Maine § 17851-B. - Special plan for fire marshal investigators and fire marshal sergeants

§ 17851-B.. Special plan for fire marshal investigators and fire marshal sergeants

1.  Establishment and applicability.  Effective July 1, 2020, there is established a special retirement plan for fire marshal investigators, fire marshal senior investigators, fire marshal sergeants and assistant state fire marshal-investigations, referred to in this section as "the special plan." The special plan applies to a state fire marshal investigator, state fire marshal senior investigator, state fire marshal sergeant and assistant state fire marshal-investigations.

2.  Qualification for benefits.  A member employed in any of the positions specified in subsection 1 qualifies for a service retirement benefit after completing 20 years of creditable service in that capacity, whether or not the creditable service included in determining that the 20-year requirement has been met was earned under the special plan established in this section or prior to its establishment.

3.  Purchase of service credit to be used for qualification for benefits.  This subsection governs the use of purchased service credit in order to qualify for benefits under this section. For the purpose of meeting the qualification requirement of subsection 2:

A. Service credit purchased by repayment of an earlier refund of accumulated contributions following termination of service is included if the time to which the refund relates was served in any one or a combination of the positions specified in subsection 1, regardless of whether the time was served before or after the establishment of the special plan; and   [PL 2019, c. 482, §2 (NEW).]

B. Service credit purchased other than as provided under paragraph A is not included.   [PL 2019, c. 482, §2 (NEW).]

4.  Computation of benefits.  The amount of the service retirement benefit for members qualified under subsection 2 is 1/2 of the person's average final compensation and an additional 2% of the person's average final compensation for each year of membership service not included in determining qualification under subsection 2.

5.  Contributions.  Notwithstanding any other provision of subchapter 3, after June 30, 2020, a member in a position specified in subsection 1 shall contribute to the State Employee and Teacher Retirement Program or have pick-up contributions made at the rate of 8.65% of earnable compensation until the member has completed 20 years of creditable service as provided in this section and at the rate of 7.65% thereafter.