SB 1035 — Relating to Judges' Retirement System

WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE REGULAR SESSION IntroducedCommittee FISCALSubstitute for Senate Bill 1035 NOTEBY BySENATORS SenatorOLIVERI, OliverioWOELFEL, [IntroducedARCI,AND TAKUBO [Reported February 20,23, 2026;2026, from the Committee on Pensions] CS for SB 1035 A BILL to amend and reenact §51-9-6, §51-9-6a, and §51-9-6b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended;

referred to the Committee on Pensions;

and then to the Committee on Finance] Intr SB 1035 2026R4297 A BILL to amend and reenact §51-9-4, §51-9-6, §51-9-6a, and §51-9-6b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended;

suspending contribution of courts into judicial retirement system until certain condition met;

§51-9-4.

Required percentage contributions from salaries;

any termination of required contributions prior to actual retirement disallowed;

leased employees;

military service credit;

maximum allowable and qualified military service;

qualifiable prosecutorial service.

(a) Every person who is now serving or shall hereafter serve as a judge of any court of record of this state shall pay into the Judges' Retirement Fund six percent of the salary received by such person out of the State Treasury:

Provided, That when a judge becomes eligible to receive benefits from such trust fund by actual retirement, no further payment by him or her shall be required, since such employee contribution, in an equal treatment sense, ceases to be required in the other retirement systems of the state, also, only after actual retirement:

Provided, however, That on and after January 1, 1995, every person who is then serving or shall thereafter serve as a judge of any court of record in this state shall pay into the Judges' Retirement Fund nine percent of the salary received by that person:

Provided further, That consistent with the salary increase granted to judges of courts of record during the 2005 regular legislative session and to changes Intr SB 1035 2026R4297 effectuated in judicial retirement by provisions enacted during the third extraordinary legislative session of 2005, on and after July 1, 2005, every person who is then serving or shall thereafter serve as a judge of any court of record in this state shall pay into the Judges' Retirement Fund ten and one-half percent of the salary received by that person:

And provided further, That on and after July 1, 2013, except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, every person who is then serving or shall thereafter serve as a judge of any court of record in this state and who elects to participate in this retirement system shall pay into the Judges' Retirement Fund seven percent of the salary received.

Any prior occurrence or practice to the contrary, in any way allowing discontinuance of required employee contributions prior to actual retirement under this retirement system, is rejected as erroneous and contrary to legislative intent and as violative of required equal treatment and is hereby nullified and discontinued fully, with the State Auditor to require such contribution in every instance hereafter, except where no contributions are required to be made under any of the provisions of this article.

(b) On and after July 1, 2014, every person who is serving or shall hereafter serve as a judge of any court of record of this state and who elects to participate in this retirement system shall contribute to the fund an amount determined by the board.

This amount will be based on the annual actuarial valuation prepared by the State Actuary:

Provided, That the contribution will be no less than seven percent or no more than ten and one-half percent of the participant's annual compensation.

(c) On or after July 1, 2013, and each year thereafter, the annual actuarial valuation prepared by the State Actuary for determination of all participants' contributions and the annual actuarially required contribution prepared by the State Actuary for use by the courts of this state for legislative appropriation shall be provided to the Legislature's Joint Committee on Government and Finance and the Joint Committee on Pensions and Retirement:

Provided, That the responsibility of the courts to pay, deposit, or transfer the calculated contribution into the plan shall be placed on a contribution holiday until such time that the actual overfunded nature of the pension Intr SB 1035 2026R4297 fund has fallen below a rate of 150 percent.

(d) An individual who is a leased employee shall not be eligible to participate in the system.

For purposes of this system, a "leased employee" means any individual who performs services as an independent contractor or pursuant to an agreement with an employee leasing organization or other similar organization.

If a question arises regarding the status of an individual as a leased employee, the board has the final power to decide the question.

(e) In drawing warrants for the salary checks of judges, the State Auditor shall deduct from the amount of each such salary check six percent thereof, which amount so deducted shall be credited by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board to the trust fund:

Provided, That on or after January 1, 1995, the amount so deducted and credited shall be nine percent of each such salary check:

Provided, however, That consistent with the salary increase granted to judges of courts of record during the 2005 regular legislative session and to changes effectuated in judicial retirement by provisions enacted during the third extraordinary legislative session of 2005, on or after July 1, 2005, the amount so deducted and credited shall be ten 10 and one-half percent of each such salary check:

Provided further, That on and after July 1, 2013, except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, the amount so deducted and credited shall be seven percent of each salary check:

And provided further, That on and after July 1, 2014, the amount so deducted and credited will be determined by the board.

