A. The member contribution fund is the accounting fund in which shall be accumulated contributions of members and from which shall be made refunds and transfers of accumulated member contributions as provided in the Public Employees Retirement Act. Each affiliated public employer shall cause the member contributions specified by the coverage plan applicable to each of that affiliated public employer's members to be deducted from the salary of each member. Each affiliated public employer shall remit the deducted member contributions to the association in accordance with the procedures and schedules established by the association. The association may assess an interest charge and a penalty charge on any remittance not made by its due date. Each member shall be deemed to consent and agree to the deductions made and provided for in this section by continuing employment with the affiliated public employer. Contributions by members shall be credited to the members' individual accounts in the member contribution fund.

B. A member's accumulated contributions shall be transferred to the retirement reserve fund if a pension becomes payable upon the retirement or death of the member. If a disability retirement pension is terminated for a reason other than the death of the disability retired member before an amount equal to the disability retired member's accumulated member contributions has been paid, the unexpended balance of the accumulated member contributions shall be transferred from the retirement reserve fund to the former disability retired member's individual account in the member contribution fund.

C. If a member terminates affiliated public employment or is on leave of absence from an affiliated public employer as a consequence of the entry into active duty with the armed forces of the United States, the member may, with the written consent of the member's spouse, if any, withdraw the member's accumulated member contributions, upon making written request in a form prescribed by the association. Upon written request of the member in the form prescribed by the association, a refund of member contributions may be made by a trustee-to-trustee transfer of the contributions from the member contribution fund directly to another qualified plan as allowed by the Internal Revenue Code. Withdrawal of member contributions shall result in forfeiture of the service credit accrued for the period during which the contributions were made.

D. A member shall, upon commencement of membership, designate a refund beneficiary who shall receive the refund of the member contributions, plus interest if any, if the member dies and no survivor pension is payable. If the member is married at the time of designation, written spousal consent shall be required if the designated refund beneficiary is other than the spouse. Marriage subsequent to the designation shall automatically revoke a previous designation, and the spouse shall become the refund beneficiary unless or until another designation is filed with the association. Divorce subsequent to the designation shall automatically revoke designation of the former spouse as refund beneficiary, or the right of the former spouse to be refund beneficiary if no designation has been filed, and the refund shall be paid to the deceased member's estate unless the member filed a designation of refund beneficiary subsequent to the divorce. The refund shall be paid to the refund beneficiary named in the most recent designation of refund beneficiary on file with the association unless that beneficiary is deceased. If there is not a living refund beneficiary named in the most recent designation of refund beneficiary on file with the association, the deceased member's accumulated member contributions shall be paid to the estate of the deceased member.

History: Laws 1987, ch. 253, § 124; 1993, ch. 160, § 6.

Cross references. — For the Internal Revenue Code, see 26 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.

The 1993 amendment, effective June 18, 1993, in Subsection B, deleted "or vested former member" from the end of the first sentence and inserted "retirement" in one place and "disability" in three places in the second sentence; rewrote Subsection C; in Subsection D, added the first through fourth sentences, substituted "The refund" for "If a member or former member dies and no pension becomes payable on account of the death, the deceased member's or former member's accumulated member contributions" at the beginning of the fifth sentence, and deleted "or former member's" following "deceased member's" and "or former member" following "deceased member" in the last sentence; and deleted Subsection E, which provided for transfer of unclaimed member contributions to the income fund.

Where mandatory duty on department heads. — By the very wording of the statute a mandatory duty is placed upon each department head to see that proper deductions are made from eligible employees' salaries so that proper credit can be received by such employees under the terms and provisions of the public employees' retirement system of New Mexico. 1956 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 56-6370.

Contributions not exempt from state income tax. — The amounts deducted from the salaries of public employees for Public Employees Retirement Act contributions are not exempt from the state income tax. 1982 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 82-09.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — Retroactive change in rate of employee's contribution to public pension fund, validity of, 78 A.L.R.2d 1197.

81A C.J.S. States §§ 46, 112 to 119.