Grants members or officers of the state police credit for service as a deputy sheriff, county corrections officer, or state corrections officer; two years credit; cost borne by member.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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6688--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 25, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. B. MILLER, BLANKENBUSH, MANKTELOW, HAWLEY, DeSTE-
FANO, MIKULIN, SALKA, TANNOUSIS, BRABENEC -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M.
of A. ANGELINO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Govern-
mental 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
granting members or officers of the state police credit for service as
a deputy sheriff, county corrections officer, or state corrections
officer
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph 1 of subdivision c of section 381-b of the
2 retirement and social security law, as amended by chapter 581 of the
3 laws of 2001, is amended and a new paragraph 3 is added to read as
4 follows:
5 (1) Police service. In computing the years of total creditable service
6 in such division, full credit shall be given and full allowance shall be
7 made for service rendered as a police officer or member of a police
8 force or department of a state park authority or commission or an organ-
9 ized police force or department of a county, city, town, village, police
10 district, authority or other participating employer or member of the
11 capital police force in the office of general services while a member of
12 the New York state and local police and fire retirement system, of the
13 New York state and local employees' retirement system or of the New York
14 city police pension fund and for all service for which full credit has
15 been given and full allowance made pursuant to the provisions of section
16 three hundred seventy-five-h of this [chapter] article provided, howev-
17 er, that full credit pursuant to the provisions of such section shall
18 mean only such service as would be creditable service pursuant to the
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04170-06-2
A. 6688--A 2
1 provisions of section three hundred eighty-three or section three
2 hundred eighty-three-a or three hundred eighty-three-b enacted by chap-
3 ter six hundred seventy-seven of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-six
4 of this [chapter] title or pursuant to the provisions of title thirteen
5 of the administrative code of the city of New York for any member
6 contributing pursuant to this section who transferred to the division of
7 state police.
8 (3) (a) Deputy sheriff, county corrections, or state corrections
9 service. Upon completion of more than seventeen years of service, each
10 such member who was previously credited with service credit in the New
11 York state and local employees' retirement system as a deputy sheriff,
12 county corrections officer, or member in the uniformed personnel in
13 institutions under the jurisdiction of the department of corrections and
14 community supervision as defined in subdivision i of section eighty-nine
15 of this chapter and who was engaged directly in law enforcement activ-
16 ities while performing such services shall receive one year of service
17 credit for each such year of previous service, up to a total of no
18 greater than two years of previous service credit.
19 (b) To obtain such credit, a member shall pay such retirement system,
20 for deposit in the fund used to accumulate employer contributions, a sum
21 equal to the product of the number of years of police service being
22 claimed and three percent of such member's compensation earned during
23 the twelve months of credited service immediately preceding the date
24 that the member made application for credit pursuant to this section. If
25 permitted by rule or regulation of the retirement system, the member may
26 pay such member costs by payroll deduction for a period which shall not
27 exceed the time period of police service to be credited pursuant to this
28 section. In the event the member leaves the employer payroll prior to
29 completion of payment, he or she shall forward all remaining required
30 payments to the appropriate retirement system prior to the effective
31 date of retirement. If the full amount of such member costs is not paid
32 to the appropriate retirement system prior to the member's retirement,
33 the amount of service credited shall be proportional to the total amount
34 of the payments made prior to retirement.
35 (c) In no event shall the credit granted pursuant to this paragraph,
36 when added to credit granted for police service with any retirement
37 system of this state pursuant to this or any other provision of law,
38 exceed a total of two years.
39 (d) To be eligible to receive credit for police service under this
40 paragraph, a member must make application for such credit before the
41 effective date of retirement.
42 (e) All costs for service credited to a member pursuant to this para-
43 graph, other than the member costs set forth in subparagraph (b) of this
44 paragraph, shall be paid by the state.
45 (f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in the event of death
46 prior to retirement, amounts paid by the member for the purchase of
47 police service credit pursuant to this paragraph shall be refunded, with
48 interest, to the extent the police service purchased with such amounts
49 does not produce a greater death benefit than would have been payable
50 had the member not purchased such credit.
51 (g) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in the event of
52 retirement, amounts paid by the member for the purchase of police
53 service credit pursuant to this section shall be refunded, with inter-
54 est, to the extent the police service purchased with such amounts does
55 not produce a greater retirement allowance than would have been payable
56 had the member not purchased such credit.
A. 6688--A 3
1 (h) In the event the service credit granted pursuant to this para-
2 graph, when added to a member's current service credit, renders him or
3 her eligible for service retirement, such member shall be deemed eligi-
4 ble for such service retirement and may elect to retire under the rules
5 set forth by the retirement system.
6 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would allow up to two (2) years of service credit for
service rendered as a deputy sheriff, county corrections officer or
state corrections officer to be creditable to State Police officers.
Such officers must have at least seventeen years of credited service and
would be required to make a payment of three percent of their most
recent compensation per year of additional service credit being
purchased under the provisions of this bill.
If this bill is enacted during the 2022 legislative session, it is
estimated that the past service cost will average approximately 22% of
an affected officer's compensation for each year of additional service
credit that is purchased. This cost will be borne entirely by the State
of New York.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plan qualification issues: granting
service credit towards retirement in a 20-year plan in the New York
State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) for employment
that was not rendered in the PFRS could jeopardize the Retirement
System's governmental plan status and its exemption from ERISA. This
could result in the loss of qualified status, which would mean the loss
of tax benefits and would substantially impair the System's value to our
more than one million participants.
Prior to the enactment of this legislation, we recommend that a favor-
able ruling be obtained from the IRS stating that these provisions would
not harm the qualification status of the System. It is estimated that
the costs to obtain such a ruling would be $28,000 for the services of
the IRS, and $800 per hour for legal consultants.
Summary of relevant resources:
Membership data as of March 31, 2021 was used in measuring the impact
of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2021 actuari-
al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the
2021 Report of the Actuary and the 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report.
The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2020
and 2021 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, 2021
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 25, 2022, and intended for use only
during the 2022 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2022-59,
prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement
System.
