Special information for joint employers/districts seeking to join the WRS (joint fire, police, EMS, or similar districts of two or more municipalities)
The first step to joining the WRS or ETF-administered health insurance is being accepted for coverage under Wisconsin’s 218 Agreement with Social Security. To do this, a prospective employer must submit their entity’s creation documentation to ETF for review.
Unlike a town, village, city, county, or school district, which are separate and independent municipalities and almost always public bodies corporate and politic under the Wisconsin Statutes, a joint employer/district may or may not be separate and independent.
For example, Village of Apple and Town of Orange agree under the appropriate Wisconsin Statute (e.g., Wis. Stat. 66.0301) to create a joint EMS district. The joint EMS district may or may not be separate and independent from the creating municipalities (Village of Apple and Town of Orange).
Whether or not a joint instrumentality/employer is sufficiently separate and independent is based on federal and state statute and subject to review and determination by ETF, the Social Security Administration, and/or Internal Revenue Service. If a joint district/employer is determined not to be separate and independent, they cannot join the State’s 218 Agreement or the WRS by themselves.
There are, however, other options available to get WRS and other benefit coverage for a joint district/employer and its employees.
- Option 1: According to ETF Admin. Code 10.55, the municipalities that created the joint district or for which it provides service, could agree to share the responsibilities (service, earnings, contributions) for the employees of the joint district. This means that the creating municipalities will pay a proportionate share of the costs for things like contributions, disability payments, etc., and will report the service and earnings similarly. This option also assumes one or both of the municipalities in question are already WRS participating employers.
- Example: Village A and Village B both participate in the WRS. Those villages create a joint fire district, but the district is not separate and independent from the creating village’s and therefore can’t join the WRS by itself. Village A and B decide to share the responsibilities for the joint fire district under the WRS. Village A and B can decide how to share the costs as long as it’s within ETF Admin. Code 10.55. Effectively, the fire district is a joint operation of both of the WRS-participating villages.
- Option 2: The joint district and its employees are attached to (i.e., made part of, controlled by) one of the municipalities where the joint district provides services. In this case, the joint district would look more like a department of the municipality and not be a separate entity. Any other municipalities for which the joint district provides services could negotiate and contract with the municipality which the joint district has attached itself to provide services, but the joint district and its employees would be part of the municipality to which it’s attached.
Example: Village A and Village B both participate in the WRS. A joint fire district provides services for both Village A and B. The fire district does not meet eligibility to join the 218 Agreement/WRS/ETF-administered insurances independently. Village A agrees to operate the fire district as part of its municipality and to cover its employees under WRS and ETF-administered insurances. Village A accepts responsibility for all aspects of administering the benefits and reporting to ETF. Village B has can negotiate an agreement with Village A for the fire district to provide services and pay an amount towards that cost. How Village B pays Village A for these benefits is out of ETF’s purview.