Bill Text: WV SB631 | 2016 | Regular Session | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Authorizing higher education boards of governors develop retirement and incentive packages
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2016-03-02 - To House Finance [SB631 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2016-SB631-Comm_Sub.html
WEST virginia legislature
2016 regular session
Committee Substitute
for
Senate Bill 631
By Senator Walters
[Originating in the Committee on Pensions; reported on February 24, 2016]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18B-1-1d of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to retirement and separation incentives.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18B-1-1d of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GOVERNANCE.
§18B-1-1d. Retirement and separation incentives.
(a) Notwithstanding any
other provisions of this code to the contrary, each state institution of higher
education may include in its strategic plan, pursuant to section one-c of
this article adopt policies that offer various incentives for
voluntary, early or phased retirement of employees or voluntary separation from
employment when necessary to respond to declining state revenues supporting
higher education that have occurred in fiscal years 2014, 2015 and 2016,
including a mid-year reduction in 2016, and anticipated funding shortfalls in
the future, or to implement programmatic changes effectively pursuant to the
findings, directives, goals and objectives of this article and as
established by the institution’s Board of Governors: Provided, That
such incentives for voluntary, early or phased retirement of employees or
voluntary separation from employment must be submitted by the governing board
to the Legislative Joint Committee on Pensions and Retirement and approved
before such policies are adopted as part of the institution's strategic plan
at least sixty days prior to the effective date of the policy.
(b) Effective the first
day of July, two thousand one, each state institution of higher education may
implement, under its institutional compact, created pursuant to section two,
article one-a of this chapter, policies that offer various incentives for
voluntary, early or phased retirement of employees, or voluntary separation
from employment, when necessary to implement programmatic changes effectively:
Provided, That the institution shall meet all the requirements, including the
requirement for obtaining legislative approval, set forth in this section.
(c)(b) The
policies may include the following provisions:
(1) Payment of a lump sum to an employee to resign or retire, which lump sum will be excluded from the calculation of the employee’s average final salary under article seven-a, chapter eighteen of this code;
(2) Continuation of full or a reduced salary to an employee for a predetermined period of time prior to the employee's resignation or retirement and a reduction in the employee's hours of employment during the predetermined period of time;
(3) Continuation of insurance coverage pursuant to the provisions of article sixteen, chapter five of this code for a predetermined period;
(4) Continuation of full employer contributions to an employee's retirement plan during a phased retirement period; and
(5) That an employee retiring pursuant to an early or phased retirement plan may begin collecting an annuity from the employee's retirement plan prior to the statutorily designated retirement date without terminating his or her service with the institution.
(d) (c) No incentive provided for in this section
shall be granted except in furtherance of programmatic changes undertaken
pursuant to the findings, directives, goals and objectives set forth in this
article.
(e) No incentive
proposed by an institution pursuant to this section shall become a part of the
institution's approved strategic plan or institutional compact or be
implemented without approval of the legislative joint committee on pensions and
retirement.
(d) Any costs associated with any incentive adopted or implemented in accordance with this section shall be borne entirely by the institutions and no incentive shall be granted that imposes costs on the retirement systems of the state or the Public Employees Insurance Agency unless those costs are paid entirely by the institutions: Provided, That if an employee is sixty-five years of age or older and vested and eligible to retire under a retirement system of the state at the time the employee voluntarily separates from the institution pursuant to a plan authorized under this section, there shall be no costs attributable to or required to be paid by an institution to the applicable retirement system of the state resulting from that voluntary separation.
(f) (e) The Legislature further finds and declares
that there is a compelling state interest in restricting the availability and
application of these incentives to individual employees determined by the
institutions to be in furtherance of the aims of this section and nothing
herein shall be interpreted as granting a right or entitlement of any such
incentive to any individual or group of individuals. Any employee granted
incentives shall be ineligible for reemployment by the institutions during or
after the negotiated period of his or her incentive concludes, including
contract employment in excess of five thousand dollars per fiscal year.
(g) (f) The West Virginia Network for Educational
Telecomputing, the Higher Education Policy Commission, and the Council for Community
and Technical Colleges may utilize use the incentives
contained in any policy approved by the legislative joint committee on
pensions and retirement a state institution of higher education
pursuant to this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize Boards of Governors of institutions of higher education to develop retirement and incentive packages.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
