AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF OTHER POST EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS LIABILITY TRUST FUNDS IN MUNICIPALITIES AND CERTAIN OTHER GOVERNMENTAL UNITS.
Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to establish forthwith a local option for municipalities and certain other governmental units to establish certain trust funds, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:
Chapter 32B of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:-
Section 20. A city, town, district, county or municipal lighting plant that accepts this section, may establish a separate fund, to be known as an Other Post Employment Benefits Liability Trust Fund, and a funding schedule for the fund. The schedule and any future updates shall be designed, consistent with standards issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, to reduce the unfunded actuarial liability of health care and other post-employment benefits to zero as of an actuarially acceptable period of years and to meet the normal cost of all such future benefits for which the governmental unit is obligated. The schedule and any future updates shall be: (i) developed by an actuary retained by a municipal lighting plant or any other governmental unit and triennially reviewed by the board for a municipal lighting plant or by the chief executive officer of a governmental unit; and (ii) reviewed and approved by the actuary in the public employee retirement administration commission.
The board of a municipal lighting plant or the legislative body of any other governmental unit may appropriate amounts recommended by the schedule to be credited to the fund. Any interest or other income generated by the fund shall be added to and become part of the fund. Amounts that a governmental unit receives as a sponsor of a qualified retiree prescription drug plan under 42 U.S.C. 1395w-132 may be added to and become part of the fund.
The custodian of the fund shall be: (i) a designee appointed by the board of a municipal lighting plant; or (ii) the treasurer of any other governmental unit. Funds shall be invested and reinvested by the custodian consistent with the prudent investor rule set forth in chapter 203C.
This section may be accepted in a city having a Plan D or Plan E charter by vote of the city council; in any other city by vote of the city council and approval of the mayor; in a town by vote of the town at a town meeting; in a district by vote of the governing board; in a municipal lighting plant by vote of the board; and in a county by vote of the county commissioners.
Approved January 10, 2009