This section sets up the Contribution Fund, gives the state Comptroller control over it, and requires certain payments, reporting, and administration steps.
(a) There is hereby established a special fund to be known as the Contribution Fund. Such fund shall consist of and there shall be deposited in such fund: (1) All contributions, interest and penalties collected under Sections 36-28-5 and 36-28-7; (2) All moneys appropriated thereto under this chapter; (3) Any property or securities and earnings thereof acquired through the use of moneys belonging to the fund; (4) Interest earned upon any moneys in the fund; and (5) All sums recovered upon the bond of the custodian or otherwise for losses sustained by the fund and all other moneys received for the fund from any other source. All moneys in the fund shall be mingled and undivided. Subject to the provisions of this chapter, the state Comptroller is vested with full power, authority and jurisdiction over the fund, including all moneys and property or securities belonging thereto, and may perform any and all acts whether or not specifically designated, which are necessary to the administration thereof consistent with the provisions of this chapter. (b) The Contribution Fund shall be established and held separate and apart from any other funds or moneys of the state and shall be used and administered exclusively for the purpose of this chapter. Withdrawals from such fund shall be made for and solely for: (1) Payment of amounts required to be paid to the federal agency pursuant to an agreement entered into under Section 36-28-4; (2) Payment of refunds provided for in subsection (c) of Section 36-28-7; and (3) Refunds of overpayments, not otherwise adjustable, made by a political subdivision or instrumentality. (4) To transfer such funds, not otherwise required in subdivisions (1), (2) and (3) of this subsection, into the Social Security Special Allocation Account, for administration. Such sum is hereby appropriated for this purpose. (c) From the Contribution Fund the custodian of the fund shall pay to the federal agency such amounts and at such time or times as may be directed by the state Comptroller in accordance with any agreement entered into under Section 36-28-4 and applicable federal law. (d) The Treasurer of the state shall be ex officio treasurer and custodian of the Contribution Fund and shall administer such fund in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and the directions of the state and shall pay all warrants drawn upon it in accordance with the provisions of this section and with such regulations as the state Comptroller may prescribe pursuant thereto. (e)(1) There is appropriated annually to the Contribution Fund, in addition to the contributions collected and paid into the Contribution Fund under Sections 36-28-5 and 36-28-7, to be available for the purposes of subsections (b) and (c) of this section, until expended, such additional sums as are found to be necessary in order to make the payments to the federal agency which the state is obligated to make pursuant to an agreement entered into under Section 36-28-4; provided, that the sums necessary to match Social Security contributions by employees covered under the Teachers’ Retirement System are hereby appropriated annually from the Education Trust Fund; provided further, that the sums necessary to match Social Security contributions by state employees other than those covered by the Teachers’ Retirement System are hereby appropriated annually from the fund from which the salaries of such employees of each employer are paid. In the case of those departments supported wholly by transfers from other state funds, there is hereby appropriated from the supporting funds such additional amounts as may be necessary to pay the sums necessary to match Social Security contributions by employees of each department so supported in the same proportion as the other state funds contribute to the support and maintenance of such department. (2) The state Comptroller shall submit to each regular session of the state Legislature, at least 90 days in advance of the beginning of such session, an estimate of the amounts appropriated to the Contribution Fund by subdivision (1) of this subsection for the next appropriation period. (f) Where Social Security contributions are made from salaries paid from federal funds, the employer shall pay from such federal funds to the state Comptroller for Social Security the amount calculated as a percentage of the salaries of those teachers to be contributed by the state as employer in accordance with Sections 36-28-5 and 36-28-7. Such amounts shall be paid by separate check payable to the state Comptroller for Social Security representing the employer tax at the same time as employee Social Security contributions are paid to the state Comptroller; provided, that the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to funds received under the provisions of the Hatch Act of 1887, as amended in 1955, and the McIntyre-Stennis Act (Cooperative Forestry Research Act of 1962) of the Congress of the United States for the support of agriculturally related research.