By Mr. Walsh of Boston, petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 2810) of Martin J. Walsh relative to creditable service for retirement purposes for certain veterans.  Public Service.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PETITION OF:

Martin J. Walsh

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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.

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An Act regarding pensions for veterans.

    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. Paragraph (h) of subdivision (1) of section 4 of chapter 32 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2002 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following:— “Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter or any other general or special law, rule or regulation to the contrary; for the purpose of this paragraph the term veteran shall be defined as any person whose last discharge or release from service in the army, navy, marine corps, coast guard, air force or WAAC of the United States, or the armed forces of the commonwealth, was under honorable conditions.”

SECTION 2. Section 3 of chapter 71 of the Acts of 1996 is hereby amended by adding at the end of the second paragraph the following sentence:—
“Members who become eligible by an amendment to this chapter shall make application for such creditable service within one hundred and eighty days of the receipt of a letter from such member’s retirement system indicating the terms and conditions of such eligibility.”

SECTION 3. Section 3 of chapter 71 of the Acts of 1996 is hereby amended by striking the last paragraph and inserting in place thereof the following:—
“Terms used in this act shall have the same meaning as those terms defined in section 1 of chapter thirty-two of the General Laws as appearing in the 2002 Official Edition, except as otherwise provided in this act.”