BILL REQ. #: H-2886.1
State of Washington | 63rd Legislature | 2014 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/15/14. Referred to Committee on Appropriations.
AN ACT Relating to limiting eligibility for the public employees' retirement system for seasonal employees of small cities; and amending RCW 41.40.023.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 41.40.023 and 2010 c 80 s 1 are each amended to read
as follows:
Membership in the retirement system shall consist of all regularly
compensated employees and appointive and elective officials of
employers, as defined in this chapter, with the following exceptions:
(1) Persons in ineligible positions;
(2) Employees of the legislature except the officers thereof
elected by the members of the senate and the house and legislative
committees, unless membership of such employees be authorized by the
said committee;
(3)(a) Persons holding elective offices or persons appointed
directly by the governor: PROVIDED, That such persons shall have the
option of applying for membership during such periods of employment:
AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That any persons holding or who have held
elective offices or persons appointed by the governor who are members
in the retirement system and who have, prior to becoming such members,
previously held an elective office, and did not at the start of such
initial or successive terms of office exercise their option to become
members, may apply for membership to be effective during such term or
terms of office, and shall be allowed to establish the service credit
applicable to such term or terms of office upon payment of the employee
contributions therefor by the employee with interest as determined by
the director and employer contributions therefor by the employer or
employee with interest as determined by the director: AND PROVIDED
FURTHER, That all contributions with interest submitted by the employee
under this subsection shall be placed in the employee's individual
account in the employee's savings fund and be treated as any other
contribution made by the employee, with the exception that any
contributions submitted by the employee in payment of the employer's
obligation, together with the interest the director may apply to the
employer's contribution, shall not be considered part of the member's
annuity for any purpose except withdrawal of contributions;
(b) A member holding elective office who has elected to apply for
membership pursuant to (a) of this subsection and who later wishes to
be eligible for a retirement allowance shall have the option of ending
his or her membership in the retirement system. A member wishing to
end his or her membership under this subsection must file, on a form
supplied by the department, a statement indicating that the member
agrees to irrevocably abandon any claim for service for future periods
served as an elected official. A member who receives more than fifteen
thousand dollars per year in compensation for his or her elective
service, adjusted annually for inflation by the director, is not
eligible for the option provided by this subsection (3)(b);
(4) Employees holding membership in, or receiving pension benefits
under, any retirement plan operated wholly or in part by an agency of
the state or political subdivision thereof, or who are by reason of
their current employment contributing to or otherwise establishing the
right to receive benefits from any such retirement plan except as
follows:
(a) In any case where the retirement system has in existence an
agreement with another retirement system in connection with exchange of
service credit or an agreement whereby members can retain service
credit in more than one system, such an employee shall be allowed
membership rights should the agreement so provide;
(b) An employee shall be allowed membership if otherwise eligible
while receiving survivor's benefits;
(c) An employee shall not either before or after June 7, 1984, be
excluded from membership or denied service credit pursuant to this
subsection solely on account of: (i) Membership in the plan created
under chapter 2.14 RCW; or (ii) enrollment under the relief and
compensation provisions or the pension provisions of the volunteer
firefighters' relief and pension fund under chapter 41.24 RCW;
(d) Except as provided in RCW 41.40.109, on or after July 25, 1999,
an employee shall not be excluded from membership or denied service
credit pursuant to this subsection solely on account of participation
in a defined contribution pension plan qualified under section 401 of
the internal revenue code;
(e) Employees who have been reported in the retirement system prior
to July 25, 1999, and who participated during the same period of time
in a defined contribution pension plan qualified under section 401 of
the internal revenue code and operated wholly or in part by the
employer, shall not be excluded from previous retirement system
membership and service credit on account of such participation;
(5) Patient and inmate help in state charitable, penal, and
correctional institutions;
(6) "Members" of a state veterans' home or state soldiers' home;
(7) Persons employed by an institution of higher learning or
community college, primarily as an incident to and in furtherance of
their education or training, or the education or training of a spouse;
(8) Employees of an institution of higher learning or community
college during the period of service necessary to establish eligibility
for membership in the retirement plans operated by such institutions;
(9) Persons rendering professional services to an employer on a
fee, retainer, or contract basis or when the income from these services
is less than fifty percent of the gross income received from the
person's practice of a profession;
(10) Persons appointed after April 1, 1963, by the liquor control
board as contract liquor store managers;
(11) Employees of a labor guild, association, or organization:
PROVIDED, That elective officials and employees of a labor guild,
association, or organization which qualifies as an employer within this
chapter shall have the option of applying for membership;
(12) Retirement system retirees: PROVIDED, That following
reemployment in an eligible position, a retiree may elect to
prospectively become a member of the retirement system if otherwise
eligible;
(13) Persons employed by or appointed or elected as an official of
a first class city that has its own retirement system: PROVIDED, That
