Blank bill.

Directs the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to study the development and implementation of a statewide program that establishes the State as a model employer in the employment of individuals with disabilities. Sets three goals of the program: (1) increase disability inclusion and access to State agency employment, (2) specifically target an increase in employment of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities by state agencies, and (3) demonstrate to local government and private sector employers the viability and effectiveness of employing individuals with disabilities. Requires DHHS to consult with the Office of State Human Resources (OSHR) and solicit the input of key stakeholders in developing and implementing the program.

Requires DHHS, in consultation with the OSHR, to examine existing programs in other states and consider the feasibility of implementing a comprehensive program in North Carolina that contains one or more of seven specified components, including developing explicit reasonable workplace accommodation guidelines that include managing costs and providing a request process that encourages individuals with disabilities to apply for State employment and enabling data collection for evaluation and oversight of the State’s employment practices for hiring individuals with disabilities.

Requires DHHS, in consultation with the OSHR, to report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services on the results of the study and any legislative recommendations by December 1, 2018.

Amends GS 105-153.5(c)(7) to exclude from the calculation of an individual taxpayer's adjusted gross income funds withdrawn from the Parental Savings Trust Fund of the State Education Assistance Authority that were rolled over to an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account. Effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018.

Requires the ABLE Program Board of Trustees to report by December 1, 2018, to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services and the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on General Government on recommendations for changes to the ABLE Program Trust and its related statutes.

Amends GS 135-105, concerning the Disability Income Plan for teachers and state employees, providing that the allowable extended period of short-term disability benefits under the Plan is to be treated in the same manner as the long-term disability payments for purposes of calculating post disability benefit adjustments pursuant to GS 135-108.

Amends GS 128-27(e)(4), increasing the time by which a qualified member of the Retirement System for Counties, Cities, and Towns who is entitled to disability retirement benefits under subsections (d), (d1), (d2), (d3) (qualifications based on date of and age at retirement) must provide the Board of Trustees with an annual compensation statement from within 60 days to within 120 days of the request (the statement must be submitted annually on or before April 15) before the member's disability retirement benefit may be suspended. Decreases the time by which the beneficiary's right to the benefit may be terminated due to continued failure or refusal to provide the annual compensation information from 240 days to 180 days after the information is requested.

Amends GS 135-5 (concerning the Retirement System for Teachers and State Employees) and GS 128-27 (concerning the Retirement System for Counties, Cities, and Towns) directing the Board of Trustees of each System to exclude service earned through armed service credit under GS 135-4(f) or GS 135-4(g) and GS 128-26(a1) or GS 128-26(j1), respectively, in determining the member's accumulated contributions for all years during which the member earned service used in the calculation of the retirement allowance, as that allowance is used in determining the contribution-based benefit cap factor. Further amends both statutes, requiring the minimum average final compensation necessary for a retirement allowance to be subject to the contribution-based benefit cap to be increased on January 1 of each year by the percent change (if positive) between the June Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the year prior to retirement and the June CPI in the fiscal year most recently ended (previously, increased based on the percent change between the December CPI in the year prior to retirement and the December CPI in the year most recently ended).

Amends GS 135-53, prohibiting a member of the Consolidated Judicial Retirement System's retirement from becoming effective in any month in which the member performs work in a position covered by an Optional Retirement Program established under GS 135-5.1 (Program for UNC) or GS 135-5.4 (Program for State-funded community colleges).

Repeals GS 120-4.14, which sets forth rates for the purchase of prior service rendered before becoming a member of the Legislative Retirement System.

Repeals GS 135-48.23(d), which requires the Executive Administrator of the State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees to make quarterly reports and recommendations on the Plan to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and Speaker of the House.

Repeals GS 135-4(c), which requires the Board of Trustees of the Retirement System for Teachers and State Employees to verify member statements of creditable service filed pursuant to the statute for the preceding five years before the System became operative, and in lieu of verification of compensation rates for prior service received from members, use the average salary of members in the preceding five years as the records show before the System became operative.

Amends GS 135-6.1 (concerning the Retirement System for Teachers and State Employees) and GS 128-33.1 (concerning the Retirement System for Counties, Cities, and Towns), adding the names and mailing addresses of former local government employees to those that the Retirement Systems Division of the Department of State Treasurer can disclose to domiciled, nonprofit organizations representing 10,000 or more retired State government, local government, or public school employees. Effective July 22, 2016.

Amends GS 58-96-55(d1), concerning the payment of benefits when a member of the NC Firefighters' and Rescue Squad Workers' Fund is killed in the line of duty and the requirements of Article 12A of GS Chapter 143 (Law-Enforcement Officers', Firemen's, Rescue Squad Workers' and Civil Air Patrol Members' Death Benefits Act) have been met. Specifies that if the member had been receiving a monthly pension fund benefit prior to being killed in the line of duty, $175 must be paid monthly to the member's principal beneficiary if only one principal beneficiary is eligible and has not accepted a return of contributions (previously, did not specify the sole eligible principal beneficiary must not have accepted a return of contributions to receive the benefit), payable from the month following the member's death until the beneficiary's death. Similarly, specifies that if the member had not yet begun receiving a monthly benefit prior to being killed in the line of duty, $170 must be paid monthly to the member's principal beneficiary if only one principal beneficiary is eligible and has not accepted a return of contributions (previously, did not specify the sole eligible principal beneficiary must not have accepted a return of contributions to receive the benefit), payable the month following the month the member would have attained age 55, or if the member was already 55, the month following the member's death, until the beneficiary's death. Effective July 1, 2018.

Makes organizational changes to GS 135-1(20) concerning volunteer services not considered service or work as applicable to retirement as the term is defined and used in GS Chapter 135 (Retirement System For Teachers And State Employees). Expands and provides further clarification on the existing exclusions from service or work for purposes of the term retirement, to include in the exclusion serving on an authority, board, commission, committee, council, or other body of the State or one or more counties, cities, local school administrative units, community colleges, constituent institutions of the UNC System, or other political subdivisions of public corporations of the state authorized to function as a legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, or advisory body in a position that does not require membership in the Retirement System for Teachers and State Employees (previously, exclusions in this category applied to working as a member of a school board, board of trustees of a community college, board of trustees of any UNC constituent institution). Also modifies the exclusion for volunteer positions normally designated as an unpaid bona fide volunteer position, eliminating the qualifying language limiting these excluded positions to those held six months immediately following the effective date of retirement.

Amends GS 135-5(m2) (concerning the Retirement System for Teachers and State Employees) and GS 128-27(m2) (concerning the Retirement System for Counties, Cities, and Towns), eliminating the annual reporting requirement of each System's Board of Trustees to the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations on the number of persons who made an election in the preceding year along with any recommendations based on identified problems. 

Amends GS 128-28(g), which authorizes the Board of Trustees to establish rules and regulations for the administration of funds created by the Retirement System for Counties, Cities, and Towns, to more specifically reference Article 3, which creates the Retirement System, instead of GS Chapter 128, which more broadly concerns offices and public offices. 

Makes a technical correction to GS 128-30(j) to correctly reference the employer report required to be submitted to the Board of Trustees of the Retirement System for Counties, Cities, and Towns by GS 128-30(g)(2)b. instead of GS 135-8(f)(2)f (identical requirement but for the Retirement System for Teachers and State Employees).

Makes technical correction to GS 135-4(jj) to correctly reference the contribution-based benefit cap for the Retirement System for Teachers and State Employees established in GS 135-5(a3) instead of GS 128-27(a3) (identical cap but for the Retirement System for Counties, Cities, and Towns).

As title indicates.