1. The board shall adopt rules necessary to implement this chapter, and to manage the system, subject to the limitations of this chapter. The board has the powers and privileges of a corporation, including the right to sue and be sued in its own name as the board. The venue of all actions in which the board is a party must be Burleigh County, North Dakota. 2. The board shall appoint an executive director to serve at its discretion. The executive director shall perform such duties as assigned by the board. 3. The board shall authorize the creation of whatever staff it deems necessary for sound and economical administration of the system. The executive director shall hire the staff, subject to the approval of the board. 4. The board shall arrange for actuarial and medical advisers for the system. The board shall cause a qualified, competent actuary to be retained on a consulting basis. The actuary shall make an annual valuation of the liabilities and reserves of the system and
a determination of the contributions required by the system to discharge its liabilities and pay the administrative costs under this chapter, and to recommend to the board rates of employer and employee contributions required, based upon the entry age normal cost method, to maintain the system on an actuarial reserve basis; once every five years make a general investigation of the actuarial experience under the system including mortality, retirement, employment turnover, and other items required by the board, and recommend actuarial tables for use in valuations and in calculating actuarial equivalent values based on such investigation; and perform other duties as may be assigned by the board. 5. The state shall provide the board with the retirement systems office or offices to be used for the meetings of the board and for the general purposes of the administrative personnel. 6. The funds necessary for paying prior service and service benefits, consultant fees, and making withdrawal payments and refunds are hereby appropriated from the retirement fund for those purposes. The amount necessary to pay the consulting fees and insurance benefits related to the uniform group insurance program is hereby appropriated from the insurance premiums received by the board. 7. The board shall administer chapters 39-03.1, 54-52.1, and 54-52.2, and may administer other optional employee benefit programs, including a flexible benefits plan, an optional employee short-term disability plan, a long-term care plan, or other optional employee benefit programs as the board deems appropriate. The board shall also administer the retirement plan established in 1961 and frozen to new entrants in 1980 for employees of job service North Dakota under chapter 52-11. 8. The board shall annually report the investment performance of the fund and distribute a copy to each participant. 9. The board may distribute the employer contribution and applicable interest for any employee of any development foundation associated with a public institution of higher education in this state who may previously have been included in the public employees retirement system while employed by such foundation. Such employee is entitled to have that employee's contribution and the contribution of the development foundation, with interest. 10. The board may audit any books, papers, accounts, bills, vouchers, and other documents or property of any and all departments, boards, commissions, political subdivisions, financial institutions, contractors, health care organizations, and consultants relating to their participation in services provided to programs administered by the board. 11. The board shall fund the administrative expenses of chapter 54-52.2 from funds collected under chapters 54-52, 54-52.1, and 54-52.3 and from fines and fees collected from deferred compensation services providers, including any fees paid for by participant funds, subject to appropriation by the legislative assembly. 12. Except as provided by section 54-52-17.7, the board may adjust service and make any correction of member, retiree, or beneficiary records and benefits after an error or inequity has been determined. 13. The board may use any amount credited to the separate uniform group insurance program fund created by section 54-52.1-06 in excess of the costs of administration of the uniform group insurance program to reduce the amount of premium amounts paid monthly by enrolled members of the uniform group insurance program, to reduce any increase in premium amounts paid monthly by enrolled members, or to provide increased insurance coverage to the members, as the board may determine. 14. The board may create and implement an Internal Revenue Code section 115 trust health care savings plan for all supreme and district court judges participating in the public employees retirement system if seventy-five percent of the total active participating supreme and district court judges vote to approve the program. If approved, the contribution level specified in the vote applies to all current and future participating supreme and district court judges and must be paid pursuant to the plan document developed by the board. The contribution level may only be changed by a
vote of seventy-five percent of the total active participating supreme and district court judges at that time. 15. The board shall establish policies and implement procedures to make and collect payments in the most cost-effective manner, including the use of electronic transfer of funds.
