Pensions, Benefits and Retirement Passed HB36 Virginia's retirement systems; retirement allowance calculation. Changes the current formula for computing the annual retirement allowances for regular and disabled retirees and beneficiaries of the Virginia Retirement System, State Police Officers' Retirement System, and Judicial Retirement System. With a slight variation for judges, the current formula is basically 1.50 percent of the first $13,200 of average final compensation (AFC) plus 1.65 percent of AFC in excess of $13,200 multiplied by the amount of creditable service. The bill provides for a single multiplier (1.70 percent) with no AFC or creditable service thresholds. The bill also provides that members who retire on or before December 31, 1998, will receive a two percent increase in their retirement allowances. The act is effective on January 1, 1999. Patron - Callahan HB133 Virginia Retirement System; prior service credit. Authorizes the purchase of prior service credits on a pre-tax basis. Employers are authorized to pay an equivalent amount in lieu of member contributions, which payments will not be considered wages or salary. The measure takes effect upon the first to occur of (i) July 30, 1998, or (ii) receipt of a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service stating that this measure does not affect the tax status of the retirement system. The bill has an emergency clause. Patron - Putney HB134 Virginia Retirement System; powers and duties of Board. Authorizes the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System to invest in real estate to be held as a nonrevenue producing asset and used by the retirement system for administrative offices. Patron - Putney HB142 Virginia Retirement System; prior service credit for involuntary maternity leave. Provides that state employees shall receive up to two years of service credit for involuntary maternity leave if such mandatory leave occurred between January 1, 1964, and January 1, 1973, and the member has not withdrawn all accumulated contributions. The employee must provide evidence from her employer satisfactory to the VRS. Patron - Woodrum HB250 Health insurance credits; retired state employees, retired teachers and retired local government employees. Allows the Virginia Retirement System to determine the method of payment of the health insurance credits for retired state employees, retired teachers and retired local government employees. Retirees who do not participate in an employer-sponsored plan will receive a credit to the same extent as retirees who participate in the employer-sponsored plan. This replaces the reimbursement system currently in place for non-participating employees. Patron - Ruff HB260 Virginia Retirement System; prior credits. Permits vested members of the VRS who have 25 years of service to purchase up to four years of service credit for active duty military service or service in the retirement system of another state. Currently they may purchase no more than three years of service credit. The bill also allows vested VRS members with 25 years of service to purchase a maximum of four years of service credit for service in a political subdivision or public school system of any state. Patron - Diamonstein HB262 Virginia Retirement System; benefits provided. Permits all state retirees who defer retirement to be eligible to receive the health care insurance credit upon retirement. Currently, state police officers and judges who defer retirement do not receive the credit. The bill also increases the monthly supplement paid under the State Police Officers Retirement System to retirees who have not attained age 65. The measure also provides (i) that VRS has responsibility and authority for the health premium credit program and can charge administrative expenses to the health premium credit fund; (ii) that provisions to allow certain service at five percent of pay after 25 years of service is extended to service rendered in a local or state retirement system of this or another state, or as a civilian employee of the United States; (iii) eligibility for exceptions to certain early retirement provisions; (iv) that the Board may determine the manner in which beneficiary designations are maintained; and (v) that a retiree who returns to a covered position and later retires must retire under the option selected for the first retirement. Patron - Diamonstein HB271 Virginia Retirement System; Board of Trustees and advisory committees. Provides state and local government employees appointed to the Board with administrative leave from their employment to attend Board and committee meetings. The bill also removes the requirement that the Board of Trustees appoint a Real Estate Advisory Committee. The Board is authorized to appoint other advisory committees as it deems necessary. Patron - Murphy HB272 Virginia Retirement System; exceptions to general early retirement provisions. Allows a member of the VRS who served as the chief executive officer of an interstate commission on Virginia's behalf, is involuntarily separated from service, and has 20 or more years of service, to retire without reduction in his retirement benefits at age 55. The bill also eliminates the exclusion for members of the General Assembly from the general prohibition on VRS retirees receiving retirement benefits while in service in a covered position. Active members of the General Assembly who are eligible to receive a retirement benefit from service other than as a member of the General Assembly may receive the retirement benefit based on their non-General Assembly service. Active members of the General Assembly receiving a retirement allowance while in service as a member of the General Assembly shall be unretired. Patron - Murphy HB300 Defined contribution plan. Establishes a defined contribution plan for school superintendents. The plan provides an optional alternative to the defined