Opinion ID: 2345108
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Application of Section 17203 and Section 17154(9)

Text: [¶ 20] The District asserts that responsibility regarding amounts deducted under section 17203 rests with the employees rather than the District and that the System does not have the authority to shift that burden to the District. We disagree. [¶ 21] The plain language of the statute does not limit the District's responsibility to merely collecting and withholding contributions. Viewing section 17203 as a whole, the statute imposes an unequivocal duty on the District to deduct certain amounts from employee salaries and to forward that deduction to the System. Subsection 17203(1) states that the chief administrative officer shall cause [the relevant compensation] to be deducted, (emphasis added) while subsection 17203(1)(B) states that [a]mounts deducted. . . must be paid to the State Employee and Teacher Retirement Program by the chief administrative officer of each school administrative unit  (emphasis added). Further, the relevant language under subsection 17203(1)(B) generally refers to [d]elinquent payments due under this paragraph. This logically refers to any instances where the District does not fulfill its obligation to deduct and submit funds to the System, including instances where the District deducted payments and erroneously directed them elsewhere. [¶ 22] Section 17203 grants the System the authority to assess employers for back contributions to the System. Because section 17203 grants this authority, we need not determine whether the back contributions assessed also constitute additional actuarial and administrative costs pursuant to section 17154(9).