54-52-05. Membership and assessments - Employer payment of employee contributions. (Retroactive application - See note) 1. a. Every eligible participating political subdivision employee, at the time the political subdivision joins the plan shall so state in writing if the employee concurs in the plan and all future eligible employees of the participating political subdivision are participating members in the plan and must be enrolled in the plan within the first month of employment. b. Except as otherwise provided by law, every other eligible governmental unit employee of a participating governmental unit is a participating member in the plan and must be enrolled in the plan within the first month of employment. An employee who was not enrolled in the retirement system when eligible to participate must be enrolled immediately upon notice of the employee's eligibility, unless the employee waives in writing the employee's right to participate for the previous time of eligibility, to avoid contributing to the fund for past service. c. An employee eligible for normal retirement who accepts a retirement benefit under this chapter and subsequently becomes employed with a participating employer other than the employer the employee was employed with at the time the employee retired under this chapter may, before being re-enrolled in the retirement plan within the first month of employment, elect to permanently waive future participation in the retirement plan and the retiree health program and maintain that employee's retirement status. An employee making this election is not required to make any future employee contributions to the public employees retirement system nor is the employee's employer required to make any further contributions on behalf of that employee. d. An employee eligible for normal retirement who accepts a retirement benefit under this chapter and subsequently becomes employed with the same participating employer the employee was employed with at the time the employee retired under this chapter may not participate in the retirement plan or the retiree health program and may maintain that employee's retirement status if the employee is appointed by an elected state official to an unclassified state position for the duration of the elected official's term until a successor is appointed. 2. Each member must be assessed and required to pay monthly seven percent of the monthly salary or wage paid to the member, and such assessment must be deducted and retained out of such salary in equal monthly installments commencing with the first month of employment. 3. Each employer, at its option, may pay all or a portion of the employee contributions required by subsection 2 and sections 54-52-06.1, 54-52-06.2, 54-52-06.3, and 54-52-06.4 or the employee contributions required to purchase service credit on a pretax basis pursuant to subsection 5 of section 54-52-17.4. Employees may not receive the contributed amounts directly once the employer has elected to pay the employee contributions. The amount paid must be paid by the employer in lieu of contributions by the employee. If the state determines not to pay the contributions, the amount that would have been paid must continue to be deducted from the employee's compensation. If contributions are paid by the employer, they must be treated as employer contributions in determining tax treatment under this code and the federal Internal Revenue Code. If contributions are paid by the employer, they may not be included as gross income of the employee in determining tax treatment under this code and the Internal Revenue Code until they are distributed or made available. The employer shall pay these employee contributions from the same source of funds used in paying compensation to the employee. The employer shall pay these contributions
by effecting an equal cash reduction in the gross salary of the employee or by an offset against future salary increases or by a contribution of a reduction in gross salary and offset against future salary increases. If employee contributions are paid by the employer, they must be treated for the purposes of this chapter in the same manner and to the same extent as employee contributions made prior to the date on which employee contributions were assumed by the employer. An employer exercising its option under this subsection shall report its choice to the board in writing. 4. For compensation earned after August 1, 2009, all employee contributions required under section 54-52-06.1 and the job service North Dakota retirement plan, and not otherwise paid under subsection 3, must be paid by the employer in lieu of contributions by the member. All contributions paid by the employer under this subsection must be treated as employer contributions in determining tax treatment under this code and the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions paid by the employer under this subsection may not be included as gross income of the member in determining tax treatment under this code and the Internal Revenue Code until the contributions are distributed or made available. Contributions paid by the employer in accordance with this subsection must be treated for the purposes of this chapter in the same manner and to the same extent as member contributions made before the date the contributions were assumed by the employer. The employer shall pay these member contributions from the same source of funds used in paying compensation to the employee. The employer shall pay these contributions by effecting an equal cash reduction in the gross salary of the employee. The employer shall continue making payments under this section unless otherwise specifically provided for under the agency's biennial appropriation or by amendment to law.
