HB2294 - 511R

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 38-727, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE38-727. Eligibility; options

The following provisions apply to all employees hired on or after the effective date:

1. All employees and officers of this state and all officers and employees of political subdivisions establishing a retirement plan administered by the board pursuant to this article who as a result of state service or service for the political subdivision are included in agreements providing for their coverage under the federal old age and survivors insurance system are subject to this article, except that membership is not mandatory:

(a) On the part of any employee who is eligible and who elects to participate in the optional retirement programs established by the Arizona board of regents pursuant to the authority conferred by section 15‑1628 or by a community college district board pursuant to authority conferred by section 15‑1451.

(b) For a state elected official who is subject to term limits, who is eligible for participation in ASRS because the state elected official elected not to participate in the elected officials' retirement plan as provided in section 38‑804, subsection A and who elects not to participate in ASRS as provided in paragraph 7 of this section.

(c) On the part of any employee or officer who is eligible to participate and who participates in the elected officials' retirement plan pursuant to article 3 of this chapter, the public safety personnel retirement system pursuant to article 4 of this chapter or the corrections officer retirement plan pursuant to article 6 of this chapter.

2. All employees and officers of political subdivisions whose compensation is provided wholly or in part from state monies and who are declared to be state employees and officers by the legislature for retirement purposes are subject, on legislative enactment, to this article and are members of ASRS.

3. Any member whose service terminates other than by death or withdrawal from membership is deemed to be a member of ASRS until the member's death benefit is paid.

4. Employees and officers shall not become members of ASRS and, if they are members immediately before becoming employed as provided by this section, shall have their membership status suspended while they are employed by state departments paying the salaries of their officers and employees wholly or in part from monies received from sources other than appropriations from the state general fund for the period or periods payment of the employer contributions is not made by or on behalf of the departments.

5. Notwithstanding other provisions of this section, a temporary employee of the legislature whose projected term of employment is for not more than six months is ineligible for membership in ASRS. If the employment continues beyond six successive months, the employee may elect to either:

(a) Receive credit for service for the first six months of employment and establish membership in ASRS as of the beginning of the current term of employment if, within forty‑five days after the first six months of employment, both the employer and the employee contribute to ASRS the amount that would have been required to be contributed to ASRS during the first six months of employment as if the employee had been a member of ASRS during those six months.

(b) Establish membership in ASRS as of the day following the completion of six months of employment.

6. A person who is employed in postgraduate training in an approved medical residency training program of an employer or a postdoctoral scholar who is employed by a university under the jurisdiction of the Arizona board of regents is ineligible for membership in ASRS.

7. A state elected official who is subject to term limits and who is eligible for participation in ASRS because the state elected official elected not to participate in the elected officials' retirement plan as provided in section 38‑804, subsection A may elect not to participate in ASRS. The election not to participate is specific for that term of office. The state elected official who is subject to term limits shall make the election in writing and file the election with ASRS within thirty days after the elected official's retirement plan mails the notice to the state elected official of the state elected official's eligibility to participate in ASRS. The election is effective on the first day of the state elected official's eligibility. If a state elected official who is subject to term limits fails to make an election as provided in this paragraph, the state elected official is deemed to have elected to participate in ASRS. The election not to participate in ASRS is irrevocable and constitutes a waiver of all benefits provided by ASRS for the state elected official's entire term, except for any benefits accrued by the state elected official in ASRS for periods of participation before being elected to an office subject to term limits or any benefits expressly provided by law.

8. Every full‑time superior court commissioner who is appointed on or after July 1 of the first fiscal year after the social security administration approves the inclusion of superior court commissioners on this state's section 218 agreement is a member of ASRS and is subject to this article.

9. 8. Before July 1, 2015, a person may elect not to participate in ASRS if the person becomes employed by an employer after the person has attained at least sixty‑five years of age, is not an active member, inactive member, retired member or receiving benefits pursuant to article 2.1 of this chapter and does not have any credited service or prior service in ASRS. The employee shall make the election not to participate in writing and file the election with ASRS within thirty days of employment. The election not to participate is irrevocable for the remainder of the person's employment for which the person made the election and constitutes a waiver of all benefits provided by the Arizona state retirement system. The period the person works is not eligible for purchase under section 38‑743 or 38‑744. END_STATUTE

Sec. 2. Section 38-801, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE38-801. Definitions

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Accumulated contributions" means the sum of all member contributions deducted from the member's salary pursuant to section 38‑810, subsection A plus the amount transferred to the fund on behalf of the member plus the amount deposited in the fund pursuant to section 38‑816.

2. "Actuarial equivalent" means equality in present value of the aggregate amounts expected to be received under two different forms of payment, based on mortality and interest assumptions adopted by the board.

3. "Alternate payee" means the spouse or former spouse of a participant as designated in a domestic relations order.

4. "Alternate payee's portion" means benefits that are payable to an alternate payee pursuant to a plan approved domestic relations order.

5. "Average yearly salary" means the result obtained by dividing the total salary paid to an employee during a considered period by the number of years, including fractional years, in which the salary was received. The considered period shall be:

(a) For an elected official who becomes a member of the plan before January 1, 2012, the three consecutive years within the last ten completed years of credited service as an elected official that yield the highest average. If a member does not have three consecutive years of credited service as an elected official, the considered period is the member's last consecutive period of employment with a plan employer immediately before retirement.

