General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2004>Pensions, Benefits and Retirement

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Pensions, Benefits and Retirement

Passed

P HB16

Optional supplemental health insurance credit for retired state employees. Repeals the optional supplemental health insurance credit for retired state employees that has not become effective because the Internal Revenue Service has not affirmatively ruled that such a plan could be treated as a qualified plan for federal income tax purposes. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee to Study the Operations, Practices, Duties, and Funding of the Commonwealth's Agencies, Boards, Commissions, Councils, and Other Governmental Entities pursuant to HJR 159 (2002).
Patron - Miles

P HB163

Retirement health insurance credits. Clarifies that retirees under the state optional and alternative retirement plans are eligible for the health insurance credits provided to state retirees.
Patron - Putney

P HB199

Group life and accident insurance for state and local employees. Provides an employee who has at least 20 years of creditable service with life insurance benefits equal to twice the amount of his highest annual salary, and provides a retiree, who retired with at least 20 years of creditable service, and then returns to work in a covered position, with life insurance equal to the greater of twice his highest salary or the amount he would have been eligible for had he remained retired. The bill does not apply to eligible employees who retired or retire on or after July 1, 1999, provided that such employees are alive on or after July 1, 2004.
Patron - Tata

P HB200

Virginia Retirement System; overpayments. Permits the Virginia Retirement System ("VRS") to recoup overpayments of benefits paid under programs administered by VRS, from benefits paid under the VRS Group Insurance Plan.
Patron - Tata

P HB201

Virginia Retirement System benefits; payment to successor of decedent by affidavit. Permits benefits to be paid to a person claiming to be the successor of a deceased member upon his filing an affidavit certifying, among other things, that the value of the entire personal probate estate does not exceed the maximum value of such estate allowed to be processed by affidavit under the Virginia Small Estate Act (currently $15,000). Under current law Virginia Retirement Benefits cannot be paid under such conditions if the value of the entire personal probate estate exceeds $10,000.
Patron - Tata

P HB334

Retirement; law-enforcement officers. Provides that law-enforcement officers in service on June 30, 2002, and July 1, 2002, with five or more years of creditable service are not required to serve at least five years as a member under a specific retirement system in order to receive maximum retirement benefits. The five-year requirement for service as a member under a specific retirement system was enacted by the 2002 Session of the General Assembly. The bill contains an emergency clause.
Patron - Pollard

P HB356

Retirement; health insurance credits for retired school superintendents. Provides that school superintendents who retire pursuant to the alternative defined contribution plan shall receive the same health insurance credit benefits afforded to retired teachers.
Patron - Putney

P HB551

Government Employees Deferred Compensation Plan Act; collection of administrative fees by political subdivisions. Permits participating political subdivisions to collect administrative fees imposed by the Virginia Retirement System from participating employees.
Patron - May

P HB576

Enhanced compensation and retirement benefits for certain employees of local public school boards. Authorizes local school boards to employ turnaround specialists to address conditions at a public school that may impede educational progress and effectiveness and academic success. The bill also authorizes local school boards to offer increased retirement benefits and compensation to turnaround specialists and licensed instructional personnel teaching in a subject matter in grades six, seven, or eight under a middle school critical shortage program adopted by the State Board of Education.
Patron - Hamilton

P HB699

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program; long-term disability benefits; state employees. Requires employees, as a condition to receiving long-term disability benefits under the Virginia Sickness and Disability Program, to apply for Social Security disability benefits unless they are otherwise directed.
Patron - Ingram

P HB700

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program; suspension of eligibility. Clarifies that an employee is ineligible to participate in the Virginia Sickness and Disability Program during any period of nonpay status due to suspension pending investigation or outcome of employment-related court action.
Patron - Ingram

P HB701

Sickness and Disability Program for state employees. Clarifies that when an employee receives long-term disability benefits and returns to active employment in any position, not just the same position he previously held, then any succeeding period of disability shall constitute a new period of disability.
Patron - Ingram

P HB702

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program; actuary. Clarifies that the actuary authorized to recommend certain benefit adjustments is the actuary of the Virginia Sickness and Disability Program, instead of the actuary of the Virginia Retirement System.
Patron - Ingram