benefit program under the Virginia Retirement System. Patron - Croshaw HB347 Virginia Retirement System; administration of benefits. Requires a retiring employee, who has previously retired from service, to elect the same benefit payment option for his second or subsequent retirement that he selected upon his original retirement. The bill also allows the VRS Board to determine the method for filing beneficiary designations and allows certain death benefits to be paid in the order provided in the Code for retirement contributions if no beneficiary designation has been made. Patron - Croshaw HB669 Virginia Retirement System; prior credits. Permits vested members of the VRS who have 25 years of service to purchase up to four years of service credit for active duty military service or service in the retirement system of another state. Currently they may purchase no more than three years of service credit. The bill also allows vested VRS members with 25 years of service to purchase a maximum of four years of service credit for service in a political subdivision or public school system of any state. Patron - Reid SB20 Virginia Retirement System benefit payments. Authorizes the Virginia Retirement System to recover payments made on the basis of any false statements or falsified records. The VRS Board must provide notice and a hearing before determining that the payment resulted from a false statement or record, and the member has the right to appeal the Board's decision. The measure also clarifies that disability allowance payments shall cease if the Medical Board determines that a beneficiary has not been disabled. Patron - Stosch SB38 Virginia Retirement System; deferred compensation plan. Clarifies that accounting and reconciliation services associated with deferred compensation plan contributions for employees of (i) state agencies with decentralized payroll functions and (ii) participating political subdivisions are the responsibility of such state agency or political subdivision. The Department of Accounts is responsible for such services for employees of other state agencies. Patron - Houck SB39 Virginia Retirement System; compliance with Internal Revenue Code. Raises the limit on compensation used to determine the benefit, as allowed by the Internal Revenue Code; requires certain employers to test for compliance for combined benefit limits; requires the benefits or additions certain non-VRS plans to be reduced before the VRS benefits; and requires vendors for an optional retirement plan to provide testing services. Patron - Chichester SB65 Member contributions to the Virginia Retirement System. Permits employers to pay a portion of the five percent contribution required of Virginia Retirement System members after giving notice to the Board, in order to phase in the employer's payment of the full member contribution over a three-year period. Currently, an employer may pay all or none of its employees' contributions. Patron - Chichester SB125 Defined contribution plan. Establishes a defined contribution plan for state employees in exempted positions. The plan provides an optional alternative to the defined benefit program under the Virginia Retirement System. Exempted positions include certain officers appointed by the Governor, officers elected by vote of the General Assembly, certain employees of the Attorney General's office, and chief deputies and confidential assistants for policy or administration in executive branch agencies. Patron - Holland Failed HB9 Virginia Retirement System; prior service credit for civilian service of the United States government. Adds certain civilian service of the United States as "creditable service" in the Retirement System. Patron - Cox HB122 Judicial retirement. Allows members of the Judicial Retirement System to retire at age 55 with a minimum of five years of service without taking the deduction required under current law. Patron - Johnson HB145 Virginia Volunteer Firefighters' Pension Fund. Creates the Virginia Volunteer Firefighters' Pension Fund under the Department of Treasury to provide retirement benefits for volunteer firefighters. Firefighters who wish to participate shall contribute $10 monthly to the Fund, and those contributions will be matched by general appropriations. A six-member board chaired by the State Treasurer shall administer the Fund. Two members of the Board must be volunteer firefighters. Pensions from the Fund are drawn in addition to any other pension to which the member is entitled. Patron - Day HB155 Retirement benefits; members of the General Assembly. Prohibits members of the General Assembly serving their first term beginning on or after January 1, 2000, from combining creditable service as a member of the General Assembly with service as a member of the VRS, JRS, or SPORS. Member contributions, with interest, for service as a member of the General Assembly not eligible for use in calculating retirement benefits will be refunded to the member. The bill also permits members of the General Assembly who are eligible to receive a retirement allowance for service other than as a member of the General Assembly to receive a retirement allowance based on such other service while serving in the General Assembly. Patron - Woodrum HB168 Virginia Retirement System; normal retirement. Provides as an alternative date for normal retirement, the completion of 30 years of creditable service. Under current law a member's 65th birthday is his normal retirement date. Under this bill, the revised definition will apply to employees of political subdivisions unless the locality specifically opts out by July 1, 1998. Patron - Hall HB177 Retirement; teachers. Provides that teachers with 30 years of service who have reached the age of 53 may retire with normal retirement benefits. Patron - Kilgore HB178 Virginia Retirement System; increased benefit for prior service credit for military service. Allows