DOWAGIAC — Southwestern Michigan College officials said they are pleased with new legislation that has been proposed to exempt part-time student workers form contributing to the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System. 

State Sen. John Proos, R-St. Joseph, and State Rep. Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis, recently introduced legislation in the form of Senate Bill 888 and House Bill 5679. These bills would work to clarify MPSERS regulations and explicitly exempt part time student workers from contributing to MPSERS.

“This is a big topic among all 28 of the state’s community colleges,” Proos said. “There is obviously a lot of confusion and a lack of guidance as to what the requirements are for part-time students.”

The lack of clarity that currently exists within MPSERS statutes has created a system where each community college has had to decide for itself what to do in the case of part-time student worker retirement fund contributions, Proos said. For example, Glen Oaks Community College in St. Joseph County has always enrolled part-time student workers into the retirement system, while historically, SMC and Lake Michigan Community College have not.

Currently, 16 of the state’s 28 community colleges do not contribute to MPSERS for part-time student employees, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency.

As the legislation stands, it creates risk for the Office of Retirement Services, as it has given different guidance to different colleges on the issue, Proos said. He added that the bills on which he has worked with Rep. Miller would bring each community college under the same umbrella of guidance.

“When there is this level of ambiguity, it is appropriate for the legislature to step in help decide how these students will be treated in the future,” Proos said.

In addition to providing clarity to MPSERS regulations, Proos said the proposed legislation would treat all students equally, as full-time student workers have always been explicitly exempt from contributing to MPSERS and no community college enrolls full-time student workers into the system.

SMC President David Mathews said that he was pleased by the proposed bills and is hopeful that they will pass in order to provide clarity to MPSERS regulations.

“We obviously support it,” he said. “We haven’t changed what we’ve done in 30 years, and believe we have done the right thing. … We believe this legislation will clarify that.”

SMC’s stance on excluding part-time student workers from MPSERS contributions has been public as of late due to an audit released by the Office of the Auditor General, which found misconduct in terms of excluding part-time student workers from MPSERS contributions. With the charge of misconduct, the audit found that SMC could potentially owe the state up to $10.4 million in fines and fees.

SMC has filed a lawsuit against the Auditor General with the Michigan Supreme Court over the Auditor General’s right to audit the college. That case is currently pending.

Mathews said that he is unsure how the proposed legislation could affect the lawsuit.

“I’m not sure where that will go,” he said.

Proos said that his proposed legislation could potentially benefit SMC in its lawsuit.

“Legislative action could certainly provide clarity regardless of court action,” Proos said. “After all, our courts are called upon to make decisions based on the statue as passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. It is our hope to provide clarity on the entire issue.”

Both Mathews and Proos said they believed the proposed bills would benefit student workers.

“As I view this topic, my interest is in the students and decreasing overall college costs, rather than enrolling [students] in a system they may never benefit from, may never participate in again or gain any significant value from doing so,” Proos said. “These days, every dollar counts. In today’s educational systems, we need to make sure students have those dollars available, rather than enrolling them in a separate system they may never participate in their work lives.”

It is still unclear when the bills will be scheduled for a vote, but Proos said he hopes there will be a hearing for the bills sometime after Easter.