(1) Employee contributions shall be deposited in the retirement system or plan at least monthly. Employer contributions shall be deposited at least quarterly; however, any revenues received from any source by an employer which are specifically collected for the purpose of allocation for deposit into a retirement system or plan shall be so deposited within 30 days of receipt by the employer. All employers and employees participating in the Florida Retirement System and other existing retirement systems which are administered by the Department of Management Services shall continue to make contributions at least monthly.
(2) From and after October 1, 1980, for those plans in existence on October 1, 1980, the total contributions to the retirement system or plan shall be sufficient to meet the normal cost of the retirement system or plan and to amortize the unfunded liability, if any, within 40 years; however, nothing contained in this subsection permits any retirement system or plan to amortize its unfunded liabilities over a period longer than that which remains under its current amortization schedule.
(3) For a retirement system or plan which comes into existence after October 1, 1980, the unfunded liability, if any, shall be amortized within 40 years of the first plan year.
(4) The net increase, if any, in unfunded liability under the plan arising from significant plan amendments adopted, changes in actuarial assumptions, changes in funding methods, or actuarial gains or losses shall be amortized within 30 plan years.
(5)(a) If the amortization schedule for unfunded liability is to be based on a contribution derived in whole or in part from a percentage of the payroll of the system or plan membership, the assumption as to payroll growth shall not exceed the average payroll growth for the 10 years prior to the latest actuarial valuation of the system or plan unless a transfer, merger, or consolidation of government functions or services occurs, in which case the assumptions for payroll growth may be adjusted and may be based on the membership of the retirement plan or system subsequent to such transfer, merger, or consolidation.
2. The payroll growth rate is reasonable and consistent with future expectations of payroll growth.
(c) An unfunded liability amortization schedule that does not include a payroll growth assumption and is in existence on September 30, 1996, or is established thereafter, may be continued or modified to include a payroll growth assumption, provided that such assumption does not exceed the 10-year average payroll growth rate as of the actuarial valuation date such change in the amortization schedule commences. Such schedule may be continued thereafter, subject to the reasonable and consistent requirements in paragraph (b).
(6)(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, the proceeds of a pension liability surtax imposed by a county pursuant to s. 212.055, which is levied for the purpose of funding or amortizing the unfunded liability of a defined benefit retirement plan or system, excluding the Florida Retirement System, shall be actuarially recognized, and the county shall apply the present value of the total projected proceeds of the surtax to reduce the unfunded liability or to amortize it as part of the county’s annual required contribution, beginning with the fiscal year immediately following approval of the pension liability surtax. The unfunded liability amortization schedule must be adjusted beginning with the fiscal year immediately following approval of the pension liability surtax and amortized over a period of 30 years.
(b) The payroll of all employees in classifications covered by a closed retirement plan or system that receives funds from the pension liability surtax must be included in determining the unfunded liability amortization schedule for the closed plan, regardless of the plan in which the employees currently participate, and the payroll growth assumption must be adjusted to reflect the payroll of those employees when calculating the amortization of the unfunded liability.
(7) Nothing contained in this section shall result in the allocation of chapter 175 or chapter 185 premium tax funds to any other retirement system or plan or for any other use than the exclusive purpose of providing retirement benefits for firefighters or police officers.
History.—s. 1, ch. 78-170; s. 16, ch. 79-183; s. 2, ch. 84-266; s. 2, ch. 96-368; s. 22, ch. 99-255; s. 1, ch. 2016-146.