Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §12722, sub-§9 is enacted to read:

9.__Confidential employees; participation in Maine State Retirement System.__Notwithstanding other provisions of this section, confidential employees of the Maine Technical College System who are not represented in a collective bargaining unit and who elected to participate in the defined contribution retirement plan under this section may elect to participate or resume participation in the Maine State Retirement System as provided in this subsection.__This subsection applies only to confidential employees of the Maine Technical College System who are not represented in a collective bargaining unit.

A.__A former member of the Maine State Retirement System who is covered by this subsection and who was employed by the Maine Technical College System and who elected to participate in the defined contribution retirement plan and terminated participation in the Maine State Retirement System may elect to terminate participation in the defined contribution retirement plan and to resume participation in the Maine State Retirement System and, upon repayment of earlier contributions plus interest, is entitled to all service credit acquired during the previous membership.__ The election must be made in writing to the Maine State Retirement System no later than January 1, 2004.__The amount of repayment must be equal to the accumulated contributions withdrawn by the former member plus interest on the amount of those accumulated contributions, beginning on the date of withdrawal to the date the repayment or repayments are made, at a rate to be set by the Board of Trustees of the Maine State Retirement System, not to exceed regular interest, as defined in Title 5, section 17001, subsection 31, by 5 percentage points.

(1)__Notwithstanding Title 5, section 17703, subsection 1, payment under this paragraph may be made immediately after notification of the Maine State Retirement System of the election provided in this paragraph and upon determination by the Maine State Retirement System of the amount due to repay the previously withdrawn contributions.

(2)__A former member electing the option provided in this paragraph may also purchase service credit under the Maine State Retirement System for all or part of the time that the former member participated in the defined contribution retirement plan.__Purchase of service credit under this subparagraph consists of