By Mr. Jones of North Reading, petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 2581) of Bradley H. Jones, Jr., and others relative to the annual allowance for widows and widowers of certain public employees under the retirement law.  Public Service.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PETITION OF:

Bradley H. Jones, Jr.

John P. Fresolo

Michael R. Knapik

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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.

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An Act relative to the annual allowance for widows and widowers of certain public employees.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1.           Section 12 of chapter 32 of the General Laws, as most recently amended by chapter 143 of the acts of 2005, is hereby amended by inserting in line 212 after the words “two hundred and fifty dollars a month” the following words:-or five hundred dollars a month, whichever is applicable to such spouse.

SECTION 2.  Section 12 of chapter 32 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after line 221 the following paragraph:- Beginning July 1, 2007, the normal monthly member-survivor allowance provided for under this option to a spouse of a deceased member shall not be less than five-hundred dollars for members of the state teachers’ and state employees’ retirement system.  The provisions of this paragraph shall take effect for the members of a retirement system of any other 

political subdivision majority vote of the board of such system and by 

the local legislative body.  For the purpose of this paragraph, local legislative body shall mean a town meeting for a town system, the 

city council subject to the provisions of its charter for a city system, the county retirement board advisory council for a 

county system, the regional retirement board advisory council for a 

regional system, the district members for a district system and the governing body of an authority for an authority system.  Acceptance shall be deemed to have occurred upon the filing of a certification of such vote with the commission.

SECTION 3.  Section 101 of chapter 32, as 80, is hereby amended by inserting in line 8 after the words “six thousand dollars,” the following words:- or in the amount of eight thousand dollars in a retirement system accepting the supplemental annual allowance provided for by this section.

SECTION 4.  Section 101 of chapter 32 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting at the end thereof the following:-  Any retirement system may accept the supplemental annual allowance, provided for by this section and fixed at the rate of eight thousand dollars, by a majority vote of the board of each such system, subject to the approval of the legislative body. For the purposes of this section, “legislative body” shall mean, in the case of a city, the city council in accordance with its charter, in the case of a town, the town meeting, in the case of a county, the county retirement board advisory council, in the case of a region, the regional retirement board advisory council, in the case of a district, the district members, and, in the case of an authority, the governing body. Acceptance shall be deemed to have occurred upon the filing of a certification of such votes with the commission.  For purposes of this section, the state teachers’ and state employees’ retirement systems shall be deemed to have accepted the supplemental annual allowance provided for by this section.