Provides for certain death benefits to correction officers, correction officer-sergeants, correction officer-captains, assistant wardens, associate wardens or wardens employed by Orange county.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5536--B
Cal. No. 920
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 7, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. SKOUFIS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
-- recommitted to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions in
accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee -- reported favorably from said committee and committed to the
Committee on Finance -- reported favorably from said committee,
ordered to first and second report, ordered to a third reading,
amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of
third reading
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-four that added this section, the beneficiary or benefi-
13 ciaries 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
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04118-05-4
S. 5536--B 2
1 the death benefit and the reserve-for-increased-take-home-pay, if any,
2 whichever is greater.
3 § 2. All past service costs associated with implementing the
4 provisions of this act shall be borne by the county of Orange and may be
5 amortized over a period of ten years.
6 § 3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, none
7 of the provisions of this act shall be subject to the appropriation
8 requirement of section 25 of the retirement and social security law.
9 § 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.
