Bill Text: NY A06092 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Provides for certain death benefits to correction officers, correction officer-sergeants, correction officer-captains, assistant wardens, associate wardens or wardens employed by Orange county.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-23 - print number 6092b [A06092 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A06092-Amended.html
Bill Title: Provides for certain death benefits to correction officers, correction officer-sergeants, correction officer-captains, assistant wardens, associate wardens or wardens employed by Orange county.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-23 - print number 6092b [A06092 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A06092-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6092--A 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY April 3, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. GUNTHER, GIBBS, DeSTEFANO, BRABENEC -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees -- recommitted to the Committee on Governmental Employees in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to providing certain death benefits to correction officers, correction officer-sergeants, correction officer-captains, assistant wardens, associate wardens or wardens employed by Orange county The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The retirement and social security law is amended by adding 2 a new section 606-d to read as follows: 3 § 606-d. Death benefits for correction officers employed by Orange 4 county. a. As used in this section, the term "correction officer" shall 5 mean a person employed by the Orange county correction department with a 6 title of correction officer, correction officer-sergeant, correction 7 officer-captain, assistant warden, associate warden or warden. 8 b. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, where a 9 correction officer would have been entitled to a service retirement 10 benefit at the time of his or her death and where his or her death 11 occurs on or after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two 12 thousand twenty-three that added this section, the beneficiary or bene- 13 ficiaries may elect to receive, in a lump sum, an amount payable which 14 shall be equal to the pension reserve that would have been established 15 had the member retired on the date of his or her death, or the value of 16 the death benefit and the reserve-for-increased-take-home-pay, if any, 17 whichever is greater. 18 § 2. All past service costs associated with implementing the 19 provisions of this act shall be borne by the county of Orange and may be 20 amortized over a period of ten years. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD04118-04-4A. 6092--A 2 1 § 3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, none 2 of the provisions of this act shall be subject to the appropriation 3 requirement of section 25 of the retirement and social security law. 4 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately. FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill would modify the in-service death benefit for retirement eligible members of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System who are employed by Orange County in certain correction officer titles. The in-service death benefit will be the value of the pension reserve as if the member had retired on their date of death. If this bill is enacted during the 2024 Legislative Session, we antic- ipate that there will be an increase of approximately $34,000 in the annual contributions of Orange County for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. In future years this cost will vary but is expected to average 0.1% of salary annually. In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be an immediate past service cost of approximately $240,000 which will be borne by Orange County as a one-time payment. This estimate assumes that payment will be made on February 1, 2025. If Orange County elects to amortize this cost over a 10-year period, the cost for each year includ- ing interest would be $30,700. These estimated costs are based on 277 affected members employed by Orange County, with annual salary of approximately $30.8 million as of March 31, 2023. Summary of relevant resources: Membership data as of March 31, 2023 was used in measuring the impact of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2023 actuari- al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2023 Report of the Actuary and the 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2023 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, 2023 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 16, 2024, and intended for use only during the 2024 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2024-67, prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