P HB703

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program; collection of disability overpayments. Permits the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System to collect overpayments of disability benefits from any payments due the disabled member's survivor and beneficiaries. Under current law the Board is authorized to make such collections from payments due directly to the disabled member.
Patron - Ingram

P HB1171

Rehiring of retired teachers; designation of critical need areas. Directs local school boards to annually survey their respective divisions to identify critical shortages of teachers and administrative personnel by subject matter, and report such critical shortages to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and to the Virginia Retirement System (VRS). The school board may delegate this duty to the division superintendent. Retired persons rehired as teachers and administrators for such identified shortage positions may elect to continue to receive VRS benefits. Under current law, only the Superintendent of Public Instruction is empowered to identify the critical shortage areas; this authority expires on July 1, 2005. Similarly, additional enactment clauses create a corresponding July 1, 2005, sunset for this bill, and an emergency clause makes it effective upon final passage.
Patron - Dillard

P HB1179

Long-term care insurance. Requires the Department of Human Resource Management to develop and implement a long-term care insurance plan for state employees and for any person who has five or more years of creditable service in any retirement plan administered by the Virginia Retirement System whether or not such person is employed by an employer participating in the Virginia Retirement System, and whether or not such person is receiving retirement benefits.
Patron - Bryant

P SB174

Judicial Retirement System; technical correction. Makes a technical correction to the maximum credit that a former judge may transfer to the Virginia Retirement System when he accepts a nonjudicial position covered by the Virginia Retirement System.
Patron - Stolle

P SB311

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System. Classifies service rendered as an employee under the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System as service rendered in a hazardous position for purposes of retirement benefits under or pursuant to the State Police Officers' Retirement System. The bill applies to persons retiring on or after October 1, 1999.
Patron - Hawkins

P SB540

Virginia Retirement System; defined contribution plan. Permits an employee who moves from a position covered under the Virginia Retirement System's ("VRS") defined contribution plan to a position covered under a different VRS retirement program to use his own funds to purchase service time in the new program if the amount in his defined contribution plan account is insufficient to pay the actuarial cost of the total time worked in the prior position.
Patron - Stosch

P SB541

Virginia Retirement System; employer in default. Clarifies the process to occur when an employer becomes financially unable to make contributions to the Virginia Retirement System on behalf of its employees.
Patron - Stosch

P SB599

State and local retirement systems; electronic communication. Permits the Virginia Retirement System and certain local retirement systems to communicate required information to members and beneficiaries through electronic media.
Patron - Lambert

P SB628

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program. Precludes payment of short-term disability benefits for elective medical procedures, including surgery, during an initial six-month probationary period without (i) certification by the program administrator and (ii) coordination of the required leave of absence between the employee and employer. Current law provides such coverage beginning the first day of employment. The provisions do not apply to short-term disability benefits for which payment began prior to July 1, 2004.
Patron - Devolites

Failed

F HB18

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System. Adds sworn employees of the Enforcement Division of the Division of Motor Vehicles to membership in the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System.
Patron - Parrish

F HB84

Retirement; state police officers and certain local law-enforcement officers. Modifies the retirement benefits of state police officers and to certain local law-enforcement officers by (i) increasing from 1.7 percent to 2.7 percent the percentage of average final compensation multiplied by the years of creditable service in such positions, and by deleting the supplemental allowance currently paid to members upon retirement until their Social Security retirement age; (ii) deleting the minimum age requirement for retirement for members with 25 or more years of service; and (iii) providing that deputy sheriffs employed by political subdivisions participating in the Virginia Retirement System shall receive the same retirement benefits as sheriffs.
Patron - Callahan

F HB111

Virginia Retirement System; purchase of retirement credit for prior service as a substitute teacher. Provides that an employee may purchase retirement credit for prior service as a substitute teacher providing educational instruction to children of military service members in Department of Defense Education Activity schools located outside the United States.
Patron - Van Landingham

F HB135

Virginia Retirement System; creditable compensation of teachers. Provides that the creditable compensation of teachers for retirement purposes under the Virginia Retirement System shall include all compensation payable to teachers by their public school boards, including compensation that is not pursuant to a contract for teaching.
Patron - Kilgore

