STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5577 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 22, 2021 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BYRNES -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees AN ACT granting retroactive membership in the New York state and local employees' retirement system to Shawn Coveny The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, Shawn Cove- 2 ny, an employee of the New York State Department of Corrections and 3 Community Supervision and a member of the New York state and local 4 employees' retirement system, who was employed as a New York state park 5 aide for Letchworth State Park as a seasonal employee in the summer of 6 2008, who for reasons not ascribable to his own negligence, failed to 7 become a member of such retirement system during such employment by 8 Letchworth State Park in 2008, shall be deemed to have joined the New 9 York state and local employees' retirement system on the date May 31, 10 2008 if, within one year of the effective date of this act, he shall 11 file a written request with the state comptroller. 12 § 2. No contributions made to the New York state and local employees' 13 retirement system by Shawn Coveny shall be returned or refunded to him 14 pursuant to this act. 15 § 3. All past service costs of implementing the provisions of this act 16 shall be borne by the state of New York. 17 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately. FISCAL NOTE.-- Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill will change the date of membership for Shawn Coveny, a current Tier 6 member in the New York State and Local Employees' Retire- ment System employed by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, to May 31, 2008, his first date of employment with Letchworth State Park. There will be no refund of member contrib- utions. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD04186-02-1A. 5577 2 If this bill is enacted during the 2021 legislative session, there will be an increase of approximately $5,900 in the annual contributions of the State of New York for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. In future years, this cost will vary as the billing rates and salary of Shawn Coveny change. In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be an immediate past service cost of approximately $5,280 which will be borne by the State of New York as a one-time payment. This estimate is based on the assumption that payment will be made on March 1, 2022. Summary of relevant resources: Membership data as of March 31, 2020 was used in measuring the impact of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2020 actuari- al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2020 Report of the Actuary and the 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2020 Annual Report to the Comptroller on Actuarial Assumptions, and the Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York: Audit and Control. The Market Assets and GASB Disclosures are found in the March 31, 2020 New York State and Local Retirement System Financial Statements and Supplementary Information. I am a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and meet the Quali- fication Standards to render the actuarial opinion contained herein. This fiscal note does not constitute a legal opinion on the viability of the proposed change nor is it intended to serve as a substitute for the professional judgment of an attorney. This estimate, dated January 11, 2021, and intended for use only during the 2021 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2021-39, prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.