Bill Text: MI HB5370 | 2009-2010 | 95th Legislature | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Public employees and officers; compensation and benefits; health coverage for surviving spouse and dependents of a public safety officer who dies in the line of duty; clarify. Amends title & sec. 2 of 2004 PA 46 (MCL 28.632) & adds sec. 4a.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-09-16 - Printed Bill Filed 09/16/2009 [HB5370 Detail]

Download: Michigan-2009-HB5370-Introduced.html

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE BILL No. 5370

 

September 15, 2009, Introduced by Reps. Angerer, Neumann, Roy Schmidt, Geiss, Griffin, Gregory and Dean and referred to the Committee on Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs.

 

     A bill to amend 2004 PA 46, entitled

 

"Public safety officers benefit act,"

 

by amending the title and section 2 (MCL 28.632) and by adding

 

section 4a.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

 

TITLE

 

     An act to provide compensation and other benefits to the

 

spouse and dependents of public safety officers who are killed or

 

who are permanently and totally disabled in the line of duty; to

 

create the public safety officers benefit fund; to prescribe the

 

duties and responsibilities of certain state officers; and to make

 

an appropriation.

 

     Sec. 2. As used in this act:

 

     (a) "Commission" means the commission on law enforcement

 

standards created under the commission on law enforcement standards

 

act, 1965 PA 203, MCL 28.601 to 28.616.

 

     (b) "Dependent" means any individual who was substantially

 

reliant for support upon the income of the deceased public safety

 

officer.

 

     (c) "Direct and proximate" means that the antecedent event is

 

a substantial factor in the result.

 

     (d) "Emergency first responder" means an individual licensed

 

under section 20950 of the public health code, 1978 PA 368, MCL

 

333.20950.

 

     (e) (d) "Firefighter" means a regularly employed member of a

 

fire department of a city, county, township, village, state

 

university, or community college or a member of the department of

 

natural resources who is employed to fight fires. Firefighter

 

includes a volunteer member of a fire department.

 

     (f) (e) "Law enforcement officer" means an individual involved

 

in crime and juvenile delinquency control or reduction or

 

enforcement of the criminal law. Law enforcement officer includes

 

police, corrections, probation, parole, bailiffs, or other similar

 

court officers.

 

     (g) (f) "Line of duty" means either of the following:

 

     (i) Any action which that an officer whose primary function is

 

crime control or reduction, enforcement of the criminal law, or

 

suppression of fires is obligated or authorized by rule,

 

regulations, condition of employment or service, or law to perform,

 

including those social, ceremonial, or athletic functions to which

 

the officer is assigned, or for which the officer is compensated,

 

by the public agency he or she serves. For other officers, line of

 

duty means any action the officer is so obligated or authorized to

 

perform in the course or of controlling or reducing crime,

 

enforcing the criminal law, or suppressing fires.

 

     (ii) Any action which that an officially recognized or

 

designated public employee member of a rescue squad or ambulance

 

crew is obligated or authorized by rule, regulation, condition of

 

employment or service, or law to perform.

 

     (h) (g) "Member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew" means an

 

officially recognized or designated employee or volunteer member of

 

a rescue squad or ambulance crew.

 

     (i) (h) "Permanent and total disability" means medically

 

determinable consequences of a catastrophic, line-of-duty injury

 

that permanently prevent a former public safety officer from

 

performing any gainful work.

 

     (j) (i) "Public safety officer" means any individual serving a

 

public agency in an official capacity, with or without

 

compensation, as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency

 

first responder, rescue squad member, or ambulance crew member.

 

     (k) (j) "Surviving spouse" means the husband or wife of the

 

deceased officer at the time of the officer's death, and includes a

 

spouse living apart from the officer at the time of the officer's

 

death for any reason.

 

     Sec. 4a. (1) If a firefighter, law enforcement officer, or

 

emergency first responder dies in the line of duty on or after the

 

effective date of the amendatory act that added this section, the

 

state shall provide the surviving spouse and the decedent's

 

dependents with health coverage comparable to, and on comparable

 

terms with, the health coverage the decedent received from any

 

source at the time of his or her death. Coverage provided under

 

this section shall end for a spouse if he or she qualifies for and

 

obtains comparable health coverage from another source. Coverage

 

provided under this section shall end for a nonspouse dependent

 

upon the occurrence of any of the following:

 

     (a) The dependent qualifies for and obtains comparable health

 

coverage from another source.

 

     (b) The later of the dependent's eighteenth birthday or, if he

 

or she is enrolled as a full-time student in high school or an

 

accredited university or college, his or her twenty-sixth birthday.

 

     (2) The state shall also provide health coverage on the terms

 

indicated in subsection (1) to the spouse and dependents of a law

 

enforcement officer who died in the line of duty between October 1,

 

2003 and August 1, 2007 and whose surviving spouse and dependent

 

health coverage was not continued by the public agency he or she

 

served.