Download as PDF
21.360 Election to participate -- Delayed election.
(1)
(2)
(a)
Each Judge of the District Court in office on July 1, 1978, may within thirty
(30) days after that date, and any judge or justice of any court entitled to
be a member thereafter taking office may within thirty (30) days after
taking office, elect to make monthly contributions to the retirement system
in an amount equal to:
1.
Five percent (5%) of his or her monthly official salary, if the judge or
justice became a member of the Kentucky Judicial Retirement Plan
prior to September 1, 2008;
2.
Six percent (6%) of his or her monthly official salary, if the judge or
justice became a member of the Kentucky Judicial Retirement Plan
on or after September 1, 2008, but prior to January 1, 2014; or
3.
Six percent (6%) of his or her monthly official salary, if the judge or
justice who becomes a member of the Kentucky Judicial Retirement
Plan on or after January 1, 2014, which shall be used to fund
benefits as follows:
a.
Five percent (5%) of the monthly official salary shall be used to
provide funding for benefits provided under KRS 21.402; and
b.
One percent (1%) of the monthly official salary to be used
exclusively to help fund retiree health benefits as provided by
KRS 21.427 and which shall not be refunded to the member if
the member withdraws his or her accumulated account
balance as provided by KRS 21.460. The deducted amounts
under this subdivision shall be credited to an account
established pursuant to 26 U.S.C. sec. 401(h), within the fund
established by KRS 21.347.
(b) The election shall be effective to establish membership in the system as
of July 1, 1978, or as of the date the judge or justice took office, as the
case may be. The election shall be addressed to and filed with the
secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet, and shall constitute
an authorization by the member, to the secretary, to thereafter cause to
be deducted from the member's official salary, each month, the amount
required by paragraph (a) of this subsection, as a voluntary contribution
by the member towards the funding of the retirement system. For a
member who began contributing to the Judicial Retirement Plan prior to
January 1, 2014, the contribution shall continue until the judge or justice is
vested in a service retirement allowance equal to one hundred percent
(100%) of final compensation. Thereafter employee contributions shall be
discontinued but continued service and retirement benefits shall not be
affected thereby.
A judge or justice entitled to elect membership in the retirement system who
failed to elect membership within thirty (30) days after taking office in 1980 or
who elected membership in the Kentucky Employees Retirement System may
elect membership not later than August 31, 2005. An election, upon being
made pursuant to this section, shall operate to create an inviolable contract
between the member entitled to elect membership under this subsection and
the Commonwealth, guaranteeing to and vesting in the member the rights and
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
benefits provided for under the terms and conditions of KRS 21.350 to 21.510.
(a) When any judge makes a delayed election of membership in the Judicial
Retirement Plan under subsection (2) of this section, his active
membership in the Kentucky Employees Retirement System shall
terminate, as of the date his membership in the Judicial Retirement Plan
becomes effective, and any credit in the Kentucky Employees Retirement
System, earned for service as a judge, which he then has or which he
subsequently regains while being an active member of the Judicial
Retirement Plan, shall be transferred to and counted as service credit in
the Judicial Retirement Plan, and shall no longer constitute credit in the
Kentucky Employees Retirement System, except for the purpose of
validating any other credit in that system, if the member pays the
difference, if any, between the amount transferred from the Kentucky
Employees Retirement System and the actuarial value of the transferred
service.
(b) Any credit he then has in the Kentucky Employees Retirement System,
earned for service in any capacity other than a judge, shall not be
affected. Notwithstanding any provisions of KRS 61.680 to the contrary,
final compensation used to determine benefits for any service credit
remaining in the Kentucky Employees Retirement System shall be based
on the highest years of compensation as a judge whether the years occur
before or after the judge elects membership in the Judicial Retirement
Plan.
(c) No person may attain credit in more than one (1) of the retirement plans
or systems mentioned in this section for the same period of service. When
credit is transferred from the Kentucky Employees Retirement System to
the Judicial Retirement Plan, the Kentucky Employees Retirement
System shall transfer to the Judicial Retirement Fund an amount equal to
the employee's and employer's contributions attributable to that credit,
together with interest on the contributions from the date made to the date
of transfer at the actuarially-assumed interest rate of the Kentucky
Employees Retirement System in effect at the time the contributions were
made, compounded annually at that same interest rate.
Membership and benefit rights for judges and justices (other than Judges of
the District Court), and for the commissioners and administrative director, who
took office prior to July 1, 1978, shall be dependent upon valid elections having
been made under this section (and KRS 21.355 and 21.365) prior to the 1978
amendment to this section. The terms of such elections, including the
contribution rate, shall continue to govern for the duration of the member's
service.
When any Judge of the District Court in office on July 1, 1978, elects
membership in the Judicial Retirement System in accordance with this section,
his membership in the Kentucky Employees Retirement System shall terminate
as of July 1, 1978, and any credit in that system he earned for service as a
Judge of the District Court shall be nullified; provided that the effect of such
service to validate any other service credit in that system shall not be nullified.
The state shall, solely for the purpose of compliance with Section 414(h) of the
(7)
United States Internal Revenue Code, pick up the employee contributions
required by this section for all compensation earned after August 1, 1982, and
the contributions so picked up shall be treated as employer contributions in
determining tax treatment under the United States Internal Revenue Code and
KRS 141.010(10). The picked-up employee contribution shall satisfy all
obligations to the retirement system satisfied prior to August 1, 1982, by the
employee contribution, and the picked-up employee contribution shall be in lieu
of an employee contribution. The state shall pay these picked-up employee
contributions from the same source of funds which is used to pay earnings to
the employee. The employee shall have no option to receive the contributed
amounts directly instead of having them paid by the employer to the system.
Employee contributions picked up after August 1, 1982, shall be treated for all
purposes of KRS 21.345 to 21.570 in the same manner and to the same extent
as employee contributions made prior to August 1, 1982.
An election once made under this section, either to participate or not to
participate in the Judicial Retirement Plan, shall be considered to apply, to all
future service in any office covered by the plan, whether such service is in the
same or a different office, and whether or not it is continuous.
Effective:July 1, 2013
History: Amended 2013 Ky. Acts ch. 120, sec. 20, effective July 1, 2013. -Amended 2008 (1st Extra. Sess.) Ky. Acts ch. 1, sec. 5, effective June 27, 2008.
-- Amended 2005 Ky. Acts ch. 86, sec. 6, effective June 20, 2005. -- Amended
1994 Ky. Acts ch. 266, sec. 6, effective July 15, 1994. -- Amended 1990 Ky.
Acts ch. 360, sec. 1, effective July 13, 1990; and ch. 476, Pt. VII D, sec. 642,
effective April 11, 1990. -- Amended 1984 Ky. Acts ch. 111, sec. 25, effective
July 13, 1984. -- Amended 1982 Ky. Acts ch. 166, sec. 5, effective July 15,
1982; and ch. 458, sec. 9, effective April 15, 1982. -- Amended 1978 Ky. Acts
ch. 193, sec. 3, effective July 1, 1978. -- Amended 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 74, Art, II,
sec. 9(2). -- Created 1960 Ky. Acts ch. 84, Art. II, sec. 2.
Disclaimer: These codes may not be the most recent version. Kentucky may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.