What's new?
Chapter 247, Public Laws of 1999
(IRS section 403(b) payments to be made by employers in 5 days)
Chapter 230, Public Laws of 1999 (retired members able
to be delegates to TPAF annual convention)
Chapter 132, Public Laws of 1999 (carrying loans into
retirement-PERS, TPAF, PFRS, SPRS, JRS)
Chapter 96, Public Laws of 1999(elected officials in PFRS)
Chapter 59, Public Laws of 1999 (retirement incentives
for local government consolidations)
Chapter 51, Public Laws of 1999 (exempts from coverage
under the Social Security Act service that is performed by students in the
employ of public schools, colleges, and universities)
Chapter 48, Public Laws of 1999 (local government retired
employee SHBP eligibility requirements)
Chapter 52, Public Laws of 1998 (Passaic County ERS)
Chapter 44, Public Laws of 1998 (health benefits for NJ
Commerce and Economic Growth Commission, aka Department of Commerce
and Economic Development)
Chapter 62, Public Laws of 1998 (PFRS members with alpha1-antitrypsin
deficiency)
Prior Fiscal Year's Legislation
Date Approved: October 15, 1999.
Effective Date: This act shall take effect on the 30th day after enactment (November 15, 1999).
Description: This law will impact State and local employers whose employees participate in Section 403(b) plans.
At present, certain public employers may allow an employee to agree to a reduction in salary for the purpose of investing in an annuity for the employee pursuant to section 403(b) of the federal Internal Revenue Code. This bill would amend existing law to require that amounts payable by an employer on behalf of an employee for any pay period will be transmitted on, and credited as of, the fifth business day after the date on which the employee is paid for that pay period. Its purpose is to avoid monetary loss to employees by ensuring prompt payments by employers.
Programs administered by the Division that will be affected by this law include the Supplemental Annuity Collective Trust 403(b) program, the Alternate Benefits Program (ABP), and the Additional Contributions Tax-Sheltered (ACTS) Program. The law has been interpreted to impact only voluntary member contributions under the ABP.
Prior to the enactment of this legislation, N.J.A.C. 17:1-2.37 allowed the State and local employers participating in the ABP to remit contributions within 45 days after the month in which employee contributions were withheld. Local employers remit employee contributions to the SACT 403(b) program by the 10th day following the month in which contributions were withheld. For the SACT program, State employee contributions are made on a bi-weekly basis and are invested in the general trust fund account within seven business days. Under this new law, members' accounts must be credited by the fifth business day after the date on which the employee is paid.
Employees of local boards of education may either participate in the SACT 403(b) program or a 403(b) plan administered by their employer. This new law impacts both arrangements.
Chapter 230, Public Law of 1999
Date Approved: October 4, 1999
Effective Date: This act takes effect immediately.
This law permits retired as well as active members of the Teachers' Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF) to serve as delegates to the TPAF annual convention.
The statute establishing the membership of the TPAF board of trustees provides that three of the board's seven members will be "active or retired members of the retirement system, elected by the membership or by the delegates elected for this purpose by the membership . . . in such manner as the board of trustees may prescribe" (N.J.S.A.18A:66-56). However, a regulation of the TPAF board of trustees (N.J.A.C.17:3-1.4e) does not allow retirees to be delegates and specifies that "delegates to the convention must be active members of the Fund". This law permits TPAF retirees to serve as delegates.
Chapter 132, Public Laws of 1999
Date Approved: June 25, 1999
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately.
This bill provides that any member of the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS), Teachers' Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF), Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS), State Police Retirement System (SPRS) and Judicial Retirement System (JRS) who retires with an outstanding loan will repay the loan through deductions from the retirement benefit payments in the same monthly amount that was deducted from the member's compensation immediately before retirement until the balance of the loan together with the interest is repaid. At present, only members retiring on a disability pension or for the medical illness or disability can repay loans in this fashion.
If the retiree dies before the loan with interest is repaid, the remaining loan balance will be repaid from the proceeds of any other benefits payable on the account of the retiree either in the form of monthly payments due to the beneficiaries or in the form of lump sum payments payable for the pension or group life insurance.
Chapter 96, Public Law of 1999
Date Approved: May 3, 1999
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately.
This bill permits a member of the Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS) to retire while holding public office to which the member was elected and continue to receive a full salary for that office if the member's retirement allowance is not based solely on service in that public office. No PFRS contributions covering the continuing public office service will be required of the member.
Elected officials who are members of the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) are allowed to retire from PERS and remain in the office to which they are elected so long as the PERS retirement allowance is not based solely on service in that elected office. This bill offers the same option to elected officials enrolled in PFRS.
Chapter 59, Public Law of 1999
Date Approved: April 13, 1999
Effective Date: This act takes effect immediately.
This law authorizes municipalities, counties and other local units of government that enter into agreements to provide governmental services on a joint or consolidated basis, municipalities that join together to establish a new consolidated municipality, or school districts that have merged with one or more other school districts due solely to a municipal consolidation, to offer incentive programs for retirement or termination of employment for employees affected by the consolidation agreements.
The incentives that may be offered include: cash payments or the purchase of annuities; employer contributions to deferred compensation plans; employer-paid continuation after retirement of health benefits coverage for limited periods of time up to five years; employer-paid health benefits coverage after retirement for employees and dependents under the State Health Benefits Program or a local government employer's private carrier plan for employees who fail to meet the service requirement for payment for such coverage after retirement by no more than five years, but who are otherwise eligible for employer payment for health benefits coverage after retirement; or up to five years of additional service credit in State, county or municipal retirement systems.
