Marvin Mandel, Governor                          1617

3.

(5) Optional Membership of Certain Officials.—Notwithstanding
anything to the contrary in this article, membership in the retire-
ment system shall be optional with any class of officials elected or
appointed [for fixed terms]; or with any employees of the Gov-
ernor's office, or with any desk officer or employee of either house
of the General Assembly who receives an annual salary as his com-
pensation for such employment, who shall be deemed to be an ap-
pointed official within the application of this subsection. All officials
elected or appointed [for fixed terms] on or after July 1, 1957, may
become members of the system upon making application therefor
at any time after their elections or appointment and before the ex-
piration of their respective terms. All such officials shall be entitled
to credit for previous service rendered by them to the State, or a
participating municipal corporation, including service rendered prior
to the establishment of the Employees' Retirement System. If any
such official is entitled to a pension or retirement allowance under the
provisions of any other law, and such pension or retirement allow-
ance is supported wholly or in part by the State of Maryland, except
benefits from social security, such official shall be deemed to have
waived the benefits thereof by accepting the payment of benefits
under this article. Upon receiving a claim for such service credit
from the official, the board of trustees of the retirement system shall
verify the fact of such previous employment and the creditable serv-
ice to which the member is entitled, compute the amount due from
such political subdivision for which credit is claimed, and submit a
statement to the participating municipal corporation for such amount,
such computation to be based upon the compensation actually re-
ceived by the official from the municipal corporation during the period
for which service is to be credited. The participating municipal cor-
poration is authorized and directed forthwith to pay the said amount
to the retirement system, or to place it in the next ensuing budget for
prompt payment when that budget becomes effective. The board of
trustees is authorized and directed to include any amount due from
the State in the appropriation allowed by the next ensuing State
budget.

Any such official who receives membership service credit for serv-
ice rendered to the State or to a participating municipal corporation
under the provisions of this subsection shall pay to the retirement
system by single payment, within such period of time as may be
determined by the board of trustees, the contributions, with interest,
which he would have paid had he been a member of the retirement
system but withdrew. Provided, however, that any such member may
waive the payment of any or all such contributions, in which case
upon retirement any ordinary disability retirement allowance or any
allowance due to nonreappointment or nonre-election to any office
payable to such an official, shall be reduced by the actuarial equivalent
of those contributions which he had not paid, with interest to date of
retirement.

The total retirement allowance that would have been payable to
the beneficiary had he not waived his contributions shall be used as
the basis for the determination of any supplemental payment under
the provisions of Section 14 (7) of this article.

Provided further that any desk officer or employee of either house
of the General Assembly, who was receiving an annual salary as