54-52-06. Employer's contribution to retirement plan - Report to the employee benefits programs committee. 1. a. As determined by actuarial valuations, each state governmental unit that receives budgetary approval from the legislative assembly shall contribute to the defined benefit plan an amount on a level percent of compensation basis for all main system defined benefit retirement plan employees and all defined contribution retirement plan employees sufficient under the actuarial valuation to meet both the normal cost plus the actuarially determined amount required to amortize the unfunded accrued liability of the main plan over a closed period of thirty and one-half years, beginning January 1, 2026, and continuing through June 30, 2056. By November fifteenth of each even-numbered year the board shall publish the contribution rate required under this subsection. The board shall calculate this rate based on the July first actuarial report of that year. In lieu of each state governmental unit that receives budgetary approval from the legislative assembly contributing the additional actuarially determined rate, the legislative assembly may authorize a transfer to the public employees retirement system fund in an amount equal to or greater than the actuarially determined amount as most recently published by the board for the succeeding biennium. b. Each participating political subdivision and state governmental unit that does not receive budgetary approval from the legislative assembly shall contribute an amount equal to eight and twelve-hundredths percent of the monthly salary or wage of a participating member. c. For a participating member who first enrolls after December 31, 2019, a participating political subdivision shall contribute an additional amount equal to one and fourteen-hundredths percent of the monthly salary or wage of the participating member. 2. For those members who elect to exercise their rights under section 54-52-17.14, the employing governmental unit, or in the case of a member not presently under covered employment the most recent employing governmental unit, shall pay the associated employer contribution. If the employee's contribution is paid by the governmental unit under subsection 3 of section 54-52-05, the employer unit shall contribute, in addition,
an amount equal to the required employee's contribution. Each governmental unit shall pay the contribution monthly, or in the case of an election made pursuant to section 54-52-17.14 a lump sum, into the retirement fund from the governmental unit's funds appropriated for payroll and salary or any other funds available for these purposes. Any governmental unit failing to pay the contributions monthly, or in the case of an election made pursuant to section 54-52-17.14 a lump sum, or failing to otherwise comply with the board's established wage reporting or payroll reporting process requirements, is subject to a civil penalty of fifty dollars and, as interest, one percent of the amount due for each month of delay or fraction of a month after the payment became due. In lieu of assessing a civil penalty or one percent per month, or both, interest at the actuarial rate of return may be assessed for each month the contributions are delinquent. If contributions are paid within ninety days of the date the contributions became due, penalty and interest to be paid on delinquent contributions may be waived. 3. An employer is required to submit contributions for any past eligible employee who was employed after July 1, 1977, for which contributions were not made if the employee would have been eligible to become vested had the employee participated and if the employee elects to join the public employees retirement system. Employer contributions may not be assessed for eligible service that an employee has waived pursuant to subsection 1 of section 54-52-05. 4. Annually, the board shall report to the employee benefits programs committee the contributions necessary, as determined by the actuarial study, to maintain the fund's actuarial soundness.
54-52-06.1. Contribution by supreme and district court judges - Employer contribution. Each judge of the supreme or district court who is a member of the public employees retirement system must be assessed and required to pay monthly five percent of the judge's monthly salary. Member contributions increase by one percent of the judge's monthly salary beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2012, and with an additional increase of one percent, beginning with the reporting period of January 2013, and with an additional increase of one percent, beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2014. The assessment must be deducted and retained out of the judge's salary in equal monthly installments. The state shall contribute an amount equal to fourteen and fifty-two one-hundredths percent of the monthly salary of a supreme or district court judge who is a participating member of the system, which matching contribution must be paid from its funds appropriated for salary, or from any other funds available for such purposes. State contributions increase by one percent of the monthly salary of a supreme or district court judge who is a participating member of the system beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2012, and with an additional increase of one percent, beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2013, and with an additional increase of one percent, beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2014. If the judge's contribution is paid by the state under subsection 3 of section 54-52-05, the state shall contribute, in addition, an amount equal to the required judge's contribution.
