BEFORE THE TEACHERS' RETIREMENT BOARD

OF THE STATE OF MONTANA

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�TO: All Concerned Persons

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1. On October 25, 2007, the Teachers' Retirement Board published MAR Notice No. 2-44-393 pertaining to the proposed amendment and repeal of the above-stated rules at page 1558 of the 2007 Montana Administrative Register, Issue Number 20.

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2. The department has amended ARM 2.44.308, 2.44.413, 2.44.414, 2.44.517A, 2.44.518, and 2.44.527 and repealed ARM 2.44.505 and 2.44.511 as proposed.

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3. The department has amended the following rule as proposed, but with the following changes from the original proposal, new matter underlined, deleted matter interlined:

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2.44.412 VETERANS CALLED TO ACTIVE DUTY (1) Members of the TRS called to active duty for a period not to exceed five years and reemployed in accordance with the provisions of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, as amended, shall be considered continuously employed during their military leave when determining vested interest and eligibility for retirement benefits.

(2) Reemployed veterans may elect to purchase creditable service for their military leave to be used in the calculation of retirement benefits. The cost to purchase this service shall be equal to the employee contributions that would have been made had they not been called to active duty. Interest accruing on the balance due to purchase active duty service will not be levied during the five years following the date of reemployment. If payment is not completed within five years following reemployment, interest will be assessed as provided under ARM 2.44.405.

(3) To qualify for service under this rule, the member called to uniformed service must remain an inactive member of the retirement system during the period of service in the uniformed services by leaving his or her accumulated contributions on deposit.

(4) A member who is making additional contributions under a service purchase contract at the time he or she is called to service in the uniformed services may suspend payments under the contract if they return to employment as required by the Act.

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4. The department has thoroughly considered the comments and testimony received. A summary of the comments received and the department's responses are as follows:

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COMMENT #1: Comments were received from David Niss, on behalf of the State Administration and Veterans' Affairs Interim Committee, regarding language not proposed for amendment in ARM 2.44.412(1) that included all future versions of USERRA within the scope of the reference to that act.

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RESPONSE #1: To adopt future versions of material incorporated by reference is not allowed, therefore, TRS amends the rule as shown above. ARM 2.44.412 has been adopted with amendments to strike phrase "as amended."

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/s/ Dal Smilie������������������������������������������� /s/ David L. Senn

Dal Smilie�������������������������������������������������David L. Senn

Rule Reviewer������������������������������������������ Executive Director

��������������������������������������������������������������� Teachers' Retirement System

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Certified to the Secretary of State December 10, 2007.