An incentive program under the legislation must be approved by the Director of the Division of Local Government Services in the Department of Community Affairs. Approval requires a sufficient demonstration that the incentive program would result in a reduction in the number of employees and employment costs necessary to provide the affected governmental services. The Director of the Division of Pensions and Benefits is to provide information on the cost of the incentive program for the State retirement systems, and on the savings in employment costs, at no charge to the local units. Local units implementing incentive programs would be required to pay the costs for the incentives, and would be prohibited from increasing the number of employees to provide the affected governmental services for five years without the approval of the Director of the Division of Local Governmental Services. If a local unit violates this employment restriction, it would be required to reimburse the State for the costs of the actuarial work provided by the Division of Pensions and Benefits.
This law will implement Recommendation 2.5 of the September 16, 1998 report to the Governor by the Property Tax Commission.
Chapter 51, Public Law of 1999
Date Approved: March 30, 1999
Effective Date: This act takes effect immediately.
This law authorizes and directs the State Agency for Social Security (the New Jersey Department of the Treasury) to modify the Social Security coverage agreement between the State and the federal government to exclude from coverage under the Social Security Act service that is performed by students in the employ of public schools, colleges, and universities, when the students are enrolled and are regularly attending classes. Remuneration for service performed by such students is no longer be subject to either the Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance Act tax (currently 6.2% of the wage base) and the Medicare Part A payroll tax (currently 1.45% of all wages). Students attending and working at private colleges and universities are already excluded from these payroll taxes.
The Social Security Administration issued an explanation of a recently enacted federal law (P.L. 105-277) indicating that the exclusion for service performed by student employees may be implemented on a statewide basis provided there is authorization in state law to exclude such service coverage. This law provides that authorization.
The decision to exclude student employees from Social Security coverage would preclude them from membership in the Public Employees' Retirement System, if otherwise applicable.
Chapter 48, Public Laws of 1999
Date Approved: March 12, 1999
Effective Date: This act takes effect immediately.
This law changes the way local employers participating in the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) can provide post-retirement health benefit coverage to its retired employees.
It makes the age and service eligibility requirements for employer payment of SHBP health benefits coverage for retired employees the same as the requirements of N.J.S.40A:10-23 currently applicable to local government employers that do not participate in SHBP. The employer may, by filing a resolution with the Division, assume the cost of post retirement medical coverage for employees (and their dependents) who:
Further, the law provides that the employer payment obligations for retiree coverage may be determined by means of a collective negotiations agreement. With respect to employees for whom there is no majority representative for collective negotiations purposes, the employer may, in its sole discretion, determine the payment obligations for the employer and the employees, except that if there are collective negotiations agreements binding upon the employer for employees who are within the same community of interest as employees in a collective negotiations unit, the payment obligations shall be determined in a manner consistent with the terms of any collective negotiations agreement applicable to the collective negotiations unit. This provision applies to all local employers except an independent State authority, board, commission, corporation, agency or organization covered by C. 8, P.L. 1996, and school boards.
This law includes a grandfather provision which provides that the payment obligations of an employee for SHBP coverage in retirement shall be the payment obligations applicable to the employee on the date the employee retires on a disability pension or the date the employee meets the age and service requirements for employer payment for the coverage, as the case may be.
Date Approved: July 30, 1998
Effective Date: This act takes effect immediately and is retroactive to May 1, 1997.
This law provides that a member of the Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS) with at least 15 years of creditable service who becomes incapacitated as a result of alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency and dies prior to applying for ordinary disability retirement, will be deemed to be retired as of the date of the member's death if, on or before the 60th day following that date of death or the effective date of this law, whichever is later, the surviving beneficiary makes that request in writing to the board. Upon approval of the board, the request will become irrevocable and the survivors will receive all benefits due to survivors of an ordinary disability retiree of the retirement system; provided, however, that the surviving beneficiary repays to PFRS the member's aggregate contributions at the time of death which the surviving beneficiary received.
The law is retroactive to May 1, 1997.
Chapter 52, Public Law of 1998
Date Approved: July 10, 1998
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately.
Under prior law, if the members of the Employees' Retirement System (ERS) of Passaic County opt to join the Social Security system, the Passaic County ERS would be terminated and they would be forced to enroll in the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS).
This law would allow members of the Passaic County ERS to join the Social Security system without having their county fund terminated. The Passaic County ERS would be divided into two divisions, one composed of members who desire Social Security coverage and the other composed of members who do not want that coverage.
Chapter 44, Public Law of 1998
Date Approved: June 30, 1998
Effective Date: This act shall take effect sixty days after enactment, except that any appointment or any personnel activity consistent with the purposes of this act may be made prior to that date.
Generally, this act abolishes the Department of Commerce and Economic Development and creates the New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission.
The Commission is established in the Executive Branch of State government and the Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of the Commission is a cabinet level officer. The act allocates the Commission to the Department of the Treasury, but shall be independent of any supervision and control by Treasury.
Section 7 of the bill states that employees of the commission shall be enrolled in the Public Employees' Retirement System and shall be eligible to participate in the State Health Benefits Program. The commission could, however, elect to provide health benefits for its employees through private insurance policies, hospital and medical service corporations, health maintenance organizations, or any other manner available for the provision of health benefits, provided that the types of benefits shall not provide less coverage than those benefits provided to other State employees.