SB 908

Under current law, certain people who receive a retirement or disability

annuity from the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) and who are hired by an

employer that participates in the WRS must suspend that annuity and may not

receive a WRS annuity payment until the person is no longer in a WRS-covered

position. This suspension applies to a person who 1) has reached his or her normal

retirement date; 2) is appointed to a position with a WRS-participating employer;

and 3) is expected to work at least two-thirds of what is considered full-time

employment by the Department of Employee Trust Funds.

This bill allows such a person, who is hired by a WRS employer as an employee

or to provide employee services, to not suspend his or her annuity for up to 60 months.

The bill also requires participating employers that hire such annuitants to make

payments to ETF equal to what they would have paid as required contributions for

each rehired annuitant if the rehired annuitant had suspended his or her annuity.

Under the bill, these payments are deposited in the employer reserve account.

If the person does not terminate the annuity and does not become an active

WRS-participating employee, in the case of state employment, the person is not

eligible for group insurance benefits provided to active WRS-participating

employees and may not use any of his or her service in the new position for any WRS

purposes. If the person opts to again become an active WRS-participating employee,

the person is eligible for all group insurance benefits provided to other participating

employees and may accumulate additional years of creditable service under the WRS

for the new period of WRS-covered employment.

The bill also repeals two obsolete provisions related to return to WRS-covered

employment by WRS annuitants during the public health emergency declared on

March 12, 2020, by executive order 72, which ended on May 13, 2020.