A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to increase the amount of the death benefit paid when a law enforcement officer, firefighter, rescue squad worker, or senior civil air patrol member is killed in the line of duty.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 143‑166.3 reads as rewritten:
"§ 143‑166.3.  Payments; determination.
(a)	When any law‑enforcement officer, fireman, rescue squad worker or senior Civil Air Patrol member shall be killed in the line of duty, the Industrial Commission shall award a death benefit to be paid in the amounts set forth in subsection (b) to the following:
(1)	The spouse of such officer, fireman, rescue squad worker or senior Civil Air Patrol member if there be a surviving spouse; or
(2)	If there be no spouse qualifying under the provisions of this Article, then payments shall be made to any surviving dependent child of such officer, fireman, rescue squad worker or senior Civil Air Patrol member and if there be more than one surviving dependent child, then said payment shall be made to and equally divided among all surviving dependent children; or
(3)	If there be no spouse and no dependent child or children qualifying under the provisions of this Article, then payments shall be made to the surviving dependent parent of such officer, fireman, rescue squad worker or senior Civil Air Patrol member and if there be more than one surviving dependent parent then said payments shall be made to and equally divided between the surviving dependent parents of said officer, fireman, rescue squad worker or senior Civil Air Patrol member.
(b)	Payment shall be made to the person or persons qualifying therefor under subsection (a) in the following amounts:
(1)	At the time of the death of an officer, fireman, rescue squad worker or senior Civil Air Patrol member,  twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) shall be paid to the person or persons entitled thereto.
(2)	Thereafter, ten thousand dollars ($10,000) shall be paid annually to the person or persons entitled thereto until the sum of the initial payment and each annual payment reaches  fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).
(3)	In the event there is no person qualifying under subsection (a) of this section,  fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) shall be paid to the estate of the deceased officer, fireman, rescue squad worker or senior Civil Air Patrol member at the time of death.
(c)	In the event that any person or persons eligible for payments under subsection (a) of this section shall become ineligible, and other eligible person or persons qualify for said death benefit payments under subsection (a), then they shall receive the remainder of any payments up to the limit of  fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in the manner set forth in subsection (b) of this section.
(d)	In the event any person or persons eligible for payments under subsection (a) of this section shall become ineligible and no other person or persons qualify for payments under that subsection and where the sum of the initial payment of  twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) and each subsequent annual payment of  ten thousand dollars ($10,000) does not total  fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), then the difference between the total of the payments made and  fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) shall immediately be payable to the estate of the deceased officer, fireman, rescue squad worker, or senior Civil Air Patrol member."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2003.