Bill Text: NY S05126 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to establishing a twenty year retirement plan for members or officers of the regional state park police.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - REFERRED TO CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSIONS [S05126 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-S05126-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5126 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN SENATE February 24, 2021 ___________ Introduced by Sen. GOUNARDES -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to establishing a twenty year retirement plan for members or officers of the regional state park police 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 383-e to read as follows: 3 § 383-e. Retirement of officers of the regional state park police; 4 twenty year retirement plan. a. Membership. Every non-seasonally 5 appointed sworn member or officer of the regional state park police who 6 enters or re-enters service in any such title shall be covered by the 7 provisions of this section, and every member described in this subdivi- 8 sion in such service on or before one year prior to the effective date 9 of this section may elect to be covered by the provisions of this 10 section by filing an election therefor with the comptroller. To be 11 effective, such election must be duly executed and acknowledged on a 12 form prepared by the comptroller for that purpose. 13 b. Retirement allowance. A member, covered by the provisions of this 14 section at the time of retirement, shall be entitled to retire upon 15 completion of twenty years of total creditable service in such titles, 16 and shall retire upon the attainment of the mandatory retirement age 17 prescribed by this section, by filing an application therefor in a 18 manner similar to that provided in section three hundred seventy of this 19 article. 20 1. Upon completion of twenty years of such service and upon retire- 21 ment, each such member shall receive a pension which, together with an 22 annuity for such years of service as provided in paragraph four of this 23 subdivision, shall be sufficient to provide him or her with a retirement 24 allowance of one-half of his or her final average salary. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD06254-02-1S. 5126 2 1 2. Upon completion of more than twenty years of such service and upon 2 retirement, each such member shall receive, for each year of service in 3 excess of twenty, an additional pension which, together with an annuity 4 for each such year as provided in paragraph four of this subdivision, 5 shall be equal to one-sixtieth of his or her final average salary, 6 provided, however, that the pension payable pursuant to this section 7 shall not exceed three-quarters of final average salary. 8 3. Upon attainment of the mandatory retirement age without completion 9 of twenty years of such service, each such member shall receive a 10 pension which, together with an annuity for such years of service as 11 provided in paragraph four of this subdivision, shall be equal to one- 12 fortieth of his or her final average salary for each year of creditable 13 service in such titles. Every such member shall also be entitled to an 14 additional pension equal to the pension for any creditable service 15 rendered while not an employee in such titles as provided under para- 16 graphs three and four of subdivision a of section three hundred seven- 17 ty-five of this article. This latter pension shall not increase the 18 total allowance to more than one-half of his or her final average sala- 19 ry. 20 4. The annuity provided under paragraphs one, two and three of this 21 subdivision shall be the actuarial equivalent, at the time of retire- 22 ment, of the member's accumulated contributions based upon the rate of 23 contribution fixed under section three hundred eighty-three of this 24 title and upon the salaries earned while in such service. Such annuity 25 shall be computed as it would be if it were not reduced by the actuarial 26 equivalent of any outstanding loan nor by reason of the member's 27 election to decrease his or her contributions toward retirement in order 28 to apply the resulting amount toward payment of contributions for old 29 age and survivor's insurance. Any accumulated contributions in excess of 30 the amount required to provide the annuity computed pursuant to this 31 paragraph shall be used to increase the member's retirement allowance. 32 c. Credit for previous service. In computing the years of total cred- 33 itable service for each member described herein, full credit shall be 34 given and full allowance shall be made for service rendered as a police 35 officer or state university peace officer or member of a police force or 36 department of a state park authority or commission or an organized 37 police force or department of a county, city, town, village, police 38 district, authority or other participating employer or member of the 39 capital police force in the office of general services while a member of 40 the New York state and local police and fire retirement system, of the 41 New York state and local employees' retirement system or of the New York 42 city police pension fund and for all service for which full credit has 43 been given and full allowance made pursuant to the provisions of section 44 three hundred seventy-five-h of this article provided, however, that 45 full credit pursuant to the provisions of such section shall mean only 46 such service as would be creditable service pursuant to the provisions 47 of section three hundred eighty-three, three hundred eighty-three-a, 48 three hundred eighty-three-b, as added by chapter six hundred seventy- 49 four of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-six, three hundred eighty- 50 three-b, as added by chapter six hundred seventy-seven of the laws of 51 nineteen hundred eighty-six, three hundred eighty-three-c or three 52 hundred eighty-three-d of this title or pursuant to the provisions of 53 title thirteen of the administrative code of the city of New York for 54 any member contributing pursuant to this section who transferred to the 55 jurisdiction of the department of environmental conservation including 56 but not limited to environmental conservation officers and forestS. 5126 3 1 rangers, regional state park police or state university of New York 2 peace officers. 3 d. Retirement for cause. Upon receipt of a certificate from the head 4 of the entity where such member is employed or his or her designee, a 5 member as described in subdivision a of this section, who has accrued 6 twenty-five or more years of service credit under this section shall be 7 retired on the first day of the second month next succeeding the date 8 such certificate was filed with the comptroller. 9 e. Credit for military service. In computing the years of total cred- 10 itable service full credit shall be given and full allowance shall be 11 made for service of such member in war after World War I as defined in 12 section three hundred two of this article, provided such member at the 13 time of his or her entrance into the armed forces was in police service 14 as defined in subdivision eleven of section three hundred two of this 15 article. 16 f. Transfer of membership to employees' retirement system. Any member 17 currently enrolled pursuant to this section and who previously trans- 18 ferred service credit from the New York state and local employees' 19 retirement system to the New York state and local police and fire 20 retirement system, may elect to transfer such previously transferred 21 service credit back to the New York state and local employees' retire- 22 ment system, and such member shall have the option to retroactively 23 transfer his or her membership into such employees' retirement system. 24 g. The provisions of this section shall be controlling, notwithstand- 25 ing any provision of this article to the contrary. 26 § 2. All past service costs associated with implementing the 27 provisions of this act shall be borne by the state of New York and may 28 be amortized over a period of ten years. 29 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 30 have become a law. FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill would allow any non-seasonally appointed sworn member or officer of the regional state park police to become covered by the provisions of a special 20-year retirement plan, which will provide a benefit of one-half of final average salary upon retirement, and an additional benefit of one-sixtieth of final average salary for each year of creditable service in excess of 20 years, not to exceed 12 such years. If this bill is enacted during the 2021 legislative session, we antic- ipate that there will be an increase of approximately $1.0 million 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 bill- ing rates and salary of the affected officers change. In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be an immediate past service cost of approximately $10.4 million 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. If the State of New York elects to amortize this cost over a 10-year period, the cost for the first year including interest would be $1.37 million. These estimated costs are based on 245 affected officers employed by the State of New York, with annual salary of approximately $22 million as of March 31, 2020. 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-S. 5126 4 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 February 19, 2021, and intended for use only during the 2021 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2021-98, prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