(b) For an elected official who becomes a member of the plan on or after January 1, 2012, the five consecutive years within the last ten completed years of credited service as an elected official that yield the highest average. If a member does not have five consecutive years of credited service as an elected official, the considered period is the member's last consecutive period of employment with a plan employer immediately before retirement.

6. "Board" means the board of trustees of the system.

7. "Credited service" means the number of whole and fractional years of a member's service as an elected official after the elected official's effective date of participation for which member and employer contributions are on deposit with the fund, plus credited service transferred to the plan from another retirement system or plan for public employees of this state, plus service as an elected official before the elected official's effective date of participation that is being funded pursuant to a joinder agreement pursuant to section 38‑810, subsection C and section 38‑815 or service that was redeemed pursuant to section 38‑816. Credited service does not include periods of service for which an active member is uncompensated by the employer and for which no contributions to the plan are made.

8. "Cure period" means the ninety-day period in which a participant or alternate payee may submit an amended domestic relations order and request a determination, calculated from the time the plan issues a determination finding that a previously submitted domestic relations order did not qualify as a plan approved domestic relations order.

9. "Determination" means a written document that indicates to a participant and alternate payee whether a domestic relations order qualifies as a plan approved domestic relations order.

10. "Determination period" means the ninety-day period in which the plan must review a domestic relations order that is submitted by a participant or alternate payee to determine whether the domestic relations order qualifies as a plan approved domestic relations order, calculated from the time the plan mails a notice of receipt to the participant and alternate payee.

11. "Direct rollover" means a payment by the plan to an eligible retirement plan that is specified by the distributee.

12. "Distributee" means a member, a member's surviving spouse or a member's spouse or former spouse who is the alternate payee under a plan approved domestic relations order.

13. "Domestic relations order" means an order of a court of this state that is made pursuant to the domestic relations laws of this state and that creates or recognizes the existence of an alternate payee's right to, or assigns to an alternate payee the right to, receive a portion of the benefits payable to a participant.

14. "Effective date of participation" means August 7, 1985, except with respect to employers and their elected officials whose contributions to the plan commence after that date, in which case the effective date of their participation in the plan is specified in the applicable joinder agreement.

15. "Elected official" means:

(a) Every elected official of this state.

(b) Every elected official of each county of this state.

(d) every judge of the court of appeals, .

(e) every judge of the superior court.

(f) and every full‑time superior court commissioner who is a member of the plan before July 1 of the first fiscal year after the social security administration approves the inclusion of superior court commissioners on this state's section 218 agreement, except full‑time superior court commissioners who failed to make a timely election of membership under the judges' retirement plan, repealed on August 7, 1985.

(g) (d) The administrator of the board if the administrator is a natural person but only if the administrator is employed by the board before January 1, 2012.

(h) (e) Each elected official of an incorporated city or town whose employer has executed a proper joinder agreement for coverage of its elected officials.

16. "Eligible child" means an unmarried child of a deceased active or retired member who meets one of the following qualifications:

(a) Is under eighteen years of age.

(b) Is at least eighteen years of age and under twenty‑three years of age only during any period that the child is a full‑time student.

(c) Is under a disability that began before the child attained twenty‑three years of age and remains a dependent of the surviving spouse or guardian.

17. "Eligible retirement plan" means any of the following that accepts a distributee's eligible rollover distribution:

(a) An individual retirement account described in section 408(a) of the internal revenue code.

(b) An individual retirement annuity described in section 408(b) of the internal revenue code.

(d) A qualified trust described in section 401(a) of the internal revenue code.

(e) An annuity contract described in section 403(b) of the internal revenue code.

(f) An eligible deferred compensation plan described in section 457(b) of the internal revenue code that is maintained by a state, a political subdivision of a state or any agency or instrumentality of a state or a political subdivision of a state and that agrees to separately account for amounts transferred into the eligible deferred compensation plan from this plan.

18. "Eligible rollover distribution" means a payment to a distributee, but does not include any of the following:

(a) Any distribution that is one of a series of substantially equal periodic payments made not less frequently than annually for the life or life expectancy of the member or the joint lives or joint life expectancies of the member and the member's beneficiary or for a specified period of ten years or more.

(b) Any distribution to the extent the distribution is required under section 401(a)(9) of the internal revenue code.

19. "Employer" means a department, agency or political subdivision of this state that makes employer contributions to the plan pursuant to section 38‑810 on behalf of an elected official who participates in the plan.

20. "Fund" means the elected officials' retirement plan fund.

21. "Notice of receipt" means a written document that is issued by the plan to a participant and alternate payee and that states that the plan has received a domestic relations order and a request for a determination that the domestic relations order is a plan approved domestic relations order.

22. "Participant" means a member who is subject to a domestic relations order.

23. "Participant's portion" means benefits that are payable to a participant pursuant to a plan approved domestic relations order.

24. "Pension" means a series of monthly payments to a person who is entitled to receive benefits under the plan.

25. "Personal representative" means the personal representative of a deceased alternate payee.

26. "Plan" means the elected officials' retirement plan.

27. "Plan approved domestic relations order" means a domestic relations order that the plan approves as meeting all the requirements for a plan approved domestic relations order as otherwise prescribed in this article.

28. "Retired member" means a person who is being paid a pension based on the person's credited service as a member of the plan.

29. "Segregated funds" means the amount of benefits that would currently be payable to an alternate payee pursuant to a domestic relations order under review by the plan, or a domestic relations order submitted to the plan that failed to qualify as a plan approved domestic relations order, if the domestic relations order were determined to be a plan approved domestic relations order.

30. "System" means the public safety personnel retirement system. END_STATUTE