Relates to authorizing state university police, regional state park police and detective investigators for the office of the attorney general to receive additional service credit in an optional twenty year retirement plan.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8085
SPONSOR: Griffin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
authorizing certain persons in an optional twenty year retirement plan
to receive credit for previous service as a state university police
officer, a regional state park police officer or a detective investi-
gator for the office of the attorney general
PURPOSE::
The purpose of this bill is to allow members of the New York State
Police & Fire Retirement Systems to use up to five years of their prior
service credit as a State University Police Officer, or State Park
Police Officer, or investigators in a detective investigator role
employed by the Attorney General's Office towards creditable time for
use in their 20-year special plans upon completion of 20 years of
service.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 allows members of the New York State Police & Fire Retirement
Systems to use up to five years of their prior service credit as a State
University Police Officer towards creditable time for use in their 20
year special plans upon, completion of 20 years of service and also
allows members of the New York State Police & Fire Retirement Systems to
use up to five years of their prior service credit as a State Park
Police Officer or investigators in a detective investigator role
employed by the Attorney General's Office towards creditable time for
use in their 20-year special plans upon completion of 20 years of
service.
Section 2 contains the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION::
State University Police Officers, State Park Police Officers, and inves-
tigators in a detective investigator role employed by the Attorney
General's Office go through the same amount of law enforcement training
and largely perform the same police tasks as their counterpart officers
in city, county, towns and village police forces. The time they earned
in the retirement system as a State University Police Officer, a State
Park Police Officer, or a Special investigator of the Attorney General's
Office should be recognized as creditable service time in their new
police pension plan if they transfer to one of these police forces.
They perform a dangerous job and their pension credits are well earned
and should be credited.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS::
See Fiscal Note
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
2024: A7547- B Passed Assembly
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8085
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 24, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GRIFFIN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
authorizing certain persons in an optional twenty year retirement plan
to receive credit for previous service as a state university police
officer, a regional state park police officer or a detective investi-
gator for the office of the attorney general
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 384-e of the retirement and social security law is
2 amended by adding three new subdivisions d, e and f to read as follows:
3 d. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, upon
4 completion of twenty years of service, and upon retirement, each such
5 member who was previously credited with service credit in the New York
6 state and local employees' retirement system or the New York state and
7 local police and fire retirement system as an officer appointed by the
8 state university pursuant to paragraph l of subdivision two of section
9 three hundred fifty-five of the education law and who has successfully
10 completed a course of law enforcement training as provided in such
11 section of the education law may receive for each such year of previous
12 service, up to a total of no greater than five years of previous
13 service, additional pension equal to one-sixtieth of such member's final
14 average salary.
15 To obtain such credit a member shall pay such retirement system, for
16 deposit in the fund used to accumulate employer contributions, a sum
17 equal to the product of the number of years of service being claimed
18 and three percent of such member's compensation earned during the twelve
19 months of credited service immediately preceding the date that the
20 member made application for credit pursuant to this section.
21 e. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, upon
22 completion of twenty years of service, and upon retirement, each such
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09707-02-5
A. 8085 2
1 member who was previously credited with service credit in the New York
2 state and local employees' retirement system or the New York state and
3 local police and fire retirement system as an officer or member of the
4 regional state park police department may receive for each such year of
5 previous service, up to a total of no greater than five years of previ-
6 ous service, additional pension equal to one-sixtieth of such member's
7 final average salary.
8 To obtain such credit a member shall pay such retirement system, for
9 deposit in the fund used to accumulate employer contributions, a sum
10 equal to the product of the number of years of service being claimed
11 and three percent of such member's compensation earned during the twelve
12 months of credited service immediately preceding the date that the
13 member made application for credit pursuant to this section.
14 f. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, upon
15 completion of twenty years of service, and upon retirement, each such
16 member who was previously credited with service credit in the New York
17 state and local employees' retirement system as an investigator in a
18 detective investigator role employed in the office of the attorney
19 general may receive for each such year of previous service, up to a
20 total of no greater than five years of previous service, additional
21 pension equal to one-sixtieth of such member's final average salary.
22 To obtain such credit a member shall pay such retirement system, for
23 deposit in the fund used to accumulate employer contributions, a sum
24 equal to the product of the number of years of service being claimed
25 and three percent of such member's compensation earned during the twelve
26 months of credited service immediately preceding the date that the
27 member made application for credit pursuant to this section.
28 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would allow up to five years of service rendered as a police
officer with (a) the State University of New York, (b) Regional State
Park Police Department, or (c) as an investigator in the Office of the
Attorney General to be credited toward additional sixtieths under §384-e
of the Retirement and Social Security Law. The member must have 20 years
of service credit and must pay 3% contributions for each year of service
claimed.
If this bill is enacted during the 2025 Legislative Session, we antic-
ipate that there will be a past service cost averaging 22% of an
affected member's compensation for each year of additional service cred-
it granted. All costs would be shared by the State of New York and the
local participating employers in the New York State and Local Police and
Fire Retirement System and spread over future billing cycles.
The number of current and future members who could be affected by this
legislation cannot be readily determined.
Summary of relevant resources:
Membership data as of March 31, 2024 was used in measuring the impact
of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2024 actuari-
al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the
2024 Report of the Actuary and the 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial
Report. The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the
2024 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, 2024 New York State and Local Retirement System Financial Statements
and Supplementary Information.
A. 8085 3
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 April 9, 2025, and intended for use only during
the 2025 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2025-149. As Chief
Actuary of the New York State and Local Retirement System, I, Aaron
Schottin Young, hereby certify that this analysis complies with applica-
ble Actuarial Standards of Practice as well as the Code of Professional
Conduct and Qualification Standards for Actuaries Issuing Statements of
Actuarial Opinion of the American Academy of Actuaries, of which I am a
member.
