104.370. General assembly members entitled to normal annuity, requirements, limitation--election to state office, effect--certain members entitled to creditable prior service--former members as specia
General assembly members entitled to normal annuity, requirements,limitation--election to state office, effect--certainmembers entitled to creditable prior service--former members asspecial consultants, compensation--elected county officials, priorservice.
104.370. 1. Any member of the general assembly who has served atleast three full biennial assemblies as a member of the general assemblyand who meets the conditions for retirement at or after the member's normalretirement age shall be entitled to a normal annuity in a monthly amountequal to one hundred fifty dollars multiplied by the number of biennialassemblies in which such member has served. For the purpose of calculatingbenefits due under this subsection:
(1) Service in any portion of a biennial assembly after service in atleast three biennial assemblies shall be credited as service in a fullbiennial assembly; and
(2) Any person who is elected as a member of the general assembly ata special election and who serves the remainder of that term to which hewas elected at such special election shall receive credit for a fullbiennial assembly for such service.
2. If a member of either retirement system established by thischapter, who has served at least three full biennial assemblies as a memberof the general assembly, is elected to a state office, appointed to a stateoffice, or employed by the state before, after, or before and after hisservice as a member of the general assembly, the member may, at the end ofsuch employment, receive upon retirement, at or after the member's normalretirement age, the amount which shall be due the member for creditableservice as a member of the general assembly. If he has not fully vested asa result of his employment as other than a member of the general assembly,he shall be credited with additional service as a legislator just as thoughall of the service combined had in fact been rendered as a member of thegeneral assembly and receive a normal annuity. If the member retiresbefore normal retirement age, the member shall receive the actuarialreduction approved by the board. Nothing in this section shall allow anymember to simultaneously accumulate service in more than one stateretirement system as a member of the general assembly and an employee orstate officer; provided that, any member who otherwise would accruesimultaneous creditable service as a member of the general assembly and asan employee or state officer may elect prior to retirement to receive suchsimultaneous creditable service in the state retirement plan that coveredthe member's service as an employee or state officer in lieu of receivingsuch creditable service as a member of the general assembly pursuant tosubdivision (1) of subsection 1 of this section. Any member who makes suchelection shall receive creditable service for the member's remaininglegislative service equal to the pro rata portion of the biennial assemblyactually served by such member. The provisions of this subsectionproviding an election with regard to simultaneous creditable service shallapply to any member of the general assembly who is employed on or afterAugust 28, 2003, or any former member of the general assembly who isemployed as an employee or state officer on or after August 28, 2003. Theterm "state officer" as used in this subsection includes a statewideelected official as described in section 104.371, an administrative lawjudge or legal advisor as defined in section 287.812, RSMo, or a judge asdefined in section 476.515, RSMo.
3. A member who has fully vested as a state officer or employee andhas service as a member of the general assembly of less than three fullbiennial assemblies, upon retirement, at or after the member's normalretirement age, shall be credited with additional service as a stateofficer or employee for the time he served as a member of the generalassembly. If the member retires before normal retirement age, he shallreceive the actuarial reduction approved by the board.
4. Any member of the general assembly who has served at least threefull biennial assemblies and whose service as such terminates on or afterOctober 1, 1984, and who served as an employee, as that term is defined insection 104.010, prior to the respective dates on which the retirementsystems to which such sections apply originally became effective, but wasnot such an employee on such dates, shall be entitled to the creditableprior service that such employee would have been entitled to in either orboth systems had such employee become a member on the date of inception ofeither or both systems. The maximum number of years of creditable priorservice to which a member may become entitled pursuant to this section isless than ten years. The benefits attributable to such service shall becalculated as if all service was rendered as a member of the generalassembly.
5. Any former member of the general assembly who is receivingbenefits under the provisions of this section shall, upon written requestto the board, be made, constituted, appointed and employed by the board asa special consultant on the problems of retirement and other relatedmatters and shall upon request of the board give opinions in writing ororally in response to such requests. As compensation for such services,the retired member shall have his retirement benefits recalculated thefirst of the month next following his application under this subsection toreflect that any portion of a year of creditable service shall be countedas one full biennial session.
6. Any retired member who is receiving benefits from the system andis elected to the general assembly but does not serve at least threebiennial sessions shall receive creditable service for the time he servedin the general assembly and upon leaving the general assembly shall have anadditional benefit calculated using such service.
7. Benefits paid for service credited to legislative service shall befunded as provided in section 104.436.
8. Any former member of the general assembly not retired on August28, 1994, who is fifty-five years of age or more and who has creditableservice in the general assembly of at least three full biennial assembliesand has not used such services as creditable services in any otherretirement system shall be made and employed by the board as a specialconsultant on the problems related to retirement and shall, when requestedby the board, give opinions either written or orally on such problems. Ascompensation for such duties the former member of the general assemblyshall be entitled to retire with a normal annuity effective the first ofthe month following receipt by the board of a written application.
9. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, any active memberof the Missouri state employees' retirement system who is vested, on August28, 1994, under the provisions of subsection 1 of this section, and who hasserved as an elected county official and who, by virtue of such service wasa member of a retirement system other than the Missouri state employees'retirement system but was not vested in such other retirement system, orwas not a member of any retirement system, shall receive creditable priorservice in the Missouri state employees' retirement system for suchprevious service as an elected county official.
(L. 1981 H.B. 835, et al., A.L. 1984 H.B. 1370, A.L. 1985 H.B. 790, A.L. 1986 H.B. 1496, A.L. 1988 H.B. 1643 & 1399, A.L. 1988 H.B. 1100, et al., A.L. 1989 H.B. 674, A.L. 1992 S.B. 499, et al., A.L. 1993 S.B. 126, A.L. 1994 H.B. 1149, A.L. 2003 S.B. 248, et al.)(1994) Where former state legislator sued state retirement system for denial of benefits for period from date he reached the age for eligibility for legislative retirement until time he retired from circuit judge position. Former legislator was ineligible under statute until his retirement from circuit judge position. Former members of general assembly are ineligible for retirement benefit during any period which they are serving as elected or appointed stated officers. Geary v. Missouri State Employees' Retirement System, 878 S.W.2d 918 (Mo.App.W.D.).