Bill Text: NJ A3930 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Permits service credit in Prosecutors Part of PERS for judicial clerk service.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-04 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee [A3930 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A3930-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman ANNETTE QUIJANO
District 20 (Union)
SYNOPSIS
Permits service credit in Prosecutors Part of PERS for judicial clerk service.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning certain service credit for certain members of the Prosecutors Part of the Public Employees' Retirement System and amending P.L.2001, c.366.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 2 of P.L.2001, c.366 (C.43:15A-156) is amended to read as follows:
2. a. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, prosecutors shall be members of the Prosecutors Part, established pursuant to P.L.2001, c.366 (C.43:15A-155 et seq.), of the Public Employees' Retirement System, established pursuant to P.L.1954, c.84 (C.43:15A-1 et seq.), and shall be subject to the same membership and benefit provisions as State employees, except as provided by P.L.2001, c.366. Membership in the retirement system shall be a condition of employment for service as a prosecutor. Any service credit which has been established in the Public Employees' Retirement System prior to the effective date of this act, P.L.2021, c.226, shall be established in the Prosecutors Part without further assessment of cost to the prosecutor; provided, however, any service credit which has been established in the Public Employees' Retirement System and the Judicial Retirement System not deferred pursuant to section 1 of P.L.2019, c.287 (C.43:6A-11.1) by a member of the retirement system in any position prior to service as a county prosecutor, nominated and appointed pursuant to Article VII, Section II, paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, shall be established in the Prosecutors Part without further assessment of cost to the prosecutor.
Any county prosecutor, nominated and appointed pursuant to Article VII, Section II, paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution before or after the effective date of P.L. , c. (pending before the Legislature as this bill), who purchases, after appointment as a county prosecutor, credit for service as a law clerk to a judge of the New Jersey Superior Court or justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court in the same manner and subject to the same terms and conditions provided for the purchase of previous membership service by section 8 of P.L.1954, c.84 (C.43:15A-8) shall have that service established in the Prosecutors Part.
Any county prosecutor or acting county prosecutor enrolled in the Defined Contribution Retirement Program as a county prosecutor or acting county prosecutor shall be eligible for service credit in the Prosecutors Part, except that the county prosecutor or acting county prosecutor shall first pay the amount equivalent to that amount contributed pursuant to section 3 of P.L.2007, c.92 (C.43:15C-3) during each fiscal year of membership in the Defined Contribution Retirement Program to be credited.
b. All outstanding obligations, such as loans, purchases and other arrearage, shall be satisfied by a prosecutor as previously scheduled for payment to the Public Employees' Retirement System.
(cf: P.L.2021, c.226, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill allows a county prosecutor, nominated and appointed pursuant to the State Constitution, to receive credit in the Prosecutors Part of the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) for service as a judicial law clerk in a State Court if the county prosecutor purchases credit for that service after being appointed to serve as a county prosecutor. Under current law, such a purchase after appointment is not recognized as service credit in the Prosecutors Part.
