Section 9-3-413.1 - Members' and employers' contributions based on actuarially determined contribution rates; calculation of rates; reports(a) Beginning with the 2027-2028 fiscal biennium, the retirement system shall calculate the percentage of salary for members' contributions required under W.S. 9-3-412(a) and for the employers' contribution required under W.S. 9-3-413 based on an actuarially determined contribution rate in accordance with the following: (i) The retirement system, in consultation with any actuary that the system utilizes, shall calculate the actuarially determined contribution rate for each fiscal year;(ii) The retirement system shall calculate the actuarially determined contribution rate by using the actuarial value of that portion of the retirement account designated for the public employee retirement plan as of January 1, 2025 and January 1 of each odd-numbered year thereafter, the value of benefits, estimated administrative expenses and officially adopted actuarial assumptions. The retirement system shall use this valuation to calculate the actuarially determined contribution rate for the immediately succeeding fiscal biennium;(iii) Not later than April 15, 2025 and April 15 of each odd-numbered year thereafter, the retirement system shall report the actuarially determined contribution rate to each local government entity participating in the public employee retirement plan, the governor, the state auditor, the state budget department and the joint appropriations committee, subject to the requirements of this subsection;(iv) Not later than April 15, 2026 and April 15 of each even-numbered year thereafter, the retirement system shall calculate a valuation of the account and an updated actuarially determined contribution rate, using the actuarial value of that portion of the account designated for the public employee retirement plan as of January 1 of that year, for informational purposes and shall report the valuation and rate to each entity specified in paragraph (iii) of this subsection. The actuarially determined contribution rate calculated under this paragraph shall not be used as the actuarially determined contribution rate for purposes of this section;(v) After calculation of the actuarially determined contribution rate under paragraph (ii) of this subsection, the state budget department and the retirement system shall calculate necessary amounts to account for any changes in the appropriations necessary to fund the contributions for the public employee retirement plan and shall include those amounts in the budget prepared under W.S. 9-2-1010 through 9-2-1014.1, including changes in amounts for school districts necessary to account for the employer's share of the actuarially determined contribution rate in accordance with this section for benefits paid from the education resource block grant model defined in W.S. 21-13-101(a)(xiv) and as enumerated in Attachment A(b)(xxxviii), as defined in W.S. 21-13-101(a)(xvii);(vi) Any change in the actuarially determined contribution rate calculated under paragraph (ii) of this subsection shall take effect on July 1 of the subsequent even-numbered year;(vii) Any change in the actuarially determined contribution rate calculated and reported under this subsection shall be in accordance with the following: (A) The actuarially determined contribution rate shall not be increased more than one-half percent (0.5%) nor decreased more than one-half percent (0.5%) from: (I) The rates specified in W.S. 9-3-412(a) and 9-3-413 for the fiscal biennium beginning July 1, 2026;(II) The actuarially determined contribution rate for the preceding fiscal biennium for each fiscal biennium beginning July 1, 2028.(B) The actuarially determined contribution rate for a fiscal biennium shall not be decreased if the public employee retirement plan has a funded ratio of less than ninety-nine percent (99%), on both a market and actuarial basis, as calculated on the date specified in paragraph (ii) of this subsection;(C) For purposes of this paragraph, the actuarially determined contribution rate shall use a closed amortization period of thirty (30) years calculated from January 1, 2018, with each subsequent amortization base created as a result of year-to-year experience changes over individual twenty (20) year closed periods;(D) In no event shall the actuarially determined contribution rate be less than the normal cost contribution, plus the rate necessary to meet administrative expenses. As used in this subparagraph, "normal cost contribution" means the contribution calculated using the entry age normal actuarial cost method to determine the average uniform and constant percentage rate of employer contributions that, if applied to the compensation of each new member during the entire period of the member's anticipated covered service, would be required to meet the costs of all benefits payable on the member's behalf based on the benefits provisions applicable for the individual member.(b) The actuarially determined contribution rate shall be paid through monthly contributions into the account as follows: (i) Subject to paragraph (iii) of this subsection and except as otherwise provided in W.S. 9-3-412, 9-3-431 and 9-3-432, every member covered under this article shall pay into the account a percentage of his salary in an amount equal to forty-nine and sixty-eight hundredths percent (49.68%) of the actuarially determined contribution rate calculated under this section;(ii) Every employer excluding employers of firefighter members shall pay into the account a contribution of members' salary in an amount equal to fifty and thirty-two hundredths percent (50.32%) of the actuarially determined contribution rate calculated under this section;(iii) For state employee members, five and fifty-seven hundredths percent (5.57%) of the member's salary that would otherwise be withheld in accordance with paragraph (i) of this subsection shall be paid by the employer without any salary reduction or offset. The remaining portion of the state employee's contribution required under paragraph (i) of this subsection shall be paid through a reduction in cash salary of the state employee unless specified otherwise by legislative act.Added by Laws 2024, ch. 60,§ 1, eff. 7/1/2024.