to such an agent or agents for the payment of wages or salaries of its employees in the name or by the check of such agent or agents shall be subject to garnishment with respect to salaries or wages so paid, notwithstanding any provision of the law relating to municipal corporations to the contrary.