(f) Any judge seeking to qualify military service to be claimed as credited service, in allowable aggregate maximum amount up to five years, shall be entitled to be awarded the same without any required payment in respect thereof to the Judges' Retirement Fund.

(g) Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this section, contributions, benefits, and service credit with respect to qualified military service shall be provided in accordance with Section 414(u) of the Internal Revenue Code.

For purposes of this section, "qualified military service" has the same meaning as in Section 414(u) of the Internal Revenue Code.

The Retirement Board is authorized to determine all questions and make all decisions relating to this section and may Intr SB 1035 2026R4297 promulgate rules relating to contributions, benefits and service credit pursuant to the authority granted to the retirement board in section one, article ten-d, chapter five §5-10D-1 of this code to comply with Section 414(u) of the Internal Revenue Code.

(h) Any judge holding office as such on the effective date of the amendments to this article adopted by the Legislature at its 1987 regular session who seeks to qualify service as a prosecuting attorney as credited service, which service credit must have been earned prior to the year 1987, shall be required to pay into the Judges' Retirement Fund nine percent of the annual salary which was actually received by such person as prosecuting attorney during the time such prosecutorial service was rendered prior to the year 1987 and for which credited service is being sought, together with applicable interest.

No judge whose term of office shall commence after the effective date of such amendments to this article shall be eligible to claim any credit for service rendered as a prosecuting attorney as eligible service for retirement benefits under this article, nor shall any time served as a prosecutor after the year 1988 be considered as eligible service for any purposes of this article.

(a) Except as otherwise provided in sections§51-9-5, five,§51-9-6d, six-d,§51-9-12, twelve and thirteen§51-9-13 of this article,code, and subject to the provisions of subsection (e) of this section, any person who is now serving, or who shall hereafter serve, as a judge of any court of record of this state and shall have served as such judge for a period of not less than sixteen 16 full years and shall have reached the age of sixty-five 65 years, or who has served as judge of such court or of that court and other courts of record of the state for a period of sixteen 16 full years or more (whether continuously or not and whether said service be entirely before or after this article became effective, or partly before and partly after said date, and whether or not said judge shall be in office on the date he or she shall become eligible to benefits hereunder) and shall have reached the age of sixty-five 65 years, or who is now serving, or who shall hereafter serve, as a judge of any court of record of this state and shall have served as such judge for a period of not less than twenty-four 24 full years, regardless of Intr SB 1035 2026R4297 age, shall, upon a determination and certification of his or her eligibility as provided in section§51-9-9 nineof hereof,this code, be paid from the fund annual retirement benefits, so long as he or she shall live, in an amount equal to seventy-five 75 percent of the annual salary of the office from which he or she has retired based upon such salary of such office and as such salary may CS for SB 1035 be changed from time to time during the period of his or her retirement and the amount of his or her retirement benefits shall be based upon and be equal to seventy-five 75 percent of the highest annual salary of such office for any one calendar year during the period of his or her retirement and shall be payable in monthly installments:

And provided further, That any Justicejustice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, Intermediate Court of Appeals Judge,judge, Circuitcircuit Courtcourt Judge,judge, or Familyfamily Courtcourt Judgejudge in this state appointed or elected for the first time after July 1, 2005, shall be eligible for payment of benefits under this subsection.

(b) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article with the exception of sections twelve-a and twelve-b §51-9-12a and §51-9-12b of this code, any person who is now serving or who shall hereafter serve as a judge of any court of record of this state and who shall have accumulated sixteen 16 years or more of credited service, at least twelve 12 years of which is as a sitting judge of a court of record, and who has attained the age of sixty-two 62 years or more but less than the age of sixty-five 65 years, may elect to retire from his or her office and to receive the pension to which he or she would otherwise be entitled to receive at age sixty-five 65, but with an 5 Intr SB 1035 2026R4297 actuarial reduction of pension benefit to be established as a reduced annuity receivable throughout retirement:

Provided, That every individual who is appointed or elected for the first time as judge of a court of record of this state after July 1, 2005, who subsequently seeks to retire and to receive the annual retirement benefits provided by this subsection must have served a CS for SB 1035 minimum of fourteen 14 years as a sitting judge of any court of record.