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Senate Bill 1628 |
Senate Author: Wentworth |
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Effective: 10-1-09 |
House Sponsor: McClendon |
Senate Bill 1628 amends the law relating to police and firefighter retirement systems in municipalities with a population between 1.14 million and 1.18 million to authorize the fire chief or police chief to make an irrevocable election to not become a member of the firefighters and police officers pension fund except that a person who was a member of the fund at any time during the two years preceding the date the chief assumes office may not make such an election. The election must be made not later than the 30th day after the date the chief assumes office, and a chief who does not make an election becomes a member of the fund.
The bill also authorizes a member employed for a probationary period by a municipality to elect to purchase one month of service credit for each full month in the member's probationary period, up to a maximum of 10 months, and establishes the terms and conditions of such a purchase. That election must be made on or before December 31, 2009, and the required payment must be paid to the fund on or before September 30, 2010.
Senate Bill 1628 amends the cap on the amount of the lump-sum payment for a member electing a Backward Deferred Retirement Option Plan (Back DROP) so that the number of full months of service for which the member is paid does not exceed the lesser of the number of months of service credit the member has in excess of 20 years or 60 months, rather than 48 months as previously provided.
Senate Bill 1628 exempts a retiree who is 65 years of age or older as of December 31 of the previous year from the requirement for each disability retiree to provide the board not later than May 1 of each year with a copy of the retiree's income tax return for the previous year.
Senate Bill 1628 extends the application of the existing formula for calculating cost-of-living adjustments in an annuity for a member whose retirement or preretirement death occurred on or after August 30, 1971, but before October 1, 1997, to apply to an annuity for a member whose retirement or death occurred before October 1, 1999, and it makes such cost-of-living increases inapplicable to a death benefit annuity for the surviving spouse of a retiree whose death occurs on or after October 1, 2009, until the annuity becomes effective.
If a deceased member or retiree is survived by both a spouse and at least one dependent child, the bill increases the surviving spouse's share of any death benefit annuity awarded from one-half to 75 percent and decreases the share awarded to the dependent child or children from one-half to 25 percent. The 75-25 allocation is effective with respect to all annuities that are payable in part to a surviving spouse and in part to one or more surviving children as of October 1, 2009. If, at the time a death benefit annuity becomes payable, the surviving spouse is not entitled to an annuity, the bill requires that the dependent child or children be awarded 100 percent of the death benefit annuity until the annuity to the surviving spouse becomes effective. A surviving spouse is entitled to a death benefit when it becomes payable if the surviving spouse is 55 years of age or older on the date of the retiree's death; if the surviving spouse is not 55 years of age or older on the date of the retiree's death, the spouse's annuity becomes payable on the date the surviving spouse reaches age 55. A surviving spouse who is not 55 years of age or older on the date of the retiree's death is not entitled to benefits from the date of the retiree's death until the surviving spouse reaches age 55.