Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

PRICEDANIEL A~ISTINaa.TXXAS ATTORNEY GENERA,. September 27, 1948 Hon. Gee. H. Sheppard Opinion’ .fto. V-692 Comptroller of Pub&lo Aoo@uuts Austin, Texns ,Re: Chiriae of Board of h?ustees of Riploj- eeb Ret&emeat System to Coq&rol$er to eq- able ttensfer of funds ,bJ Stite to the, Rm- Dear Sir: Your recent requert ror an opinion by this De- pertaent concmm the Mcrntion that must be contained in the eertifioate o$ t&0 Wal4 of Trrulteee of the $a- ployees Retirahent Spetem te the -#l&m to enable the transfer of fun& ae kW oe~tributla?4 the Stats to the Employees Retirsmnt Fund, Your 16 tf ,er contaI4ed’ the following: “The question has ari@bg in this DsprPt- sent as to whether the St&to Board of Trustees shall certify to the CemptreUer the total amount of the oompensation paid such members of the Retlreaent Syatrm, or whether the Comp- troller ie authorized to aooept the certificate of the State Board Of Trustbb8 lfW6h CePt iies the amount of emp1oJQoI ii** pbr ,oent (5$ re- tirement deductions repente&t?~tbb Retlreae;t Srsten for the payroll Or uj ivwi month. shall therefore thanlcyou .to a atVire~thtll ds- partme@ in the. oorreet pq6bduPb in the pre- misesa Sect$on 62(a), ktioto 16 OS t&Texas Const’l- tution, provtdes,’ In papt, a8 ?a~%ws: “The Legislature shall har~.~tlwrl ht to levy taxes to provide'a &tiF@!Wmt, 8is- 1 ability and Death-Compensation Pimd for the appointive officers and ompl6feer of'the estate; provided that the vlbuted Han rn (fee. H, Sheppard, page ~2 (V-692) undred aftd Eighty Dollars for any such person. (hphasis added through- out) Article 62284 of Vernonqs Civil Statutes was passed pursuant to the power @ahed in Seotlon 62, Apt- lcle 16 of the Constitution, papt of which iti quoted above o Peptinent p~oviaions of Article 6228a ape% each member to th ‘1. The ~plojoes Saving Fund. - The Employees Saving Fund shall be a fund in which shall be accumulated regulrr five pep cent (5$) contributions from the comepnsa- tlon members, lnoludlng ourrent intepeat earnings O ContPibutiona to and payment from the Employees Saving FIlnd shall be made as follows: “a. Begimiry on the date of the es- tablishment of the membership and full opera- tion of ‘the ftetirement gJ6tQm rein oreat- ed, which data should br tVe (2“t to thme (3) months subsequent to the enactmerit of the Retirement Law, eaoh DQpartment of the State shall came to be deduoted from the 8alaPJ of each member on each and every payroll of such department of the State for ba every pa~oll period, Sj.ve per cent ? 5sdoS HOR.Gee. II. Sheppard, Page 3 (V-692 1 his earnable compensation, provided that the sum of the deductions made for a member shall not exceed Cne Hundred and Eighty Bollars ($180) during any one (1) year. In deter- mining the amount earnable by a member in a payroll period, the State bard of Trushes may consider the rate of annual compensa- tion payable to such member on the first day of the payroll period as continuing throughout suoh payrell period, and it may omit deduot2onm from compensation for any period less than a full payroll period if an employee was not a member on the first day of the payroll period, OD The Department head of the Statebihili Gertsfy ts the State Board of Trustees on each and every payroll, or in such other manner aa said Board may pre- scribe, the amounts @a be deducted; and each or said amounls ahall be deduoted; ani when ddducted ~&all be paid into said lbrpleyees Saving Fund, e O e Y.ec, 8 11. Collectior or Contrlbutiens. “1. The collectlen es members0 oentri- butions shall be aa SellewsS “b. !i’he treasurer or bpopmr diebum- ing officer or each State &eprtmemt on authority from the department herd shall make deductions Srom aala&zis 0s the ela- ployees as ppovlded In this Act, and shall transmit monthly, OPat such time as the State Board of Trustees shall deoignate a certified copy of the paJl‘ol1 and the amount specified to be dbduoted Shall bs paid tb the Employees Sivlngs Fund OS the Employees Retirement System, aStar which the’ Executive Secretary of the Board ef TrrtN6 shall m&Pea rEN#d as all re- ceipts and turn payments over to the Treae- urer of the State of Texas and by him be credited to the Employees Saving Fad, o o o '2, ‘The collection of the State’s contributions