CHAPTER 29

An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Chap 2 of Title 51,

a new article numbered 8, consisting of seven new sections numbered

§§ 51-29.1 to 51-29.7, inclusive, to provide for the voluntary retire-

ment of the Clerks of the State Senate and House of Delegates, and

for the payment of retirement compensation to persons who so retire;

to create for the Clerks of the State Senate and House of Delegates

a fund to be known as the Clerks’ of the State Senate and House of

Delegates Retirement Fund; to provide for certain payments and to
make certain payments optional.

[H 480]

Approved February 14, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding in Chapter 2 of
Title 51, a new article numbered 8, consisting of seven new sections num-
bered 51-29.1 through 51-29.7 as follows:
§ 51-29.1. The Clerk of the State Senate or the Clerk of the House
of Delegates may retire from his office as such, at any time after having
attained the age of seventy years and after not less than thirty-five
years of service as such Clerk, upon giving the Governor notice in
writing of his intention so to do, stating in such notice the date upon
which such retirement will become effective. Upon receipt of such notice,
the Governor shall notify the Comptroller of such retirement and the
effective date of the same.

Any such Clerk so retiring shall, after such retirement and for so long
as he may live be paid by the State, out of the general funds in the State
treasury, or out of such funds as shall be appropriated for the purpose,
annual compensation in an amount equal to one-half of the annual
salary being received by him immediately prior to his retirement. Such
compensation shall be paid by the State Treasurer in monthly or semi-
monthly installments, upon warrants of the Comptroller.

§ 51-29.2. Vacancies caused by such retirement, under any of the
provisions of § 51-29.1, shall be filled in the manner prescribed by law
for filling vacancies otherwise occurring in such offices.

§ 51-29.3. A fund is hereby created and known as the Clerks’ of the
State Senate and House of Delegates Retirement Fund. All retirement
salaries of such Clerks paid pursuant to the provisions of this article shall
first be paid out of such fund, and until the fund is exhausted no such
retirement salaries shall be paid from moneys appropriated out of the
general funds of the State Treasury.

§ 51-29.4. Each such Clerk embraced within the provisions of
8§ 51-29.1 and 51-29.2 shall pay to the State Treasurer a percentage of his
salary according to the following schedule:

Such clerks less than forty-one years of age at the time they take
office, or, if they hold office at the time of the passage of this act, less
than forty-one years of age on June twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred
forty-two, shall pay at the rate of two percent of their salaries. Such
clerks more than forty years of age and less than fifty-six years of age
at the time they take office, or, if they hold office at the time of the
passage of this act, more than forty years of age and less than fifty-six
years of age on June twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred forty-two, shall
pay at the rate of two and one-half percent of their salaries. Such clerks
more than fifty-five years of age, or, if they hold office at the time of the
passage of this act, more than fifty-five years of age on June twenty-
seventh, nineteen hundred forty-two, shall pay at the rate of three per-
cent of their salaries. }

§ 51-29.5. In drawing warrants for the salary payments of such
Clerks, the Comptroller shall deduct from the amount of each such salary
payment, beginning with the payments made August one, nineteen hun-
dred fifty-two, the percentage thereof prescribed in this section. Deduc-
tions to be made from the salary payments of such Clerks shall be per-
centages of the total salary payments payable out of the State treasury,
whether the State Treasury is to be reimbursed for any part thereof or not.

§ 51-29.6. Notwithstanding any provisions of this article to the con-
trary, any such Clerk may notify the Comptroller within sixty days after
he takes office, that he elects not to make payments to the Clerks, of
the State Senate and the House of Delegates Retirement Fund provided
for in § 51-29.3, in which event every such Clerk so electing shall not
thereafter be entitled to receive any retirement salary or any other benefit
provided for such Clerks under the provisions of this article or under the
provisions of §§ 51-29.1 and 51-29.2, nor shall any such Clerk, once having
so elected, be thereafter eligible for any such retirement salary or benefits
even though he should make payments or contributions to such Fund.
Upon receipt of any such notice, the Comptroller shall not make any
further deductions from the salary of such Clerk giving the notice, and
the Comptroller shall, by warrants drawn by him on the Treasurer, refund
to such Clerk any deductions theretofore made.

§ 51-29.7 The Commonwealth shall contribute to the Clerks’ of the
State Senate and House of Delegates Retirement Fund during each bien-
nium, a sum equivalent to the aggregate amount contributed to such fund
by such Clerks during the preceding biennium. To this end provision shall
be made in each biennial general appropriation act for an appropriation
of such amount. .

2. An emergency exists and this Act is in force from its passage.