Bill Text: NJ A3727 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Offers municipality with life guard pension fund choice in providing pension benefits to life guards.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-05-19 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee [A3727 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-A3727-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman DECLAN J. O'SCANLON, JR.
District 13 (Monmouth)
Assemblyman ERIK PETERSON
District 23 (Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren)
SYNOPSIS
Offers municipality with life guard pension fund choices in providing pension benefits to life guards.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning retirement benefits for the life guard force of certain municipalities and amending R.S.43:13-29.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. R.S.43:13-29 is amended to read as follows:
43:13-29. Management and control of fund; treasurer; investments; payments
a. The life guard pension commission shall have the management and control of the fund and may make all necessary rules and regulations not inconsistent with this article.
All moneys belonging to the fund shall be paid over to the city treasurer, who shall give bond in such amount, from time to time, as the governing body of the city determines. All moneys not needed for the immediate payment of the pensions shall be invested by the life guard pension commission in interest bearing bonds of the city or in other interest bearing securities in which savings banks of this state may invest their funds. No moneys shall be paid out of the fund by the treasurer except upon the warrant of the life guard pension commission, to be signed by such member or members of the commission as shall be designated by the commission.
b. (1) The governing body of a municipality that has established a pension fund for life guards pursuant to article 3 of chapter 13 of Title 43 of the Revised Statutes (C.43:13-23 through 43:13-29) may adopt an ordinance directing that the provisions of that article shall not apply to any person becoming a member of the life guard force subsequent to the passage of such ordinance.
(2) The governing body of a municipality that has established a pension fund for life guards pursuant to article 3 of chapter 13 of Title 43 of the Revised Statutes (C.43:13-23 through 43:13-29) may adopt an ordinance directing that the provisions of that article shall not apply to any person becoming a member of the life guard force subsequent to the passage of such ordinance and providing that the fund shall pay to a member of its life guard force not currently in receipt of a pension an amount equivalent to the accumulated deductions from the salary of that member pursuant to subsection a. of R.S.43:13-27 and that such member shall not be eligible for any pension benefit from the fund.
(3) The governing body of a municipality that has established a pension fund for life guards pursuant to article 3 of chapter 13 of Title 43 of the Revised Statutes (C.43:13-23 through 43:13-29) may adopt an ordinance terminating its pension fund for life guards.
Upon the termination of the pension fund, the rights of all members of the fund to benefits accrued to the date of the termination, to the extent then funded, are non-forfeitable. The termination and distribution of the corpus and income from the pension fund shall conform to the required termination and distribution provisions of the federal Internal Revenue Code and the regulations issued by the United States Department of the Treasury under that Code.
In accordance with the provisions of the federal Internal Revenue Code, and subject to such exceptions as may be permitted for governmental plans under the Code, at no time prior to the satisfaction of all liabilities with respect to members and their beneficiaries under the pension fund shall any part of the corpus or income of the respective retirement systems, within the taxable year or thereafter, be used for or diverted to purposes other than for the exclusive benefit of the members or their beneficiaries.
(cf: R.S.43:13-29)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
Current law requires a city of the fourth class to establish a pension fund for members of its life guard force. Cities of the fourth class are seaside or summer resort cities bordering on the Atlantic Ocean. The seven statutes governing these life guard pension funds were enacted in 1928 and last amended in 1936.
This bill provides that the governing body of a municipality that has established a pension fund for life guards, pursuant to N.J.S.A.43:13-23 through 43:13-29, may adopt an ordinance (1) directing that those provisions of the law will not apply to any person becoming a member of the life guard force subsequent to the passage of such ordinance, (2) directing that the provisions of the law will not apply to any person becoming a member of the life guard force subsequent to the passage of such ordinance and providing that the fund will pay to a member of its life guard force not currently in receipt of a pension an amount equivalent to the accumulated deductions from the salary of that member and that such member will not be eligible for any pension benefit from the fund, or (3) terminating the pension fund for life guards altogether.
The bill provides that upon termination of a pension fund for life guards, the rights of all members of the fund to benefits accrued to the date of the termination or discontinuance, to the extent then funded, are non-forfeitable, and the form and timing of all distributions from the fund will conform to the required distribution provisions of the federal Internal Revenue Code.
