PRINTER'S NO. 2004
No. 1639 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY KAISER, SOLOBAY, MAYERNIK, MARKOSEK, CASORIO, WOJNAROSKI, READSHAW, WALKO, DERMODY, YOUNGBLOOD, SAINATO, SERAFINI, COLAFELLA AND HARHAI, JUNE 14, 1999
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT, JUNE 14, 1999
AN ACT 1 Amending the act of May 29, 1956 (1955 P.L.1804, No.600), 2 entitled, as amended, "An act providing for the establishment 3 of police pension funds or pension annuities in certain 4 boroughs, towns and townships; authorizing the establishment 5 of police pension funds or pension annuities by regional 6 police departments; providing for the regulation and 7 maintenance of police pension funds or pension annuities; 8 providing for an actuary; continuance of existing funds or 9 transfer thereof to funds herein established; prescribing 10 rights of beneficiaries; contributions by members; providing 11 for expenses of administration; continuation of existing 12 authority to provide annuity contracts; credit for military 13 service; refunds; exempting allowances from judicial process; 14 and repealing certain acts," further providing for payments 15 to spouses. 16 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 17 hereby enacts as follows: 18 Section 1. Section 1 of the act of May 29, 1956 (1955 19 P.L.1804, No.600), referred to as the Municipal Police Pension 20 Law, amended May 10, 1996 (P.L.102, No.33), is amended to read: 21 Section 1. (a) Each borough, town and township of this 22 Commonwealth maintaining a police force of three or more full- 23 time members and each regional police department shall, and all 24 other boroughs, towns or townships may, establish, by ordinance
1 or resolution, a police pension fund or pension annuity to be
2 maintained by a charge against each member of the police force,
3 by annual appropriations made by the borough, town, township or
4 regional police department, by payments made by the State
5 Treasurer to the municipal treasurer from the moneys received
6 from taxes paid upon premiums by foreign casualty insurance
7 companies for purposes of pension retirement for policemen, and
8 by gifts, grants, devises or bequests granted to the pension
9 fund pursuant to section two of this act. Such fund shall be
10 under the direction of the governing body of the borough, town,
11 township or regional police department, and applied under such
12 regulations as such governing body, by ordinance or resolution,
13 may prescribe for the benefit of such members of the police
14 force as shall receive honorable discharge therefrom by reason
15 of age and service, or disability, and may prescribe for the
16 benefit (i) of widows, even if they remarry, and if no widow
17 survives or if she survives and subsequently dies [or
18 remarries], then (ii) of child or children under the age of
19 eighteen years, of members of the police force or of members
20 retired on pension. All such pensions as shall be allowed to
21 those who are retired by reason of disabilities shall be in
22 conformity with a uniform scale. The widow of a member of the
23 police force or a member who retires on pension who dies or if
24 no widow survives or if she survives and subsequently [dies or
25 remarries], then the child or children under the age of eighteen
26 years of a member of the police force or a member who retires on
27 pension who dies on or after the effective date of this
28 amendment, may, during her lifetime [or so long as she does not
29 remarry in the case of a widow] or until reaching the age of
30 eighteen years in the case of a child or children, be entitled
19990H1639B2004 - 2 -
1 to receive a pension calculated at the rate of fifty per centum 2 of the pension the member was receiving or would have been 3 receiving had he been retired at the time of his death. 4 (b) For purposes of this act, the term "regional police 5 department" shall mean a municipal police force organized and 6 operated in combination by two or more municipalities through an 7 intermunicipal agreement under the act of July 12, 1972 8 (P.L.762, No.180), referred to as the Intergovernmental 9 Cooperation Law. 10 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days. B10L53DMS/19990H1639B2004 - 3 -