Retirement health savings trust - state personnel director - investigation

(1) The state personnel director shall investigate the benefits and drawbacks of establishing a retirement health savings trust for the benefit of state employees. (2) In investigating the benefits and drawbacks of establishing a retirement health savings trust, the state personnel director shall consider the feasibility of the following: (a) The state, as an employer, establishing a trust for the purpose of providing retirement health savings benefits to state employees who choose to participate in the trust; (b) The state specifying that providing retirement health savings benefits is an integral part of the state's activities; (c) The state treating a trust that makes the provision of retirement health benefits possible as an integral part of the state and therefore including the trust in the state's tax-exempt status; (d) The state creating an individual account within the trust for each state employee who chooses to participate and allowing the state to make pretax contributions, including unused annual or sick leave, to a state employee's account on behalf of the employee; (e) The state maintaining substantial control of the trust and having the power to amend or terminate the trust and appoint the trustees of the trust; (f) The state allowing each state employee who participates in the trust to determine how his or her money will be invested; (g) The state allowing all moneys in the trust to grow without being subject to state or federal income taxes; (h) The state allowing participating state employees to make withdrawals on a tax-free basis after reaching a certain age, so long as the moneys are used for qualified medical expenses; and (i) The state allowing an employee's spouse, dependents, or other beneficiaries to use any assets that remain in a participating employee's account at the time of the employee's death for qualified medical expenses. (3) The state personnel director, in investigating the feasibility of establishing a retirement health savings trust, shall investigate the benefits and drawbacks to the state and to state employees of allowing the state as an employer and state employees the option to make the following contributions to the trust: (a) Pretax contributions, including a portion of unused employee annual and sick leave, by the state to an employee's account on behalf of the employee; (b) Voluntary after-tax contributions by the state to an employee's account on behalf of the employee; (c) Voluntary after-tax contributions by the employee into the employee's account; and (d) Voluntary pretax contributions by the employee to the employee's account based on a one-time irrevocable election to make such contributions. (4) The state personnel director shall investigate the benefits and drawbacks to the state and to state employees of various potential terms of a retirement health savings trust, including, but not limited to: (a) The design, adoption, and schedule for implementation of the trust; (b) The nature and amount of the contributions that the state may make to the trust on behalf of a participating state employee; (c) The nature of the investments that a state employee may choose to make with the moneys contributed to the trust; (d) The terms of eligibility for participating in the trust and for withdrawing the moneys contributed to the trust; (e) The nature of the expenses that qualify as medical expenses for purposes of tax-free withdrawal of moneys from the trust; and (f) The negotiation and payment of any administrative expenses to be paid by the state or by each employee who chooses to participate in the trust. (5) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2008, p. 1903, § 91, effective August 5, 2008.)