Opinion ID: 2546975
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Interpreting the language in effect when the Bartleys worked for the District as active TRS members

Text: Since the 1990 revisions, Alaska Statute 14.25.110(a) has provided that a member is eligible for a normal retirement benefit if the member (1) was first hired before July 1, 1975, has attained the age of 55 years, and has at least 15 years of credited service, the last five of which have been membership service or is otherwise vested in the system[.] The statutory language first hired before July 1, 1975 thus preserves a historical distinction between teachers hired before and after the effective date of the 1975 legislative revisions. The continued distinction makes sense because teachers who joined the TRS system before that date cannot constitutionally be made subject to subsequent increases in age and length of service requirements. See Flisock v. State, Division of Retirement & Benefits, 818 P.2d 640, 643 (Alaska 1991) (interpreting article XII, section 7 of the Alaska Constitution). AS 14.25.110(a) specifies that a member is eligible for a normal retirement benefit if the member (1) was first hired before [a certain date] and [satisfies certain service criteria]. The use of the word member, and the historical and statutory context of AS 14.25.110(a)(1) suggest that the term first hired refers to when a member was first hired into the TRS system, and does not refer to the date on which a teacher may have been first hired into other creditable employment. The Bartleys point to other statutes in which the legislature has been more explicit about which employment satisfies time-sensitive hiring requirements. But greater specificity in unrelated statutes does not prove that the legislature intended to interpret first hired in this statute to refer to the teacher being first hired into any creditable employment before July 1, 1975. And, contrary to the Bartleys' suggestion, there is no legal or equitable preference favoring a construction of first hired that would make normal retirement available to 55-year-old teachers who entered the TRS system toward the end of careers begun elsewhere before 1975. Comparison to other TRS members now eligible for normal retirementsuch as those with 25 years of credited service or 20 years of membership servicedoes not demonstrate that the legislature intended to make TRS members with only 15 years of credited service, 5 in membership service, eligible for normal retirement benefits at age 55 simply because they were first hired into creditable service by a non-TRS employer before July 1, 1975. The Bartleys, who did not become TRS members until they were hired by the District in 1991, were not entitled to a normal retirement benefit under AS 14.25.110(a)(1) because they were not first hired into the TRS system before July 1, 1975.