Request By:
Mr. Stephen A. Gagel, F.S.A.
Actuary
Meidinger, Inc.
2600 Meidinger Tower
Louisville Galleria
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of October 19, 1982 in which you request an interpretation of House Bill 119. You relate the following facts and question:
"Under this legislation,
"Under this legislation, municipalities are required to have an actuarial valuation of their retirement plans completed every three years. My basic question is whether the three year period starts from the effective from the effective date of the legislation or if the three year period begins with the date of the most recent valuation."
House Bill 119 enacted as Chapter 297 of the acts of 1982 became effective as ordinary legislation on July 15, 1982 and has in our opinion prospective effect only. Section 1 of the act has been coded as KRS 65.155 and is entirely new legislation which reads in part as follows:
"The governing board of any local government retirement system created pursuant to KRS 67A.320, 67A.340, 67A.360 to 67A.690, 70.580 to 70.598, 79.080, 90.400, 90.410, 95.290, 95.520 to 95.620, 95.621 to 95.629, 95.767 to 95.784, 95.851 to 95.885 or 96.180 shall submit the retirement system to an actuarial evaluation at least once every three (3) years. The evaluation shall be prepared by an actuary who is a fellow of the society of actuaries, a member of the American academy of actuaries, or an enrolled actuary under the Employes' Retirement Jncome Security Act of 1975. The board shall send a copy of the most recent evaluation to the librarian of the legislative research commission by September 1, 1982, and thereafter the board shall send a copy of each new evaluation within ten (10) days of receipt." (Emphasis added.)
Chapter 297 amended at the same time certain specific statutes, some of which are listed in the above statute that previously require an actuarial evaluation every five years by reducing the time span to three years in conformance with KRS 65.155. Chapter 297 also repealed out right KRS 95.016 requiring the evaluation every three years under various pension plans enumerated in Chapter 95 KRS that are now mentioned specifically in KRS 65.155.
As we initially said, we believe the statute has only prospective effect since the act contains no legislation to indicate that it has retroactive effect. KRS 446.080(3) pertaining to construction of statutes reads as follows:
"No statute shall be construed to be retroactive, unless expressly so declared."
Under this statute, there are many cases clearly establishing the rule that unless an act contains retroactive language, it must be construed as having prospective effect only. Policemen's & Firemen's Retirement Fund v. Rothrock, Ky., 625 S.W.2d 577 (1981). Thus the initial or next actuarial evaluation required under the various pension plans referred to in Chapter 297 must be prepared and submitted within three years following the July 15, 1982 effective date of the act. This will no doubt create a temporary transition period deviating as to time in many instances involving those statutes previously containing the five-year time span for the evaluation program.