Permits the widow of Luis Palermo to apply for a World Trade Center related accidental death benefit for participation in the rescue, recovery, and clean-up operations as a member of the Nassau county police department.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10606
IN ASSEMBLY
June 20, 2024
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Stern) --
read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to authorize the widow of Luis Palermo to apply for World Trade
Center related accidental death benefits from the New York state and
local police and fire retirement system
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, the widow of
2 Luis Palermo, who was employed by the Nassau County police department
3 since October 14, 1994, and was a member of the New York state and local
4 police and fire retirement system for approximately 23 years, until his
5 passing on September 4, 2017, as a result of end stage pulmonary fibro-
6 sis contracted through his participation as a first responder, shall be
7 entitled to file a new application for an accidental and special acci-
8 dental death retirement benefit provided by the New York state and local
9 police and fire retirement system. Additionally, notwithstanding any
10 rule, regulation or law to the contrary, Luis Palermo's application for
11 World Trade Center notice shall be approved despite Officer Palermo
12 participating in rescue, recovery, and clean-up operations for twenty-
13 nine hours between September 11, 2001 and September 12, 2002. Such
14 application must be filed with the New York state and local police and
15 fire retirement system pursuant to section 361-a of the retirement and
16 social security law, as amended by chapter 733 of the laws of 1990,
17 within one year of the effective date of this act.
18 § 2. All costs associated with the implementation of this act shall be
19 borne by the county of Nassau.
20 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would make Deborah Palermo, the widow of deceased member
Luis Palermo, eligible to collect an accidental death benefit pursuant
to sections 361 and 361-a of the Retirement and Social Security Law
(RSSL). Luis Palermo was employed as a police officer with Nassau County
until their death on September 4, 2017. Currently, a service retirement
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15561-03-4
A. 10606 2
benefit under a joint allowance full option election is payable to Debo-
rah Palermo, pursuant to section 370 of the RSSL.
If this bill is enacted during the 2024 Legislative Session, and the
required application for an accidental death benefit is timely filed and
approved, there will be an immediate past service cost of approximately
$5.61 million which will be borne by Nassau County as a one-time
payment. This estimate assumes that payment will be made on February 1,
2025.
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 June 6, 2024, and intended for use only during
the 2024 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2024-186, prepared by
the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