F HB225

Health insurance credit for retired teachers. Increases the health insurance credit for retired teachers to $4 per month for each year of creditable service with no monthly cap. Under current law, retired teachers with 15 or more years of service are allowed a health insurance credit of $2.50 per month for each year of creditable service with a cap of $75 per month. Retired state employees with 15 or more years of service are allowed a health insurance credit of $4 per month for each year of creditable service with a cap of $120 per month.
Patron - Shuler

F HB244

Retirement; service credit for state employees when there is no general salary increase. Provides that state employees shall be credited with up to 12 months of additional retirement service credit for each fiscal year that the Commonwealth does not provide a general salary increase. The amount of service credit to be credited to each such employee shall be equal to the number of months that the person was in service as a state employee in the relevant fiscal year, rounded up to the nearest whole month. Local government employees are not eligible to receive the additional service credit. The bill is effective for fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2004.
Patron - Nutter

F HB273

State Police Officers' Retirement System. Modifies the retirement allowance paid to state police officers by increasing from 1.7 percent to 2.0 percent the percentage of average final compensation multiplied by the years of creditable service in such positions, and by deleting the supplemental allowance currently paid to members upon retirement until their Social Security retirement age (currently $9,264 annually). This provision applies to employees who become members of the State Police Officers' System on or after July 1, 2004, and to such current employees who elect to accept the modifications by October 31, 2004.
Patron - Putney

F HB274

Health insurance credits for retired state employees. Removes the monthly credit cap of $120. The bill is a reenactment of Chapter 909 of the 2003 Acts of Assembly, as such chapter is not effective unless reenacted.
Patron - Putney

F HB490

Health insurance credits for retired teachers. Increases the monthly health insurance credit from $2.50 for each year of creditable service to $4 and removes the monthly health insurance credit cap of $75.
Patron - Tata

F HB500

Virginia Retirement System; benefits. Increases monthly retirement benefits of certain future retirees by increasing the percentage of average final compensation multiplied by the amount of creditable service from 1.7 to 2.0 for years of service in excess of 25 years for most state employees, and from 2.0 to 2.3 for certain state law-enforcement officers.
Patron - Callahan

F HB621

State Police Officers' Retirement System. Changes the retirement benefits under the State Police Officers' Retirement System by increasing the percent of average final compensation that is multiplied by the amount of creditable service from 1.7 to 2.5, and eliminating the supplemental benefit that was payable from the date of retirement until retirement age under the Social Security Act.
Patron - Carrico

F HB661

Virginia Retirement System; defined contribution plan. Creates a new defined contribution plan for all employees who enter on or after July 1, 2004, into any position covered by any retirement plan administered by the Virginia Retirement System. The employee has 90 days after entering into such a position to elect to participate in the defined contribution plan or the retirement plan for which he is otherwise eligible.
Patron - Bell

F HB698

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program; short-term disability benefit. Changes all references to "maternity leave" to "medical absences due to pregnancy" for purposes of describing one of several events constituting a short-term disability.
Patron - Ingram

F HB704

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program; health insurance for injured law-enforcement officers. Provides for payment of the state's portion of the health insurance premiums for law-enforcement officers injured in the line of duty for up to six months of long-term disability under the Virginia Sickness and Disability Program. Payment would commence immediately upon the disabled person's attaining long-term disability status and would continue until a finding that the person could return to work, or a final determination of disability. Under the existing Virginia Sickness and Disability Program, after six months of short-term disability, the disabled employee must pay potentially prohibitive insurance premiums out of pocket until he is able to return to work or is determined permanently disabled. This bill would bridge that gap for a period not to exceed six months.
Patron - Ingram

F HB711

Virginia Retirement System; benefits. Increases monthly retirement benefits of state employees by increasing the percentage of average final compensation multiplied by the amount of creditable service from 1.7 to 2.0 for most state employees, and from 2.0 to 2.3 for certain law-enforcement officers.
Patron - Nutter

F HB860

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System. Adds firefighters of the Virginia National Guard Fire and Rescue as members of the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System.
Patron - Ingram

F HB922

Virginia Retirement System membership; Breaks Interstate Park. Permits members of the Breaks Interstate Park Commission's retirement system to transfer to the Virginia Retirement System. A majority of the members of the Breaks Interstate Park Commission's retirement system must petition for such transfer prior to September 1, 2004.
Patron - Phillips

