AN ACT Relating to retirement benefits for certain employees that provided emergency medical services prior to July 27, 2003; and adding a new section to chapter 41.40 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 41.40 RCW under the subchapter heading "provisions applicable to plan 1, plan 2, and plan 3" to read as follows:

(1) An employee providing emergency medical services for a consortium of local governments, where some of those local governments qualified as public employees' retirement system employers at the time the service was rendered shall receive credit for service performed prior to July 27, 2003, as a full-time emergency medical technician serving the consortium to the public employees' retirement system. This service credit is only available to employees who performed services for a consortium of local governments fully contained within the boundaries of a county whose population on the effective date of this section exceeds two million residents.

(2)(a) The department of retirement systems shall treat the county as the employer for purposes of this section. This employer classification:

(i) Is solely for the purpose of streamlining reporting service and compensation credit and paying contributions for periods of service covered by this section; and

(ii) Does not mean that the county is the employee's employer for any other purpose.

(b) All employee and employer contributions required for past periods of service established under this section shall be paid by the employer identified for purposes of this section.

(i) Employee contributions shall be calculated by the department equal to the contributions that would have been paid by the employee had the employee been a member of the public employees' retirement system.

(ii) Employer contributions shall be calculated by the department equal to the contributions that would have been paid by the employer had the employee been reported in the public employees' retirement system.

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