READ FIRST TIME 02/09/10.   

     AN ACT Relating to higher education employees' annuities and retirement income plans; and amending RCW 28B.10.400.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 28B.10.400 and 1979 ex.s. c 259 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     The boards of regents of the state universities, the boards of trustees of the regional universities and of The Evergreen State College, and the state board for community and technical colleges ((education)) are authorized and empowered:
     (1) To assist the faculties and such other employees as any such board may designate in the purchase of old age annuities or retirement income plans under such rules ((and regulations)) as any such board may prescribe. County agricultural agents, home demonstration agents, 4-H club agents, and assistant county agricultural agents paid jointly by the Washington State University and the several counties shall be deemed to be full time employees of the Washington State University for the purposes hereof;
     (2) To provide, under such rules and regulations as any such board may prescribe for the faculty members or other employees under its supervision, for the retirement of any such faculty member or other employee on account of age or condition of health, retirement on account of age to be not earlier than the sixty-fifth birthday: PROVIDED, That such faculty member or such other employee may elect to retire at the earliest age specified for retirement by federal social security law: PROVIDED FURTHER, That any supplemental payment authorized by subsection (3) of this section and paid as a result of retirement earlier than age sixty-five shall be at an actuarially reduced rate;
     (3) To pay to any such retired person or to his or her designated beneficiary(s), each year after his or her retirement, a supplemental amount which, when added to the amount of such annuity or retirement income plan, or retirement income benefit pursuant to RCW 28B.10.415, received by ((him or his)) the retired person or the retired person's designated beneficiary(s) in such year, will not exceed fifty percent of the average annual salary paid to such retired person for his or her highest two consecutive years of full time service under an annuity or retirement income plan established pursuant to subsection (1) of this section at an institution of higher education: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That if such retired person prior to ((his)) retirement elected a supplemental payment survivors option, any such supplemental payments to such retired person or ((his)) the retired person's designated beneficiary(s) shall be at actuarially reduced rates: PROVIDED FURTHER, That if a faculty member or other employee of an institution of higher education who is a participant in a retirement plan authorized by this section dies, or has died before retirement but after becoming eligible for retirement on account of age, the designated beneficiary(s) shall be entitled to receive the supplemental payment authorized by this subsection (((3) of this section)) to which such designated beneficiary(s) would have been entitled had said deceased faculty member or other employee retired on the date of death after electing a supplemental payment survivors option: PROVIDED FURTHER, That for the purpose of this subsection, the designated beneficiary(s) shall be (a) the surviving spouse of the retiree; or, (b) with the written consent of such spouse, if any, such other person or persons as shall have an insurable interest in the retiree's life and shall have been nominated by written designation duly executed and filed with the retiree's institution of higher education;
     (4) The higher education coordinating board is also authorized and empowered as described in this section, subject to the following: The board shall only offer participation in a purchased annuity or retirement income plan authorized under this section to employees who have previously contributed premiums to a similar qualified plan, and the board is prohibited from offering or funding such a plan authorized under this section for the benefit of any retiree who is receiving or accruing a retirement allowance from a public employees' retirement system under Title 41 RCW or chapter 43.43 RCW.