An affiliated public employer that assumes a firefighting function previously provided by the United States department of energy may, at the time of the assumption of the firefighting function, provide credited service for retirement board purposes to any employees who were previously employed by a firefighting unit of the United States department of energy at the Los Alamos area office in connection with the assumed firefighting function or were previously employed as security inspectors in a protective force of the United States department of energy at the Los Alamos area office. The credited service may be provided by the affiliated public employer subject to the following conditions:

A. the employee shall pay to the retirement board the difference between the actuarial present value of association benefits likely to be paid the employee computed with and without the United States department of energy service;

B. the employee, within one year of the assumption of the governmental function, irrevocably forfeits all rights based upon employee contributions in and to the immediate vested or nonvested retirement benefits under the retirement program of the United States department of energy in which the employee was participating immediately prior to the assumption of the governmental function;

C. the payments made under Subsections A and B of this section shall be made in a lump sum. The employee may purchase service credit equivalent to the employee's service in a firefighting unit of the United States department of energy at the Los Alamos area office or as a security inspector or in a protective force of the United States department of energy at the Los Alamos area office. The employee shall make a written election concerning payment and payment shall be made not later than December 1, 1998, and any election made thereafter shall be void; and

D. the amount of service credit purchased pursuant to this section shall not exceed five years.

History: Laws 1993, ch. 29, § 1; 1994, ch. 128, § 16; 1998, ch. 18, § 1.

The 1998 amendment, effective July 1, 1998, subject to the contingency described in the Compiler's Notes, substituted "department of energy" for "government" throughout the section; in the introductory paragraph, substituted "department of energy at the Los Alamos area office" for "government" and inserted the language beginning with "or were previously employed" at the end of the first sentence; deleted "public employees" preceding "retirement" in Subsection A; in Subsection C, deleted the language beginning with "or by entering into an installment" following "lump sum" at the end of the first sentence and inserted the language beginning with "at the Los Alamos area office" in the second sentence, inserted "and payment shall be made" and substituted "1998" for "1996" following "December 1," in the last sentence; added Subsection D; and made minor stylistic changes throughout the section.

Compiler's notes. — Laws 1998, ch. 18, § 2 provided that the act shall become effective July 1, 1998, unless the public employees retirement association receives an unfavorable ruling relating to its provisions from the internal revenue service. As no tax ruling was requested or received by the state prior to July 1, 1998, this section was set out as amended by Laws 1998, ch. 18, § 1.

The 1994 amendment, effective May 18, 1994, amended Subsection C to substitute "1996" for "1993" in the third sentence and made minor stylistic changes.