shall be made as Sollews: Hon. Gee. H, Sheppard, paue 4 (V-692) “a* From and after the date of the establishment ef the membership and full operation of the Retirement System creat- ed by this Act takes effect, there is here- by allocated and rpproprieted’tothe Rm- plogees Retirement System of Texas, in ac- cordance with this Act, from the several funds from which the employeea benefited by this Act; receive their reepectiv sal- aries, a mm equal to five per cent %55) of the total oompmsatien paid to the said respective emplo ees who are members of said Retirement 13ystem and whese compenea- “d. For the purpose of computing the total amount of the compensation of From the provisions of the Constitution above set out, it Is apparent that a matching of contributions’ by the State of those made by,empleyees to the Employees Retirement System was intended. Bo one will doubt t&t the intention or the Legislature In the enacting of Arti- cle6228a, Vernonqs Civil Statutes, was that of carry- ing into effect the provisions, and the intent manifest- ed therein, of Section 16a, Article 16 of the Censtltu- tion. Any system under which the State would contribute a different amount from that aontrlbuted by the employees would not be In accordance with the general scheme of the law. But a system under which the State contributes the same amount as the employees would definitely be with- Ron. (too. H. Sheppard, page 5 (V-690) in the intent manifested In the aenstltutional and leg- islative provisions. The proper amount to be transfer- red by the Comptroller to the Retirement Fund as the contributions of the State would be an aaount equal to the contributions of member employees, ao long as the contributions of member employees do not exceed five per cent (5%) of the compensation paid by the State to the Individual employees and shall in no one ear exceed the sum of One Hundred and Eighty Dollars ($I&) for any men- ber . There are instances where a literal compliance with the provisions made in aragraph a, Subsection 2 of Sec- tion 8B, of Artlale 622 8a would result in the violation of the constitutional provisions made in Seatlon 16a, Article 16 of our Constitution. For example, members of the Retirement System who are 70 years of age or older ana who have~been State employees for ten or more years do net contribute to the Retlrenmt Fund, Their pay, however, would be included in a ~ertlficate of the total amount of compensation paid to Retirement System members. Under the prorlsl#n3 of the paragraph of the Act above mentioned, th) Comptroller weold transfer an amount equal to 5s of such pay Into the Retirement Fund, the result be%blg a transfer of State mmey into the fund whea MI dontrlbution had been made by members of the Re- tirement System. A certificate of the State Boar e Trustees ef the amount of employees’ five peroent t5s f retire- ment deductions reported to the ReOirement System fW the payrell of any given month Is in eubetantlal aeqll- anob with the Act, and is more ef an sceurrte oertifloate or ract upon whlah the Comptroller aa11 rltieatthe trans- rer of State fads ceneonant with the legirlatlve in- tent than a certiriaate 0r the total amount of aonpen- satlen paid to Retirement System mdbe~rs. Suah a aon- struction Is a modifiaation or the literal meaning of the language used in paragraph a, Subeectlon’2 of SSC- tlon 8b of the Retirement Aat, ‘In order to carry out the intent of the Legielat@re &n a more logical manner. we are, therefore, ef the opinion that the Comptroller aan acaeBt the certificates of the Board of Trustees of the RetLrement System which aePtffy the ameuut ef employees1 fiti4 per cent (5s) deduotlene reported to the RotirBment System. Such certificates lay be rrrd a0 the baees rup makl.nE the aontributione of tha St8te to the Employeee Retirement Fund. Hon. Ooo. H. Sheppard, page 6 (V-692) The State Comptrsller Is authorized to accept the certificate of the Board of Trustees of the Employees Retirement Sys- tem which certifies the amount of the five per oent (5%) deductions from the. aompensa- tion of aembcr employees reported to the Retirement System. The Comptroller may use suah E certificate as the basis for making the contribution of the State to the Re- tirement Fund. Yours very truly, AmQluap ~BmRMa OF TEXAS cBK:Eli .