F HB1075

Virginia Retirement System; state employees. Prohibits any reduction of benefits provided by the Commonwealth to retired state employees during any period of their retirement.
Patron - Armstrong

F HB1115

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; deputy sheriffs. Makes deputy sheriffs members of the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System under certain conditions, including the election of such by the respective sheriff. Funding for such membership shall be provided by the Compensation Board.
Patron - Weatherholtz

F HB1229

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; Department of Corrections special agents. Expands the definition of "employee" to include special agents of the Department of Corrections, making such individuals members of the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System.
Patron - Landes

F HB1300

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program. Begins short-term disability coverage for state employees hired on or after July 1, 2004, one year after employment, and begins long-term disability coverage for such employees five years after employment. Current law provides such coverage beginning the first day of employment.
Patron - Watts

F SB60

Health insurance; credits for retired teachers. Increases the amount of monthly health insurance credit for retired teachers from $2.50 to $4 per year of service. The maximum monthly credit will not exceed $120.
Patron - Potts

F SB254

F SB279

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System. Provides that managers of political subdivisions that participate in the retirement system shall receive benefits equivalent to those of state police officers, except for the benefits provided under § 51.1-209, regardless of whether the employer has elected to provide equivalent benefits.
Patron - Wampler

F SB422

Retirement benefits; creditable compensation of certain law-enforcement officers. Includes in creditable compensation the overtime compensation paid to law-enforcement officers employed full time at an airport in the Commonwealth.
Patron - Wagner

F SB431

F SB476

Carried Over

C HB247

Virginia Sickness and Disability Program; appeal of disability benefit determinations. Clarifies the authority of the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System to develop an appeals process as an alternative to the process set forth in the Administrative Process Act (APA), provided that claimants under the process have the right to (i) appear in person or by counsel, (ii) have notice of contrary facts in possession of the Board that can be relied upon in making an adverse decision, (iii) receive a prompt decision, and (iv) be informed in writing of the factual or procedural basis for an adverse decision.
Patron - Petersen

C HB491

Virginia Retirement System; Virginia Local Sickness and Disability Program. Creates a new optional local sickness and disability program for local employees similar to the program that exists for state employees. The Program is optional at the election of each local employer, with all costs to be borne by the local employer. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2005, but a pilot program is authorized beginning July 1, 2004.
Patron - Tata

C HB1121

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System. Permits any member of the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System ("VaLORS") who commenced employment on or after July 1, 2001, and who, within 90 days of such employment, was a (i) State Police Officer or a local law-enforcement officer with similar retirement coverage or (ii) a state law-enforcement officer already covered under VaLORS, to elect to choose between two retirement benefit packages. The choice is between receiving the annual supplemental payment from the date of retirement until age 65, or receiving monthly retirement benefits calculated with a "multiplier" of 2.0 percent rather than 1.7 percent. Under current law, such choice was provided only to members who were employed prior to July 1, 2001, all other members were automatically provided the higher multiplier rather than the supplemental payment.
Patron - Weatherholtz

C SB157

Virginia Retirement System; purchase of prior service credit. Provides that certain local government chief executive officers may purchase an additional 10 years of retirement service credit for prior service for the Commonwealth or another state (this is in addition to the four years under law that may already be purchased). The cost for each additional year of service shall equal 10 percent of the local government chief executive officer's compensation at the time of purchase, provided that the additional retirement service is purchased within one year of the local government chief executive officer's eligibility and is paid for in one lump-sum payment to the Virginia Retirement System. For each year of service purchased under the bill, the local government chief executive officer is required to serve the same number of years as a local government chief executive officer subsequent to the date of purchase. Any local government chief executive officer who fails to serve the required number of years shall forfeit any credited service for the number of years not served and shall be liable to his governing body for any amount paid by it for purchasing the forfeited prior service credit.
Patron - Potts

C SB164

Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System (VALORS). Adds juvenile probation and parole officers as members of VALORS.
Patron - Colgan

C SB332

State Police Officers' Retirement System. Increases the multiplier for average final compensation from 1.70 to 2.50 and eliminates the additional annual allowance for service rendered in a hazardous position. The bill affects the retirement allowances of state police officers retiring on or after July 1, 2004.
Patron - Stolle

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General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2004>Pensions, Benefits and Retirement

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