[ Previous Page] [ Home Page ]
The following opinion is presented on-line for informational use only and does not replace the official version. (Mich Dept of Attorney General Web Site - www.ag.state.mi.us) STATE OF MICHIGAN FRANK J. KELLEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL Opinion No. 5789 September 24, 1980 RETIREMENT SYSTEMS: State employee--credit for service rendered in transitional public employment program Persons who become members of the state employees retirement system within 12 months after the termination of transitional public employment may only receive service credit for periods of transitional public employment rendered subsequent to September 30, 1978. The Honorable Connie Binsfeld House of Representatives State Capitol Building Lansing, Michigan 48909 You have requested my opinion as to whether members of the state employees' retirement system may receive service credit pursuant to 1978 PA 423 for service rendered in a transitional public employment program prior to 1978. You have also asked whether a person who became a state employee in 1972 immediately following his service in a transitional public employment program may receive service credit therefor from the state employees retirement system. The state employees' retirement act, 1943 PA 240, Sec. 13, MCLA 38.13; MSA 3.98(13), as amended, sets forth the particular conditions under which a member of the retirement system created thereunder may acquire service credit for previous transitional public employment. Prior to its amendment by 1978 PA 423, 1943 PA 240, Sec. 13, supra, specifically prohibited members from receiving service credit for service rendered in transitional public employment programs in that it provided in pertinent part: '(7) A person employed by the state in a CETA program or a comparable program financed with federal or state funds designed to reach the unemployed or underemployed and provide short-term, limited, or temporary employment shall not be a member of this retirement system or be defined as an employee occupying a permanent position under subsection (1). If such an employee subsequently becomes a member of this retirement system, he shall not receive service credit for all CETA or comparable federally funded state service for purposes of determining his retirement allowance.' However, in 1978 the legislature considered House Bill 6333 and companion bills proposing similar amendments to the other statutes relating to public employee retirement systems. House Bill 6333 and its companion bills proposed allowing certain service credit for prior transitional public employment. House Bill 6333 was enacted as 1978 PA 423 to amend 1943 PA 240, Sec. 13, supra, effective September 30, 1978, to provide, in pertinent part, as follows: '(7) A person who participates in a transitional public employment program financed with federal or state funds designed to reach the unemployed or underemployed and provide short-term, limited, or temporary employment shall not be a member of this retirement system or be defined as an employee occupying a permanent position under subsection (1). As used in this subsection and subsection (8), 'transitional public employment program' means a public service employment program in the area of environmental quality, health care, education, public safety, crime prevention and control, prison rehabilitation, transportation, recreation, maintenance of parks, streets, and other public facilities, solid waste removal, pollution control, housing and neighborhood improvements, rural development, conservation, beautification, veterans' outreach, or any other area of human betterment and community improvement as part of a program of comprehensive manpower services authorized, undertaken, and financed pursuant to the comprehensive employment and training act of 1973 program, 29 U.S.C. 801 to 992. (8) If a person described in subsection (7) later becomes a member of this retirement system within 12 months after the date of termination as a participant in a transitional public employment program, service credit shall be given for employment which is excluded in subsection (7) for purposes of determining a retirement allowance upon the payment by the person's employer under subsection (7) from funds provided under the comprehensive employment and training act, 29 U.S.C. 801 to 992, as funds permit, to the retirement system of the contributions, plus regular interest, the employer would have paid had the employment been rendered in a position covered by this act. During the person's employment in the transitional public employment program, the person's employer shall place in reserve a reasonable but not necessarily an actuarially determined amount equal to the contributions which the employer would have paid to the retirement system for those employees in the transitional public employment program as if they were members under this act, but only for that number of employees which the employer determined would move from the transitional public employment program into positions covered by this act. If the funds provided under the comprehensive employment and training act are insufficient, the remainder of the employer contributions shall be paid by the person's current employer.' [Emphasis added.] It is a general rule of statutory construction that a statute is prospective in operation unless the legislature manifests an intent to make the statute retrospective. McQueen v Great Northwestern Packing Co, 402 Mich 321; 262 NW2d 82 (1978). There is no indication of any legislative intent to make the provisions of 1978 PA 423 retrospective. In adopting this amendatory act, the Legislature removed from 1943 PA 240, Sec. 13, supra, the absolute prohibition against giving service credit for any transitional public employment. Moreover, when the Legislature amended 1943 PA 240, Sec. 13, supra, by means of 1978 PA 423 to permit such service credit for transitional public employment programs financed with federal or state funds, it imposed a condition in subsection (8) that public employers with employees in transitional public employment be required to put aside money for the payment of contributions to the State Employees' Retirement System with respect to periods of transitional employment for which state system credit may be granted so as to finance such service credit to the extent that federal funds permit and the remainder, if any, to be paid by the member's then current state employer. It is patent that a public employer providing transitional employment may obey this mandate only prospectively. While the legislature could have authorized prior service credit for all transitional public employment, it has not manifested this to be its intent. It is, therefore, my opinion that persons who become members of the state employees' retirement system within 12 months after the termination of transitional public employment may only receive service credit for periods of transitional public employment rendered subsequent to September 30, 1978. In light of the answer to the first question, it is unnecessary to answer your second question. Frank J. Kelley Attorney General
[ Previous Page] [ Home Page ]