Bill Text: MI SB0968 | 2013-2014 | 97th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Public employees and officers; compensation and benefits; survivor health benefits for certain public safety officers killed in the line of duty; provide for surviving spouse and dependents. Amends title & sec. 2 of 2004 PA 46 (MCL 28.632) & adds sec. 4a.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-06-02 - Referred To Committee On Appropriations [SB0968 Detail]

Download: Michigan-2013-SB0968-Introduced.html

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SENATE BILL No. 968

 

 

Introduced by Senators KAHN, JONES, NOFS and MARLEAU.

 

 

     A bill to amend 2004 PA 46, entitled

 

"Public safety officers benefit act,"

 

by amending the title and section 2 (MCL 28.632) and by adding

 

section 4a.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

 

TITLE

 

     An act to provide compensation and other benefits to

 

dependents of public safety officers who are killed or who are

 

permanently and totally disabled in the line of duty; to create the

 

public safety officers benefit fund; to prescribe the duties and

 

responsibilities of certain state officers; and to make an

 

appropriation.

 

     Sec. 2. As used in this act:

 

     (a) "Commission" means the commission on law enforcement

 

standards created under the commission on law enforcement standards

 

act, 1965 PA 203, MCL 28.601 to 28.616.

 

     (b) "Dependent" means any individual who was substantially

 

reliant for support upon the income of the deceased public safety

 

officer.

 

     (c) "Direct and proximate" means that the antecedent event is

 

a substantial factor in the result.

 

     (d) "Emergency first responder" means an individual licensed

 

under section 20950 of the public health code, 1978 PA 368, MCL

 

333.20950.

 

     (e) (d) "Firefighter" means a regularly employed member of a

 

fire department of a city, county, township, village, state

 

university, or community college or a member of the department of

 

natural resources who is employed to fight fires. Firefighter

 

includes a volunteer member of a fire department.

 

     (f) (e) "Law enforcement officer" means an individual involved

 

in crime and juvenile delinquency control or reduction or

 

enforcement of the criminal law. Law enforcement officer includes

 

police, corrections, probation, parole, bailiffs, or other similar

 

court officers.

 

     (g) (f) "Line of duty" means either of the following:

 

     (i) Any action which an officer whose primary function is crime

 

control or reduction, enforcement of the criminal law, or

 

suppression of fires is obligated or authorized by rule,

 

regulations, condition of employment or service, or law to perform,

 

including those social, ceremonial, or athletic functions to which

 

the officer is assigned, or for which the officer is compensated,

 

by the public agency he or she serves. For other officers, line of

 

duty means any action the officer is so obligated or authorized to

 

perform in the course or controlling or reducing crime, enforcing

 

the criminal law, or suppressing fires.

 

     (ii) Any action which an officially recognized or designated

 

public employee member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew is

 

obligated or authorized by rule, regulation, condition of

 

employment or service, or law to perform.

 

     (h) (g) "Member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew" means an

 

officially recognized or designated employee or volunteer member of

 

a rescue squad or ambulance crew.

 

     (i) (h) "Permanent and total disability" means medically

 

determinable consequences of a catastrophic, line-of-duty injury

 

that permanently prevent a former public safety officer from

 

performing any gainful work.

 

     (j) (i) "Public safety officer" or "officer" means any

 

individual serving a public agency in an official capacity, with or

 

without compensation, as a law enforcement officer, firefighter,

 

emergency first responder, rescue squad member, or ambulance crew

 

member.

 

     (k) (j) "Surviving spouse" means the husband or wife of the

 

deceased officer at the time of the officer's death, and includes a

 

spouse living apart from the officer at the time of the officer's

 

death for any reason.

 

     Sec. 4a. If a firefighter, law enforcement officer, or

 

emergency first responder dies in the line of duty on or after the

 

effective date of the amendatory act that added this section, the

 

state shall provide to the surviving spouse and the decedent's

 

dependents health insurance comparable to, and on comparable terms

 

to, the insurance coverage the decedent received from any source at

 

the time of his or her death. Coverage provided under this section

 

ends for a spouse if he or she qualifies for and obtains comparable

 

health insurance from another source. Coverage provided under this

 

section ends for a nonspouse dependent if any of the following

 

occur:

 

     (a) The dependent qualifies for and obtains comparable health

 

insurance from another source.

 

     (b) The later of the dependent's eighteenth birthday or, if he

 

or she is enrolled as a full-time student in high school or an

 

accredited university or college, his or her twenty-sixth birthday.