Request By:
Hon. Byron Lee Hobgood
City Attorney
City of Madisonville
P.O. Box 195
Madisonville, Kentucky 42431
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of October 26 which concerns the pension fund in cities of the fourth class under KRS 95.620. Your specific question relates to KRS 95.768 and your question is as follows:
"My question is, 'As a fourth class city operating under KRS 95.768, does the City of Madisonville return to the withdrawing employee a refund for contributions made to the pension fund prior to July 15, 1982, or does it return only contributions made by the employee after July 15, 1982?'"
Prior to the 1982 amendment to KRS 95.768, persons leaving their civil service position in cities of the fourth class were not entitled to a refund of their contributions as the law made no provision for such a refund. See OAG 68-98. The 1982 amendment to KRS 95.768 declared that beginning July 15, 1982 and thereafter, persons withdrawing from service prior to qualifying for a pension, would be governed by the provisions of KRS 95.620(2)(3)(4) with respect to pension contributions.
KRS 95.620(2) as amended in 1982 provides that:
"(2) From July 15, 1982 and thereafter, the board of trustees of the pension fund shall, upon the request of a member, refund a member's contributions, including contributions picked up by the employer pursuant to KRS 65.155, upon that member's withdrawal from service prior to qualifying for pension. The member shall be entitled to receive a refund of the amount of contributions made by the member, including contributions picked up by the employer pursuant to KRS 65.155, after the date of establishment, without interest. " (Emphasis added.)
The above statute provides that after July 15, 1982 a member thereafter leaving service shall be entitled to receive a refund of all contributions required to be made following the date of the establishment of the pension fund. Thus, any member as of July 15, 1982 who thereafter withdraws from service prior to retirement is entitled to a refund of all contributions he has been required to make to the fund from the time of its inception and not simply those made following the effective date of the amendment.
The emphasized language of KRS 95.620(2) is clearly retroactive in its intent insofar as authorizing a refund of all a member's contributions made throughout his tenure where he withdraws from service on or after July 15, 1982. See KRS 446.080 and