Section 11657 - County Employes' Retirement Fund; transfers between classes(a) There is hereby created in each county of the second class A, third class, fourth class, fifth class, sixth class, seventh class, and eighth class, in which a retirement system has been established, a County Employes' Retirement Fund which shall consist of all moneys arising from appropriations made by the county, from contributions made by the members of the County Employes' Retirement System and from pickup contributions and all interest earned by the investments of moneys of the fund. The moneys contributed by the county shall be credited to a county annuity reserve account; and those contributed by the members and pickup contributions shall be credited to a member's annuity reserve account. Upon the granting of a retirement allowance to any contributor, whether as a superannuation retirement allowance, an involuntary retirement allowance or a total disability retirement allowance, the amount of the contributor's accumulated deductions in the members' annuity reserve account shall lose their status as accumulated contributions and shall be transferred to a retired members' reserve account. Regular interest shall be credited up to the date of retirement, death or withdrawal, to the members' annuity and county annuity and retired members' reserve accounts. Where a contributor separates from county service with vesting, regular interest shall be credited to all accumulated deductions credited to his account in the fund to the date on which he attains his superannuation retirement age. The actuary shall determine the present value of the liability on account of all county annuities payable to original members and the percentage of such liability which shall be contributed by the county each year over a period of fifteen years from the time the system is established until the accumulated reserve equals the present value of said liability. All such contributions shall be credited to the county annuity reserve account. The actuary shall also determine the amount which shall be contributed by the county into the fund periodically for credit to the county annuity reserve account on account of service of all new and original members subsequent to the time the retirement system is established.(b) Each member of the retirement system shall be required to contribute to the fund such per cent of his salary determined as follows: | (1) | Class 1-120 | | 5% |
| (2) | Class 1-100 | | 6% |
| (3) | Class 1-80 | | 7% |
| (4) | Class 1-70 | | 8% |
| (5) | Class 1-60 | | 9% |
(c) The county may elect to contribute on behalf of each active member for current service the amount required by subsection (b) beginning the first Monday of January of the year in which the resolution to do so was adopted by the commissioners or, in counties operating under a home rule charter or optional plan, by the governing authority. Contributions made in accordance with this subsection shall be deemed "pickup contributions" and shall be treated as the county's contribution in determining tax treatment under the act of August 16, 1954, 68A Stat. 5, known as the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, for Federal tax purposes. For all other purposes pickup contributions shall be treated as contributions made by a member in the same manner and to the same extent as contributions made prior to the implementation of this subsection. The county on or before January 31 of each year shall, at the time when the income and withholding information required by law is furnished to each county employe, also furnish the amount of the pickup contribution made on the employe's behalf. Upon the effective date of the implementation of this subsection, the county shall pick up the required contributions by an equal reduction in the compensation of the member.(d) Each member may elect to contribute an additional amount not exceeding ten per cent more than the percentage herein required. The contributions shall be paid into the fund through payroll deductions in such manner as the board may require.(e) The board may at any time, by rule, authorize members of the retirement system, whether original or new members, to individually elect to reduce the contribution to any of the percentages required herein for any class lower than the class otherwise designated by the board as applicable to the retirement system to which the member belongs. Any such election shall in no way affect the calculation of the county annuity portion of the member's retirement allowance as provided in section 14, which county annuity portion shall be calculated as though the member had not made that election.(f) All contributions including optional additional payments by members shall be credited to the members' annuity reserve account.(g) The board may at any time, by rule, authorize members of the retirement system, whether original or new members, to transfer from the one-one hundred twentieth class, or from the one-one hundredth class, to the one-eightieth class, to the one-seventieth class, or to the one-sixtieth class. Whenever such transfers are authorized, salary deductions or pickup contributions applicable to the transferred members shall be based upon the per cent of salary deduction applicable while in each class, notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (e).(h)(1) This subsection applies to members of the retirement system who were employed by the county for any time period after December 31, 1971, and before January 1, 1997, and who transferred from a one-eightieth class to a one-sixtieth class on January 1, 1997.(2) The board may, by rule, authorize the one-sixtieth class to be applied retroactively to the employe's credit service or any portion thereof.(3) Whenever the board has, by rule, authorized the members of the retirement system to make a transfer described in this subsection, the county annuity shall be calculated in accordance with section 14(c) with the one-sixtieth class. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 14(c), if the board adopts the retroactivity provision in paragraph (2), the county annuity for all periods of service shall be calculated at the one-sixtieth class rate.(4) The board may adopt rules pursuant to this subsection until June 30, 2007.1971, Aug. 31, P.L. 398, No. 96, § 7. Amended 1983 , Dec. 20, P.L. 282, No. 75, § 2, imd. effective; 1990, Nov. 21, P.L. 551, No. 136, § 3, effective 1/1/1991; 2006, Nov. 29, P.L. 1560, No. 174, §1, effective in 60 days [ 1/29/2007].