Separation from service; refund of contributions.

(1) Should any officer or employee leave the service of the state before accumulating aggregate time of 10 years toward retirement, such officer or employee shall be entitled to a refund of 100 percent of his or her contributions made to the retirement trust fund without interest, provided however that any such officer or employee may leave such contributions in said retirement trust fund for a period not exceeding 5 years pending reemployment, and upon reemployment by the state or county within those 5 years receive credit for such prior service. Any such officer or employee who fails to be reemployed by the state or a county of the state within those 5 years shall be refunded 100 percent of his or her contributions to the retirement trust fund, without interest, and all prior service credit shall be forfeited should he or she be reemployed at a later date. Should any officer or employee who has 10 or more years service within the contemplation of this law leave the service of the state and county, such officer or employee may leave said contributions in the retirement trust fund and receive the same retirement benefits as provided for current employees in s. 122.08, provided however that such officer or employee shall have made contributions as required by this law, or such officer or employee may elect to accept a refund of 100 percent of his or her contributions to the fund, without interest. Any officer or employee who accepts such refund shall be forever barred from receiving prior service credit under the provisions of this law. No officer or employee who has received benefits under this law shall be entitled to a refund.

(2) Any former members of the state or county retirement systems established by former chapters 121 and 134, that terminated their service after 10 or more years of service and received a refund of 50 percent of their retirement contributions may, upon written request to the division, receive a refund of any balance credited to their account provided they are not members of the state and county retirement system under this chapter.

(3) Any person who hereafter elects to receive retirement benefits under s. 112.05, shall not be entitled to the retirement benefit of this chapter, except for the refund of his or her contributions to the retirement trust fund as provided in this section; likewise any person who elects to receive retirement benefits under this chapter shall thereby become ineligible to receive retirement benefits under s. 112.05.

(4) Should any officer or employee elect to receive a refund as provided in this section, his or her application for refund shall be submitted in the manner prescribed by the regulations adopted by the department and shall accompany the payroll certification, submitted to the department, on which he or she was last paid prior to termination. The department shall pay the entire refund due within 45 days after the first day of the month subsequent to receipt of such application for refund and said payroll certification.

(5) Notwithstanding any other provision in this chapter to the contrary, any officer or employee who has accumulated an aggregate of 25 or more years of service and terminates his or her employment and elects to receive a refund of his or her contributions made to the retirement trust fund in accordance with this section may, at any time prior to July 1, 1970, pay to the division an amount equal to the sum of: the amount of his or her contributions previously refunded and interest at 3 percent compounded annually on the amount of his or her refunded contributions from the date of refund to the date of payment to the division. Upon the payment of such amount, the former member of the retirement system shall be reinstated and shall receive the monthly retirement benefit to which he or she is entitled under this section, such benefit to commence on the latter of the first day of the month following the payment by the reinstated member of the aforestated amount to the division or the date he or she otherwise would have been entitled to such benefits. The division, at its discretion, may require that such retirement benefits be paid under one of the optional forms of payment (described in s. 122.08) as chosen by the division.