Update on 3% Healthcare Contribution Refund from the State Pension Program 2010-2012

This comes to you from David Cunningham, Director of Financial Services. Questions: dccunningham@hfcc.eduI want to update you on the status of the 3% Refunds from my January 11 message (see below for that message in its entirety).Like all of the other Michigan community colleges and school districts, HFC is continuing to move toward the best means to get the refunds out as soon as possible.The Refund poses several complex issues relating to taxability and systems. We have had conference calls with the Office of Retirement Services (ORS) and had a conference call with our ERP provider Ellucian last Thursday; plus voluminous correspondence between the community colleges. Moving forward on the refund was further complicated by our legal obligation to get W-2's completed and mailed by January 31.While we now have a good sense of the system solution for the Refund now, it will require us to touch all of the some 849 active employee refunds (there are about another 1,000 in-active employee refunds as well), which will be very time-consuming. We fully intend to get these refunds out well before the 60-90 days recommended by ORS, with active employees as our top priority.All said, we will need and appreciate your patience. Please contact me with any questions.David Cunningham, dccunningham@hfcc.edu=============================================================ORIGINAL MESSAGE FROM JAN. 11, 2018:As you probably already are aware, the Michigan Supreme Court issued a final ruling declaring Public Act 75 of 2010 unconstitutional, ordering a refund of all funds collected under this Act. This impacts all employees who participated in the State pension program between July 1, 2010 and September 3, 2012 who were subject to the 3% healthcare contribution. Employees who were/are in the Optional Retirement Program obviously are not party to this refund.Since the Court decision, the Financial Services/Payroll staff have been working to prepare for the refund, but await further details from the State on how to handle the final refund. While this is subject to change, we know the following:

•  The Office of Retirement Services (ORS), based your email address found on your ORS MIACCOUNT as of January 15, will send you an email indicating your refund amount. We strongly encourage you to log into your ORS MIACCOUNT, and ensure you have a valid email address on file. Please see the link below.
• While the refund will be processed through Payroll, it will not be included as part of a future regular payroll. It will be a separate payroll run.
• Payroll will complete the refunding process in multiple phases with active employees first. The College’s list of refunds is over 1,800 records, with more than 50% inactive employees. Some patience would be greatly appreciated.

While this should not be an issue for current employees, we do urge potential refund participants ensure that their address on file with the College is current. Please email Human Resources at hr@hfcc.edu or the Payroll Office at payroll@hfcc.edu if you believe your current address on file is not correct.Below is the ORS link regarding the refund:http://www.michigan.gov/orsschools/0,4653,7-206-36609-456119--,00.html