2021 Vermont Statutes
Title 3 - Executive
Chapter 16 - Vermont Employees' Retirement System
§ 479a. State Employees' Postemployment Benefits Trust Fund
§ 479a. State Employees' Postemployment Benefits Trust Fund
(a) A "State Employees' Postemployment Benefits Trust Fund" (Benefits Fund) is hereby created for the purpose of accumulating and providing reserves to support retiree postemployment benefits for members, and to make distributions from the Benefits Fund for current and future postemployment benefits for retirees of the Vermont State Employees' Retirement System, excluding pensions and benefits otherwise appropriated by statute and for the payment of reasonable and proper expenses of administering the Benefits Fund and related benefit plans. The Benefits Fund shall not be part of the Retirement System but is intended to comply with and be a tax-exempt governmental trust under Section 115 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.
(b) Into the Benefits Fund shall be deposited:
(1) all assets remitted to the State as a subsidy on behalf of the members of the Vermont State Employees' Retirement System for employer-sponsored qualified prescription drug plans pursuant to the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, except that any subsidy received from an Employer Group Waiver Program is not subject to this requirement;
(2) any appropriations by the General Assembly for the purposes of paying current and future retiree postemployment benefits for members of the Vermont State Employees' Retirement System; and
(3) amounts contributed or otherwise made available by members of the System or their beneficiaries for the purpose of paying current or future postemployment benefits costs.
(c) The Benefits Fund shall be administered by the State Treasurer. The Treasurer may invest monies in the Benefits Fund in accordance with the provisions of 32 V.S.A. § 434 or, in the alternative, may enter into an agreement with the Commission to invest such monies in accordance with the standards of care established by the prudent investor rule under 14A V.S.A. § 902, in a manner similar to the Committee's investment of retirements system monies. All balances in the Benefits Fund at the end of the fiscal year shall be carried forward. Interest earned shall remain in the Benefits Fund. The Treasurer's annual financial report to the Governor and the General Assembly shall contain an accounting of receipts, disbursements, and earnings of the Benefits Fund.
(d) All funds of the Benefits Fund shall be held in one or more trusts, custodial accounts treated as trusts, or a combination thereof. Contributions to the Benefits Fund shall be irrevocable, and it shall be impossible at any time prior to the satisfaction of all liabilities, with respect to employees and their beneficiaries, for any part of the corpus or income of the Benefits Fund to be used for or diverted to purposes other than the payment of retiree postemployment benefits to members and their beneficiaries and reasonable expenses of administering the Benefits Fund and related benefit plans. (Added 2005, No. 215 (Adj. Sess.), § 278; amended 2007, No. 13, § 16; 2009, No. 24, § 4b; 2013, No. 179 (Adj. Sess.), § E.133.1; 2019, No. 120 (Adj. Sess.), § A.12, eff. June 30, 2020.)