members in service to receive up to three years of prior service credits for military service. Currently, vested members with 25 years service may purchase up to three years of credit. Patron - Kilgore HB188 Early retirement for certain VRS members. Provides that the "penalty" for taking early retirement, i.e., the reduction in benefits for retiring with less than 30 years of creditable service, shall not apply to members of the retirement system who, on the actual date of their retirement, (i) are at least age 50 and (ii) have completed 30 years of creditable service. Localities are given the option to not participate in this program. There are technical amendments which clarify that there are three different groups of people who are members of VRS and have two conditions to meet in order to get the full retirement allowance before the normal retirement age. Patron - Hamilton HB261 Virginia Retirement System; prior service credit for civilian service of the United States government. Allows vested members in service with at least 25 years of creditable service in the VRS to purchase up to three years of prior service credit for certified creditable service in the retirement system of (i) a political subdivision or public school system of this or another state or (ii) the federal civil service. Patron - Diamonstein HB285 Virginia Retirement System. Allows for the purchase of prior service credit under the Virginia Retirement System by any member of the Judicial Retirement System who served as a state employee prior to 1990. Patron - Joannou HB400 Virginia Retirement System; prior credits. Permits military retirees to receive service credit in the Virginia system as well as another retirement system. Patron - Phillips HB405 Prior service credit under the Virginia Retirement System. Provides a purchase-price refund and a prior service reclassification for "prior service credit" to certain employees who retired after April 5, 1996, but who had purchased the credit before April 5, 1996. VRS members who are approved for voluntary retirement under the Workforce Transition Act of 1995 and who have at least 25 years of creditable service may purchase "prior service credit" for active military duty, certified creditable service in another state's retirement system, or both. The 1996 amendment also allows these members to purchase up to three years of "prior service credit" for five percent (rather than 15 percent) of (i) their annual compensation for each year to be credited or (ii) their creditable compensation during their 36 highest consecutive months of creditable service, whichever is greater. Patron - Grayson HB423 Virginia Retirement System; prior service credit for part-time teachers. Allows vested members in service with at least 25 years of creditable service in the VRS to purchase up to three years of prior service credit for prior service as an employee of a public school system of this or another state, including part-time service in a public school system. Patron - Watts HB425 Virginia Retirement System; prior service credit for interruption due to raising children. Allows any member in service to purchase credit for a leave of absence of up to four years due to the birth or adoption of a child. Patron - Mims HB557 Mandatory retirement age; judges. Exempts juvenile and domestic relations judges in the 27th judicial district from mandatory retirement at age 70. Patron - Baker HB722 Virginia Volunteer Pension Fund. Creates the Virginia Volunteer Pension Fund under the Department of Treasury to provide retirement benefits for volunteer firefighters and rescue squad workers. Firefighters and rescue squad workers who wish to participate shall contribute $10 monthly to the Fund, and those contributions will be matched by general appropriations. A six-member Board chaired by the State Treasurer shall administer the Fund. Two members of the Board must be volunteers. Pensions from the Fund are drawn in addition to any other pension to which the member is entitled. Patron - Day SB142 Membership in the Virginia Retirement System. Permits elected members of the governing body of any political subdivision to become members of the Virginia Retirement System. Patron - Reynolds SB151 SPORS service retirement allowance. Reduces from 35 to 30 the number of years of creditable service that any member of the State Police Officers' Retirement System needs in order to have his normal retirement allowance based on 1.65 percent of his full average final compensation. For a member with fewer years of creditable service, the normal retirement benefit is based on 1.5 percent of the first $13,200 of his average final compensation and 1.65 percent of the amount in excess of $13,200. Patron - Houck SB158 Prior service credit for military service. Allows a member of the Virginia Retirement System who has 25 or more years of creditable service to purchase prior service credit for active duty military service in a combat area during periods of military conflict at a cost of one percent of salary. Currently, such persons may purchase prior service credit for active duty military service, whether it was during a period of military conflict or not, at a cost of five percent of salary. Patron - Walker SB179 Virginia Retirement System; prior credits. Provides that a vested member who is a teacher shall receive up to two years of credit for any involuntary leave of absence prior to July 1, 1974, based on the teacher's adoption of a child. The member must provide evidence from the employer satisfactory to the Board that the leave of absence qualifies. Patron - Norment SB197 Virginia Retirement System: benefits for employees of participating localities. Requires that any retirement allowance or other benefit changes shall not be conditioned upon an election by an employer participating in the VRS. This requirement does not apply to the local election to provide a three percent additional