Subd. 1. Income; disbursements.

There is a special fund known as the "public employees retirement fund," the "retirement fund," or the "fund," which shall include all the assets of the association. This fund shall be credited with all contributions, all interest and all other income authorized by law. From this fund there is appropriated the payments authorized by this chapter in the amounts and at such time provided herein, including the expenses of administering the fund, and including the proper share of the Minnesota postretirement investment fund.

Subd. 2. Employee contribution.

1. (a) The employee contribution is the following applicable percentage of total salary amount for a "basic member" and for a "coordinated member":

   Basic Program Coordinated Program Before January 1, 2002 8.75 4.75 Effective January 1, 2002 9.10 5.10

2. (b) These contributions must be made by deduction from salary in the manner provided in subdivision 4. Where any portion of a member's salary is paid from other than public funds, such member's employee contribution must be based on the total salary received from all sources.

Subd. 3. Employer contribution.

1. (a) The employer contribution is the following applicable percentage of total salary amount:

   Basic Program Coordinated Program Before January 1, 2002 8.75 4.75 Effective January 1, 2002 9.10 5.10

2. (b) This contribution must be made from funds available to the employing subdivision by the means and in the manner provided in section 353.28.

Subd. 3a. Additional employer contribution.

1. (a) An additional employer contribution must be made equal to (1) 2.68 percent of the total salary of each "basic member"; and (2) .43 percent of the total salary of each "coordinated member." These contributions must be made from funds available to the employing subdivision by the means and in the manner provided in section 353.28.
2. (b) This subdivision is repealed once the actuarial value of the assets of the plan equal or exceed the actuarial accrued liability of the plan as determined by the actuary retained by the legislative commission on pensions and retirement under section 356.215. The repeal is effective on the first day of the first full pay period occurring after March 31 of the calendar year following the issuance of the actuarial valuation upon which the repeal is based.

Subd. 4. Employer reporting requirements; contributions; member status.

1. (a) A representative authorized by the head of each department shall deduct employee contributions from the salary of each employee who qualifies for membership under this chapter and remit payment in a manner prescribed by the executive director for the aggregate amount of the employee contributions, the employer contributions and the additional employer contributions to be received within 14 calendar days. The head of each department or the person's designee shall for each pay period submit to the association a salary deduction report in the format prescribed by the executive director. Data required to be submitted as part of salary deduction reporting must include, but are not limited to:

   1. (1) the legal names and social security numbers of employees who are members;
   2. (2) the amount of each employee's salary deduction;
   3. (3) the amount of salary from which each deduction was made;
   4. (4) the beginning and ending dates of the payroll period covered and the date of actual payment; and
   5. (5) adjustments or corrections covering past pay periods.
2. (b) Employers must furnish the data required for enrollment for each new employee who qualifies for membership in the format prescribed by the executive director. The required enrollment data on new employees must be submitted to the association prior to or concurrent with the submission of the initial employee salary deduction. The employer shall also report to the association all member employment status changes, such as leaves of absence, terminations, and death, and shall report the effective dates of those changes, on an ongoing basis for the payroll cycle in which they occur. The employer shall furnish data, forms, and reports as may be required by the executive director for proper administration of the retirement system. Before implementing new or different computerized reporting requirements, the executive director shall give appropriate advance notice to governmental subdivisions to allow time for system modifications.
3. (c) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the association may provide for less frequent reporting and payments for small employers.

Subd. 5.

Repealed, 1973 c 753 s 85

Subd. 5a.

Repealed, 1992 c 443 s 2

Subd. 6.

Repealed, 1971 c 106 s 40

Subd. 7. Adjustment for erroneous receipts or disbursements.

1. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), erroneous employee deductions and erroneous employer contributions and additional employer contributions for a person, who otherwise does not qualify for membership under this chapter, are considered:

   1. (1) valid if the initial erroneous deduction began before January 1, 1990. Upon determination of the error by the association, the person may continue membership in the association while employed in the same position for which erroneous deductions were taken, or file a written election to terminate membership and apply for a refund or defer an annuity under section 353.34; or
   2. (2) invalid, if the initial erroneous employee deduction began on or after January 1, 1990. Upon determination of the error, the association shall require the employer to discontinue erroneous employee deductions and erroneous employer contributions and additional employer contributions. Upon discontinuance, the association shall refund all erroneous employee deductions to the person, with interest, under section 353.34, subdivision 2, and all erroneous employer contributions and additional employer contributions to the employer. No person may claim a right to continued or past membership in the association based on erroneous deductions which began on or after January 1, 1990.
2. (b) Erroneous deductions taken from the salary of a person who did not qualify for membership in the association by virtue of concurrent employment before July 1, 1978, which required contributions to another retirement fund or relief association established for the benefit of officers and employees of a governmental subdivision, are invalid. Upon discovery of the error, the association shall remove all service and refund all erroneous employee deductions to the person, with interest under section 353.34, subdivision 2, and all erroneous employer contributions to the employer. This paragraph has both retroactive and prospective application.
3. (c) Employer contributions and employee deductions taken in error from amounts which are not salary under section 353.01, subdivision 10, are invalid upon discovery by the association and may be refunded at any time.
4. (d) In the event a salary warrant or check from which a deduction for the retirement fund was taken has been canceled or the amount of the warrant or check returned to the funds of the department making the payment, a refund of the sum deducted, or a portion of it that is required to adjust the deductions, must be made to the department or institution.

Subd. 7a. Deductions or contributions transmitted by error.

1. (a) If employee deductions and employer contributions were erroneously transmitted to the association, but should have been transmitted to another Minnesota public pension plan, the association shall transfer the erroneous employee deductions and employer contributions to the appropriate retirement fund without interest. The time limitations in subdivisions 7 and 12 do not apply.
2. (b) For purposes of this subdivision, a Minnesota public pension plan means a plan specified in section 356.30, subdivision 3, or the plan governed by chapter 354B.

Subd. 7b. Overpayments to members.

In the event of an overpayment to a member, the executive director shall recover the overpayment by suspending or reducing the payment of a retirement annuity, refund, disability benefit, survivor benefit, or optional annuity under this chapter until all outstanding money has been recovered.

Subd. 8. District court reporters; salary deductions.

Deductions from the salary of a district court reporter in a judicial district consisting of two or more counties shall be made by the auditor of the county in which the bond and official oath of such district court reporter are filed, from the portion of salary paid by such county.

Subd. 9. Fee officers; contributions; obligations of employers.

Any appointed or elected officer of a governmental subdivision who was or is a "public employee" within the meaning of section 353.01 and was or is a member of the fund and whose salary was or is paid in whole or in part from revenue derived by fees and assessments, shall pay employee contribution in the amount, at the time, and in the manner provided in subdivisions 2 and 4. This subdivision shall not apply to district court reporters. The employer contribution as provided in subdivision 3, and the additional employer contribution as provided in subdivision 3a, and section 353.36, subdivision 2a, with respect to such service shall be paid by the governmental subdivision. This subdivision shall have both retroactive and prospective application as to all such members; and every employing governmental subdivision is deemed liable, retroactively and prospectively, for all employer and additional employer contributions for every such member in its employ. Delinquencies under this section shall be governed in all respects by section 353.28.

Subd. 10. Employer exclusion reports.

The head of a department shall annually furnish the executive director with an exclusion report listing only those employees in potentially PERA-eligible positions who were not reported as members of the association and who worked during the school year for school employees and calendar year for nonschool employees. The department head must certify the accuracy and completeness of the exclusion report to the association. The executive director shall prescribe the manner and forms, including standardized exclusion codes, to be used by a governmental subdivision in preparing and filing exclusion reports. The executive director shall also check the exclusion report to ascertain whether any omissions have been made by a department head in the reporting of new public employees for membership. The executive director may delegate an association employee under section 353.03, subdivision 3a, paragraph (b), clause (5), to conduct a field audit to review the payroll records of a governmental subdivision.

Subd. 11. Employers; required to furnish requested information.

