Employers under one hundred thousand - limit of contributions to old hire firefighter pension plans

(1) There may be levied and set apart by the governing body of each municipality having a population of less than one hundred thousand, by the board of directors of each fire protection district, or by the board of a county improvement district, a tax for the year 1969 and each year thereafter of not more than one mill on the taxable property in such municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district, the proceeds thereof to be credited to the old hire firefighters' pension fund of each such municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district. (2) Any municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district having less than one hundred thousand population and having a paid fire department shall levy an assessment on the active old hire members in an amount not to exceed six percent of their monthly salaries and, as a minimum amount, shall match the moneys derived therefrom by an equal contribution from the municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district by use of the levy provided for in subsection (1) of this section, or the proper governing body shall appropriate said sum out of the general revenues of the municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district. (3) Any municipality having less than one hundred thousand population and having a paid and volunteer fire department or any fire protection district or county improvement district having a paid and volunteer fire department shall assess the paid old hire members of such department in an amount not to exceed six percent of their monthly salaries and, as a minimum amount, shall match the moneys derived therefrom by an equal contribution from the municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district by use of the levy provided for in subsection (1) of this section. Said sum shall be segregated by the municipal treasurer, the treasurer of the district board of directors, or the treasurer of the county improvement district, as the case may be, and shall be used for the payment of pensions to the paid old hire members of said departments and their surviving spouses and orphans, as otherwise provided for in this article, but, so long as there are volunteer members in said department, the present old hire pension fund, if derived from state allocations, shall continue to be maintained for the benefit of all members of said department, paid old hire members and volunteers alike, under such rules as the board determines to be equitable. (4) A paid firefighter is any firefighter whose main source of income is derived from service on a fire department. All other firefighters who render service to a fire department are volunteer firefighters. (5) If the total moneys allocated to an old hire firefighters' pension fund by a municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district are, in the opinion of the board of such municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district, inadequate to sustain a proper fund for retirement or for the other purposes of the fund under this article, such board may consolidate its old hire fund with the old hire fund of another municipality, fire protection district, or county improvement district, and such consolidated funds shall thereafter be administered as a single fund. Such consolidation of funds may be made under such conditions and in conformity with such terms as are mutually agreed to by the boards of the consolidating single funds, consistent with the provisions of this article.