Amends GS 120-32.01(c) to prohibit including tax records and tax-related documents of members and beneficiaries from being accessible via direct online read-only access to active and retired member information or records maintained by the Retirement Systems Division.
Amends GS 128-27(k), which provides for an increase in retirement allowances, granting exclusive authority to determine the feasibility of a postretirement increase in allowance to the discretion of the Board of Trustees. Permits the Board of Trustees to fund a cost-of-living increase in a specified percentage amount in any year regardless of any increase or decrease in the Consumer Price Index.
Under current law, subdivision (2) of GS 135-1(20) defines retirement as meaning the termination of employment and complete separation from active service without the express or implied intent or agreement to return to service. Amends GS 135-1(20) to provide that service in a state-funded educational attraction is not considered service for the purposes of subdivision (20).
Amends GS 128-30(d)(3) to delete language requiring that the length of the payment period for each employer be the same after the “accrued liability contributions” begin.
Amends GS 120-4.32 (legislative retirement system) to add payments to the State Health Plan as authorized deductions from a beneficiary’s retirement benefits. Provides that monthly deduction may be paid to the State Health Plan for the beneficiary or any dependent designated by the beneficiary. Also adds identical provisions regarding deductions of payments to the State Health Plan to GS 128-38.3 (retirement system for counties, cities, and towns), GS 135-18.8 (retirement system for teachers and state employees), and GS 135-75 (consolidated judicial retirement act).
Amends GS 135-106(b) regarding long-term disability benefits to add the requirement that eligibility for a long-term disability benefit is contingent upon the beneficiary having become a member prior to August 1, 2011, subject to five- and ten-year vesting requirements. Provides that solely for the purpose of conversion from long-term disability to service requirement, noncontributory creditable service granted while receiving disability benefits under Article 6 (Disability Income Plan of North Carolina) of GS Chapter 135 is deemed to be membership service with regards to a long-term disability beneficiary who became a member on or after August 1, 2011, and would ordinarily be ineligible for a retirement benefit without 10 years of membership service.
Amends GS 147-69.2(b)(8) to add the Retiree Health Benefit Fund to the entity collectively known as the Retirement Systems.
Effective July 1, 2012.