any member elected or appointed to an elective office on or after April
1, 1971, shall have the option of continuing as a member of this system
in lieu of becoming a member of the city system. A member who elects
to continue as a member of this system shall pay the appropriate member
contributions and the city shall pay the employer contributions at the
rates prescribed by this chapter. The city shall also transfer to this
system all of such member's accumulated contributions together with
such further amounts as necessary to equal all employee and employer
contributions which would have been paid into this system on account of
such service with the city and thereupon the member shall be granted
credit for all such service. Any city that becomes an employer as
defined in RCW 41.40.010(13) as the result of an individual's election
under this subsection shall not be required to have all employees
covered for retirement under the provisions of this chapter. Nothing
in this subsection shall prohibit a city of the first class with its
own retirement system from: (a) Transferring all of its current
employees to the retirement system established under this chapter, or
(b) allowing newly hired employees the option of continuing coverage
under the retirement system established by this chapter.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, persons
transferring from employment with a first class city of over four
hundred thousand population that has its own retirement system to
employment with the state department of agriculture may elect to remain
within the retirement system of such city and the state shall pay the
employer contributions for such persons at like rates as prescribed for
employers of other members of such system;
(14) Employees who (a) are not citizens of the United States, (b)
do not reside in the United States, and (c) perform duties outside of
the United States;
(15) Employees who (a) are not citizens of the United States, (b)
are not covered by chapter 41.48 RCW, (c) are not excluded from
membership under this chapter or chapter 41.04 RCW, (d) are residents
of this state, and (e) make an irrevocable election to be excluded from
membership, in writing, which is submitted to the director within
thirty days after employment in an eligible position;
(16) Employees who are citizens of the United States and who reside
and perform duties for an employer outside of the United States:
PROVIDED, That unless otherwise excluded under this chapter or chapter
41.04 RCW, the employee may apply for membership (a) within thirty days
after employment in an eligible position and membership service credit
shall be granted from the first day of membership service, and (b)
after this thirty-day period, but membership service credit shall be
granted only if payment is made for the noncredited membership service
under RCW 41.50.165(2), otherwise service shall be from the date of
application;
(17) The city manager or chief administrative officer of a city or
town, other than a retiree, who serves at the pleasure of an appointing
authority: PROVIDED, That such persons shall have the option of
applying for membership within thirty days from date of their
appointment to such positions. Persons serving in such positions as of
April 4, 1986, shall continue to be members in the retirement system
unless they notify the director in writing prior to December 31, 1986,
of their desire to withdraw from membership in the retirement system.
A member who withdraws from membership in the system under this section
shall receive a refund of the member's accumulated contributions.
Persons serving in such positions who have not opted for membership
within the specified thirty days, may do so by paying the amount
required under RCW 41.50.165(2) for the period from the date of their
appointment to the date of acceptance into membership;
(18) Persons serving as: (a) The chief administrative officer of
a public utility district as defined in RCW 54.16.100; (b) the chief
administrative officer of a port district formed under chapter 53.04
RCW; or (c) the chief administrative officer of a county who serves at
the pleasure of an appointing authority: PROVIDED, That such persons
shall have the option of applying for membership within thirty days
from the date of their appointment to such positions. Persons serving
in such positions as of July 25, 1999, shall continue to be members in
the retirement system unless they notify the director in writing prior
to December 31, 1999, of their desire to withdraw from membership in
the retirement system. A member who withdraws from membership in the
system under this section shall receive a refund of the member's
accumulated contributions upon termination of employment or as
otherwise consistent with the plan's tax qualification status as
defined in internal revenue code section 401.
Persons serving in such positions who have not opted for membership
within the specified thirty days, may do so at a later date by paying
the amount required under RCW 41.50.165(2) for the period from the date
of their appointment to the date of acceptance into membership;
(19) Persons enrolled in state-approved apprenticeship programs,
authorized under chapter 49.04 RCW, and who are employed by local
governments to earn hours to complete such apprenticeship programs, if
the employee is a member of a union-sponsored retirement plan and is
making contributions to such a retirement plan or if the employee is a
member of a Taft-Hartley retirement plan;
(20) Beginning on July 22, 2001, persons employed exclusively as
trainers or trainees in resident apprentice training programs operated
by housing authorities authorized under chapter 35.82 RCW, (a) if the
trainer or trainee is a member of a union-sponsored retirement plan and
is making contributions to such a retirement plan or (b) if the
employee is a member of a Taft-Hartley retirement plan;
(21) Employees who are removed from membership under RCW 41.40.823
or 41.40.633; ((and))
(22) Persons employed as the state director of fire protection
under RCW 43.43.938 who were previously members of the law enforcement
officers' and firefighters' retirement system plan 2 under chapter
41.26 RCW may continue as a member of the law enforcement officers' and
firefighters' retirement system in lieu of becoming a member of this
system; and
(23) Beginning July 1, 2014, persons employed for fewer than nine
months per year by cities with fewer than thirty thousand residents.