Vermont Statutes Title 24 Sec. 5054a
Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 24 Sec. 5054a
- Accumulated contributions: means the sum of all the amounts deducted for Municipal Employees' Retirement System purposes from the compensation of a member with interest thereon, as provided in subsection 5063(b) of this title. See
- Board: means the Board of Trustees of the System provided for in section 5062 of this title to administer the System. See
- Creditable service: means that period of continuous service subsequent to an employee joining the System and prior to his or her termination of service, during which an employee makes contributions. See
- Employee: means the following persons employed on a regular basis by a school district or by a supervisory union for no fewer than 1,040 hours in a year and for no fewer than 30 hours a week for the school year, as defined in 16 V. See
- Employer: means a municipality, a library at least one-half of whose operating expenses are paid from municipal funds, or a supervisory union. See
- Member: means any employee included in the membership of the Retirement System under section 5053 of this title. See
- Municipality: means a city, town, county, incorporated village, fire district, consolidated water district, housing authority, union municipal district, school district, incorporated school district, union school district, or any of their instrumentalities. See
- Pension: means annual payments for life derived from contributions by the State and municipality. See
- Retirement: means withdrawal from active service with a retirement allowance granted under the provisions of this chapter. See
- Service: means service as an employee for which compensation is paid by an employer as defined in subdivision (11) of this section, service recognized under section 5054 of this title, or service prior to the effective date of the plan. See
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
- System: means the Municipal Employees' Retirement System of Vermont, as defined in section 5052 of this title. See
§ 5054a. Elective credits
(a) Any member may elect to have included in the member’s creditable service, years of service as an employee of another municipality, as a State employee, or as a teacher in a public or private school, as defined by the Board, and years of service in the defined contribution plan authorized under section 5070 of this title when the employee elects to transfer back to the defined benefit plan as a result of his or her employer offering a higher group plan. Any member who so elects shall deposit in the Fund by a single contribution the amount or amounts determined by the System‘s actuary to be cost neutral to the System. No application for credit under this subsection shall be granted if at the time of application, the member has a vested right to retirement benefits in another defined benefit retirement system based upon that service.
(b) Any member who has rendered 15 years of creditable service and who has, prior to becoming a member of the System, served a minimum of one full year of full-time service in the military or one full year of full-time service as a member of the Cadet Nurse Corps in World War II, the Peace Corps, VISTA, or AmeriCorps for which the member has derived no military pension benefits, may elect to have included in the member’s creditable service all or any part of the member’s military, Cadet Nurse Corps, Peace Corps, VISTA, or AmeriCorps service not exceeding five years. Any member who so elects shall deposit in the Fund by a single contribution the amount or amounts determined by the System’s actuary to be cost-neutral to the System. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event of a conflict between the provisions of this subsection and the provisions of 10 U.S.C. § 12736 concerning the counting of the same full-time military service toward both military and State pensions, the provisions of the U.S. Code shall control.
(c) Any time a member is required to make a single contribution in connection with an election under this section, a member may contribute over a maximum of five years in installments of equal value. Those contributions shall become a part of the member’s accumulated contributions. Any member who retires before completing payment for the purchase of service under this section shall receive pro rata credit for service purchased before the date of retirement, but if the member so elects at the time of retirement, the member may pay as much in a single sum as is necessary to provide full credit at that time. (Added 1999, No. 53, § 8b; amended 2001, No. 29, § 9; 2005, No. 197 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 2007, No. 13, § 40; 2009, No. 24, § 10; 2015, No. 18, § 8.)