SB 76 West Virginia Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Increasing WV Natural Resources Police Officer Retirement System accrued benefit for certain members

This bill increases retirement benefits for West Virginia Natural Resources Police Officers who retire on or after January 1, 2028. It changes the calculation for "accrued benefit" from 2.5% to 2.75% of an officer's final average salary multiplied by years of service. This adjustment directly affects officers retiring after 2027, providing a slightly higher monthly pension amount compared to previous retirement dates. The change applies to the Natural Resources Police Officer Retirement System under existing code sections.
Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Mar 2025
Senate Passage
Mar 2025
House of Delegates Passage
Governor
Introduced Feb 12, 2025 Last action Mar 24, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version Committee Substitute · 4 edits
MODERATE
This bill amends the West Virginia Natural Resources Police Officer Retirement System to increase accrued benefits for officers retiring on or after January 1, 2028, and establishes a new funding mechanism. The changes include adding new definitions for retirement terms, increasing the retirement benefit percentage from 2.25% to 2.75% for qualifying retirees, and creating a $850,000 annual funding contribution from the Division of Natural Resources through 2030.
Scope change
The bill expands the retirement benefit structure for Natural Resources Police Officers, specifically targeting those retiring on or after January 1, 2028, while maintaining existing benefits for earlier retirees.
FISCAL

Added a new funding requirement where the Division of Natural Resources must contribute $850,000 annually to the retirement fund from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2030.

BENEFITS

Increased the accrued benefit percentage for officers retiring on or after January 1, 2028 from 2.25% to 2.75% of final average salary multiplied by years of credited service.

DEFINITION

Added numerous new definitions including 'Dependent parent', 'Director', 'Disability service', 'Effective date', 'Employer error', 'Final average salary', 'Fund', 'Hour of service', 'Medical examination', 'Member', 'Monthly salary', 'Natural Resources Police Officer', 'Normal form', 'Normal retirement age', 'Partially disabled', 'Plan', 'Plan year', 'Public Employees Retirement System', 'Qualified public safety employee', 'Regular interest', 'Required beginning date', 'Retirant', 'Retire', 'Retirement income payments', 'Substantial gainful employment', 'Surviving spouse', 'Totally disabled', and 'Year of service'.

REQUIREMENT

Added specific requirements for concurrent employment contributions and clarified employer contribution amounts to be annually reviewed and actuarially set by the board.

Floor votes · Senate Mar 21, 2025

How they voted

330
Passed
Total votes 33
Mar 21, 2025
D Democratic2
2 Yea
100% Yea
R Republican31
31 Yea
100% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
19
Key actions
3
Committee
5
Mar 24, 2025
Committee
To House Finance
lower
Mar 24, 2025
Committee
To Finance
lower
Mar 24, 2025
Introduced
Introduced in House
lower
Mar 21, 2025
Upper · Passed
Passed Senate (Roll No. 146)
upper
Mar 18, 2025
Upper · Passed
Reported do pass
upper
Mar 4, 2025
Committee
To Finance
upper
Mar 4, 2025
Upper · Passed
Committee substitute reported, but first to Finance
upper
Feb 12, 2025
Introduced
Introduced in Senate
upper
1 primary · 3 co-sponsors

Sponsors