54-52-06.2. Contribution by national guard security officers or firefighters - Employer contribution. Each national guard security officer or firefighter who is a member of the public employees retirement system is assessed and shall pay monthly four percent of the employee's monthly salary. Member contributions increase by one-half of one percent of the member's monthly salary beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2014. Effective August 1, 2015, each national guard security officer or firefighter who is a participating member of the plan under this section becomes a participating member of the plan under section 54-52-06.4 and the board shall thereafter manage any account balance associated with those participating members under section 54-52-06.4. After July 31, 2015, a new eligible employee may not become a participating member of the plan under this section. The assessment must be
deducted and retained out of the employee's salary in equal monthly installments. The national guard security officer's or firefighter's employer shall contribute an amount determined by the board to be actuarially required to support the level of benefits specified in section 54-52-17. The employer's contribution must be paid from funds appropriated for salary or from any other funds available for such purposes. If the security officer's or firefighter's assessment is paid by the employer under subsection 3 of section 54-52-05, the employer shall contribute, in addition, an amount equal to the required national guard security officer's or firefighter's assessment.
54-52-06.3. Contribution by peace officers, firefighters, dispatchers, emergency medical services personnel, and correctional officers employed by political subdivisions - Employer contribution. 1. Each peace officer, firefighter, dispatcher, emergency medical services personnel, or correctional officer employed by a political subdivision that enters an agreement with the retirement board on behalf of its peace officers, firefighters, dispatchers, emergency medical services personnel, and correctional officers separately from its other employees and who is a member of the public employees retirement system is assessed and shall pay monthly four percent of the employee's monthly salary. Peace officer, firefighter, dispatcher, emergency medical services personnel, or correctional officer contributions increase by one-half of one percent of the member's monthly salary beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2012, and with an additional increase of one-half of one percent, beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2013, and with an additional increase of one-half of one percent, beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2014. The assessment must be deducted and retained out of the employee's salary in equal monthly installments. 2. The peace officer's, firefighter's, dispatcher's, emergency medical services personnel's, or correctional officer's employer shall contribute an amount determined by the board to be actuarially required to support the level of benefits specified in section 54-52-17. If the peace officer's, firefighter's, dispatcher's, emergency medical services personnel's, or correctional officer's assessment is paid by the employer under subsection 3 of section 54-52-05, the employer shall contribute, in addition, an amount equal to the required peace officer's, firefighter's, dispatcher's, emergency medical services personnel's, or correctional officer's assessment.
54-52-06.4. Contribution by peace officers, dispatchers, firefighters, and correctional officers employed by the state or security officers employed by the national guard - Employer contribution. (Retroactive application - See note) 1. a. Each peace officer employed by the bureau of criminal investigation who is a member of the public employees retirement system is assessed and shall pay monthly four percent of the employee's monthly salary. Peace officer contributions increase by one percent of the member's monthly salary beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2012; with an additional increase of one percent, beginning with the reporting period of January 2013; with an additional increase of one percent, beginning with the reporting period of January 2024; and with an additional increase of one percent, beginning with the reporting period of January 2025. b. Each correctional officer, dispatcher, firefighter, and peace officer employed by the state, other than a peace officer employed by the bureau of criminal investigation, who is a member of the public employees retirement system is assessed and shall pay six percent of the employee's monthly salary. c. Effective August 1, 2015, each national guard security officer who is a member of the public employee's retirement system is assessed and monthly shall pay six percent of the employee's monthly salary. National guard security officer contributions decrease by one-half of one percent of the member's monthly salary beginning with the monthly reporting period of January 2016. d. The assessment under this subsection must be deducted and retained out of the employee's salary in equal monthly installments.
2. The employer of a correctional officer, dispatcher, firefighter, or peace officer employed by the state or a national guard security officer shall contribute an amount determined by the board to be actuarially required to support the level of benefits specified in section 54-52-17. The employer's contribution must be paid from funds appropriated for salary or from any other funds available for such purposes. If the correctional officer's, dispatcher's, firefighter's, peace officer's, or security officer's assessment is paid by the employer under subsection 3 of section 54-52-05, the employer shall contribute, in addition, an amount equal to the required correctional officer's, dispatcher's, firefighter's, peace officer's, or security officer's assessment.