HOUSE BILL No. 5438

March 9, 2016, Introduced by Rep. Somerville and referred to the Committee on Financial Liability Reform.

 

     A bill to prescribe the compensation used to calculate pension

 

benefits for employees of certain public employers.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

 

     Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the

 

"public employee retirement benefit calculation act".

 

     Sec. 3. As used in this act:

 

     (a) "Base pay" means the remuneration paid to an employee on

 

account of the employee's service. Base pay does not include any of

 

the following:

 

     (i) Payment for overtime services.

 

     (ii) Remuneration paid instead of accumulated sick leave.

 

     (iii) Remuneration received as a bonus.

 

     (iv) Payment for accrued vacation pay.

 

     (v) One-time lump-sum payments.

 


     (vi) The cost of fringe benefits, including, but not limited

 

to, a medical benefit plan. As used in this subparagraph, "medical

 

benefit plan" means that term as defined in section 2 of the

 

publicly funded health insurance contribution act, 2011 PA 152, MCL

 

15.562.

 

     (vii) Remuneration paid for the specific purpose of increasing

 

the final average compensation.

 

     (b) "Member" means a member of a defined benefit plan under a

 

retirement system.

 

     (c) "Retirement system" means a retirement system established

 

by a political subdivision of this state. Retirement system does

 

not include a state unit as that term is defined in section 2 of

 

the public employee retirement benefit protection act, 2002 PA 100,

 

MCL 38.1682.

 

     Sec. 5. Except as otherwise provided in section 4p of the home

 

rule city act, 1909 PA 279, MCL 117.4p, beginning January 1, 2017,

 

for a political subdivision of this state that provides a defined

 

benefit plan as part of a retirement system for its employees, the

 

compensation used to calculate a pension benefit under the defined

 

benefit plan may only include base pay. The calculation using only

 

base pay required under this section does not apply to years of

 

service accrued before January 1, 2017. However, if a collective

 

bargaining agreement that is in effect on January 1, 2017 requires

 

that the compensation used to calculate a pension benefit includes

 

more than base pay, the compensation used to calculate the pension

 

benefit of a member subject to the collective bargaining agreement

 

is the compensation provided in the collective bargaining agreement


until the collective bargaining agreement expires or is

 

renegotiated.