All governmental subdivisions shall furnish promptly such other information relative to the employment status of all employees or former employees, including but not limited to payroll abstracts pertaining to all past and present employees, as may be requested by the association or its executive director, including schedules of salaries applicable to various categories of employment. In the event payroll abstract records have been lost or destroyed, for whatever reason or in whatever manner, so that such schedules of salaries cannot be furnished therefrom, the employing governmental subdivision, in lieu thereof, shall furnish to the association an estimate of the earnings of any employee or former employee for any period as may be requested by the association or its executive director. Should the association receive such schedules of estimated earnings, the executive director is hereby authorized to use the same as a basis for making whatever computations might be necessary for determining obligations of the employee and employer to the retirement fund. If estimates are not furnished by the employer pursuant to the request of the association or its executive director, the association may estimate the obligations of the employee and employer to the retirement fund based upon such records as are in its possession. Where payroll abstracts have been lost or destroyed, the governmental agency need not furnish any information pertaining to employment prior to July 1, 1963. The association shall make no estimate of any obligation of any employee, former employee, or employer covering employment prior to July 1, 1963.

Subd. 12. Omitted salary deductions; obligations.

1. (a) In the case of omission of required deductions from the salary of an employee, the department head or designee shall immediately, upon discovery, report the employee for membership and deduct the employee deductions under subdivision 4 during the current pay period or during the pay period immediately following the discovery of the omission. Payment for the omitted obligations may only be made in accordance with reporting procedures and methods established by the executive director.
2. (b) When the entire omission period of an employee does not exceed 60 days, the governmental subdivision may report and submit payment of the omitted employee deductions and the omitted employer contributions through the reporting processes under subdivision 4.
3. (c) When the omission period of an employee exceeds 60 days, the governmental subdivision shall furnish to the association sufficient data and documentation upon which the obligation for omitted employee and employer contributions can be calculated. The omitted employee deductions must be deducted from the employee's subsequent salary payment or payments and remitted to the association. The employee shall pay omitted employee deductions due for the 60 days prior to the end of the last pay period in the omission period during which salary was earned. The employer shall pay any remaining omitted employee deductions and any omitted employer contributions, plus cumulative interest at an annual rate of 8.5 percent compounded annually, from the date or dates each omitted employee contribution was first payable.
4. (d) An employer shall not hold an employee liable for omitted employee deductions beyond the pay period dates under paragraph (c), nor attempt to recover from the employee those employee deductions paid by the employer on behalf of the employee. Omitted deductions due under paragraph (c) which are not paid by the employee constitute a liability of the employer that failed to deduct the omitted deductions from the employee's salary. The employer shall make payment with interest at an annual rate of 8.5 percent compounded annually. Omitted employee deductions are no longer due if an employee terminates public service before making payment of omitted employee deductions to the association, but the employer remains liable to pay omitted employer contributions plus interest at an annual rate of 8.5 percent compounded annually from the date the contributions were first payable.
5. (e) The association may not commence action for the recovery of omitted employee deductions and employer contributions after the expiration of three calendar years after the calendar year in which the contributions and deductions were omitted. Except as provided under paragraph (b), no payment may be made or accepted unless the association has already commenced action for recovery of omitted deductions. An action for recovery commences on the date of the mailing of any written correspondence from the association requesting information from the governmental subdivision upon which to determine whether or not omitted deductions occurred.

Subd. 12a. Terminated employees: omitted deductions.

A terminated employee who has a period of employment in which previously omitted employer contributions were made under subdivision 12 but for whom no, or only partial, omitted employee contributions have been made, or a member who had prior coverage in the association for which previously omitted employer contributions were made under subdivision 12 but who terminated service before required omitted employee deductions could be withheld from salary, may pay the omitted employee deductions for the period on which omitted employer contributions were previously paid plus interest at an annual rate of 8.5 percent compounded annually. A terminated employee may pay the omitted employee deductions plus interest within six months of an initial notification from the association of eligibility to pay those omitted deductions. If a terminated employee is reemployed in a position covered under a public pension fund under section 356.30, subdivision 3, and elects to pay omitted employee deductions, payment must be made no later than six months after a subsequent termination of public service.

Subd. 12b. Terminated employees: immediate eligibility.

If deductions were omitted from salary adjustments or final salary of a terminated employee who is immediately eligible to draw a monthly benefit, the employer shall pay the omitted employer and employer additional contributions plus interest on both the employer and employee amounts due at an annual rate of 8.5 percent compounded annually. The employee shall pay the employee deductions within six months of an initial notification from the association of eligibility to pay omitted deductions or the employee forfeits the right to make the payment.

Subd. 13. Certain warrants canceled.

A warrant payable from the retirement fund remaining unpaid for a period of six months must be canceled into the retirement fund and not into the general fund.