retirement allowance. Patron - Reasor SB201 Early retirement of local constitutional officers. Allows any member of the Virginia Retirement System who is elected treasurer, sheriff, Commonwealth's attorney, circuit court clerk, or commissioner of revenue, is involuntarily separated from service, and has 20 or more years of creditable service, to retire at age 55 without a reduction in retirement allowance. Patron - Reasor SB428 Virginia Retirement System; prior service credit for interruption due to raising children. Allows any member in service who is granted a leave of absence due to the birth or adoption of a child to purchase up to one year of service credit per child, at 15 percent of compensation. Patron - Mims Carried Over HB99 Special Agents' Retirement System. Creates a special agents' retirement system to include special agents of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control in a retirement system similar to, but separate from, the State Police Officers' Retirement System and makes such membership compulsory. Patron - Cranwell HB176 Life insurance benefits; retired state employees. Provides that retired state employees, including employees retired for disability, shall have group life insurance benefits equal to their annual salaries as of their retirement dates. Currently, a retiree's group life insurance benefits are reduced annually until they are equal to 50 percent of his annual salary as of his retirement date. Patron - Kilgore HB189 Virginia Retirement System; creditable service. Modifies the definition of creditable service to include uncompensated sick leave credit and vacation leave accumulated as of the employee's retirement date, certified by the employer to the Board. Patron - Hamilton HB210 Virginia Retirement System; creditable service. Modifies the definition of creditable service to include sick leave credit accumulated as of the employee's retirement date certified by the employer to the Board. Patron - Melvin HB308 Retirement benefits; overtime pay as creditable compensation. Includes overtime pay in determining creditable compensation. Patron - Stump HB355 Special Agents' Retirement System. Creates a special agents' retirement system to include special agents of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, game wardens, capital police campus police and certain other law-enforcement officers in a retirement system similar to, but separate from, the State Police Officers' Retirement System and makes such membership compulsory. Patron - Cranwell HB398 Virginia Retirement System; teachers. Provides that all taxable compensation shall be considered in determining the creditable compensation of public schoolteachers. "Teachers" are defined as professional or clerical employees of public school boards. Patron - Phillips HB406 Special Law Enforcement Retirement System. Creates a special law enforcement retirement system to include former members of the State Police that continue their service in certain other law enforcement in a retirement system similar to, but separate from, the State Police Officers' Retirement System and makes such membership compulsory. Patron - Barlow HB437 Volunteer Firefighters' and Rescue Squad Workers' Pension Fund. Establishes a voluntary defined contribution retirement plan for certain eligible volunteer firefighters and rescue squad workers to be administered and managed by the Volunteer Firefighters and Rescue Squad Workers' Pension Fund with the assistance of the Virginia Retirement System. Members are required to pay $30 per quarter into the Fund, and these payments will be supplemented from general fund appropriations Patron - Wilkins HB715 Commonwealth Law-Enforcement Officers' Retirement System. Creates a law-enforcement retirement system to include certain other law-enforcement officers in a retirement system similar to, but separate from, the State Police Officers' Retirement System and makes such membership compulsory. Patron - Cranwell HB1017 Virginia Retirement System; benefits paid to survivors. Provides that the beneficiary of a member who dies in service will receive the benefits that would have been payable had the member died at normal retirement age. Patron - Grayson SB210 Deferred retirement option plan. Establishes a deferred retirement option plan for state employees, state police officers, local government employees, and teachers. To participate in the program, members must be eligible to retire under VRS or SPORS with unreduced benefits (age 55 with 30 years of service for VRS members, age 50 with 25 years of service for state police officers) and satisfy additional age and service requirements as the VRS Board determines are required to avoid affecting employer contribution rates. The employee continues working for a maximum of three years on a temporary full-time basis. During this time the retirement benefits that he would have received if he had ceased working when he retired, plus interest, are deposited in an account. The account balance will be paid to the participant when he stops working under the plan. The employee does not receive service credit or contributions to his retirement account while he is working under the plan, and when he stops working he starts drawing monthly retirement benefits in the same amount he would have received has he not participated in the plan, adjusted by accrued cost of living allowances. Patron - Stolle SB220 Virginia Retirement System long-term care insurance program. Authorizes the Board of the Virginia Retirement System to develop, implement, and administer a long-term care insurance program. Patron - Martin SB427 Virginia Retirement System; early retirement for certain members. Allows correctional officers to retire after attaining age 55 with 25 years of service. Currently VRS members must have 30 years of service to retire with unreduced benefits. Patron - Miller, Y.B. < PREVIOUS | CONTENTS | NEXT >