Provides for benefits for certain emergency medical technicians or advanced emergency medical technicians in the city of New York who suffer any condition or impairment of health caused by a stroke resulting in disability or death.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6554--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 17, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. JACKSON -- 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
AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to benefits for
employees of governmental entities performing emergency medical
services in the city of New York who suffer any condition or impair-
ment of health caused by a stroke resulting in disability or death
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The general municipal law is amended by adding a new
2 section 207-qq to read as follows:
3 § 207-qq. Disabilities of emergency medical technicians or advanced
4 emergency medical technicians in certain cities resulting from stroke.
5 Notwithstanding the provisions of any general, special or local law or
6 administrative code to the contrary, but except for the purposes of the
7 workers' compensation law and the labor law, any condition of impairment
8 of health caused by a stroke resulting in total or partial disability or
9 death to a paid employee of a fire department who performs the functions
10 of an emergency medical technician or advanced emergency medical techni-
11 cian in a city with a population of one million or more, where such
12 employee is drawn from competitive civil service lists, who successfully
13 passed a physical examination on entry into the service of such depart-
14 ment, which examination failed to reveal any evidence of such condition,
15 shall be presumptive evidence that it was incurred in the performance of
16 duty, unless the contrary be proved by competent evidence.
17 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00094-03-6
S. 6554--A 2
SUMMARY: This proposed legislation would provide Emergency Medical
Technicians (EMT) members of the New York City Employees' Retirement
System (NYCERS) a rebuttable statutory presumption that a qualifying
partial or total disability or death related to the occurrence of a
stroke was incurred in the performance of duty.
ILLUSTRATION - INCREASE (DECREASE) IN EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS
by Fiscal Year for the first 25 years ($ in Thousands)
One Incident One Incident Per Year
Year Disability Death Disability Death
2027 54 158 54 158
2028 54 158 109 321
2029 54 158 166 488
2030 54 158 225 661
2031 54 158 285 839
2032 54 158 348 1,022
2033 54 158 412 1,210
2034 54 158 478 1,405
2035 54 158 546 1,605
2036 54 158 616 1,811
2037 54 158 689 2,023
2038 54 158 763 2,242
2039 54 158 840 2,467
2040 54 158 919 2,699
2041 0 0 946 2,780
2042 0 0 975 2,864
2043 0 0 1,004 2,949
2044 0 0 1,034 3,038
2045 0 0 1,065 3,129
2046 0 0 1,097 3,223
2047 0 0 1,130 3,320
2048 0 0 1,164 3,419
2049 0 0 1,199 3,522
2050 0 0 1,235 3,628
2051 0 0 1,272 3,736
Employer contribution impact beyond Fiscal Year 2051 is not shown.
The potential increases in employer contributions will be allocated to
New York City.
PRESENT VALUE OF BENEFITS: The Present Value of Benefits is the
discounted expected value of benefits paid to current members if all
assumptions are met, including future service accrual and pay increases.
Future new hires are not included in this present value.
INITIAL INCREASE (DECREASE) IN ACTUARIAL PRESENT VALUES
as of June 30, 2025 ($ in Thousands)
Present Value (PV) Per Disability Per Death
(1) PV of Employer Contributions: 455 1,336
(2) PV of Employee Contributions: (41) 0
Total PV of Benefits (1) + (2): 414 1,336
UNFUNDED ACCRUED LIABILITY (UAL): Actuarial Accrued Liabilities are
the portion of the Present Value of Benefits allocated to past service.
Changes in UAL per incident would be recognized as ongoing gain/loss.
AMORTIZATION OF UNFUNDED ACCRUED LIABILITY
S. 6554--A 3
Recognized as Ongoing Gain/Loss Per Disability Per Death
Increase (Decrease) in UAL: 455 K 1,336 K
Number of Payments: 14 14
Amortization Payment: 54 K 158 K
CENSUS DATA: The number of members who will benefit in the future from
this proposed legislation is unknown. The estimates presented herein are
based on preliminary census data collected as of June 30, 2025. The
census data for the potentially impacted population used to develop the
average costs is summarized below.
NYCERS
Active Members
- Number Count: 4,038
- Average Age: 37.1
- Average Service: 9.8
- Average Salary: 77,100
IMPACT ON MEMBER BENEFITS: Currently, NYCERS EMT members who become
disabled due to a stroke would generally be eligible for an applicable
ordinary disability retirement benefit after attaining 10 years of
service. The disability benefit is generally a lifetime payment equal to
the greatest of 1/3 of Final Average Salary (FAS), 1/60th of FAS times
service, or the service retirement benefit, if eligible.
Under the proposed legislation, the performance of duty disability
benefit for NYCERS EMT members who are disabled from a stroke would be
equal to 75% of FAS.
The ordinary death benefit for NYCERS EMT members is a lump sum
payment generally equal to three times the member's salary plus a return
of member contributions. Under the proposed legislation, the performance
of duty death benefit would generally be equal to a lifetime benefit of
50% of a member's wages earned during their last year of service, plus,
if applicable, the Special Accidental Death Benefit (SADB) payable under
General Municipal Law section 208-f.
ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODS: The estimates presented herein have been
calculated based on the Revised 2021 Actuarial Assumptions and Methods
of the impacted retirement systems.
The number of members who will benefit from the proposed legislation
is unknown. The cost of this proposed legislation could vary greatly
depending on the number of future members who benefit and on their
length of service, age, and salary history. In particular, the increase
would be greater for a member who is not yet eligible for an ordinary
disability benefit when disabled.
The estimated financial impact for disabled members has been calcu-
lated assuming 50% would have retired under the current ordinary disa-
bility benefit, and 50% would have continued working if the proposed
legislation were not passed.
RISK AND UNCERTAINTY: The costs presented in this Fiscal Note depend
highly on the actuarial assumptions, methods, and models used, demo-
graphics of the impacted population, and other factors such as invest-
ment, contribution, and other risks. If actual experience deviates from
actuarial assumptions, the actual costs could differ from those
presented herein. Quantifying these risks is beyond the scope of this
Fiscal Note.
This Fiscal Note is intended to measure pension-related impacts and
does not include other potential costs (e.g., administrative and Other
S. 6554--A 4
Postemployment Benefits). This Fiscal Note does not reflect any chapter
laws that may have been enacted during the current legislative session.
STATEMENT OF ACTUARIAL OPINION: Marek Tyszkiewicz and Gregory Zelikov-
sky are members of the Society of Actuaries and the American Academy of
Actuaries. We are members of NYCERS, but do not believe it impairs our
objectivity, and we meet the Qualification Standards of the American
Academy of Actuaries to render the actuarial opinion contained herein.
To the best of our knowledge, the results contained herein have been
prepared in accordance with generally accepted actuarial principles and
procedures and with the Actuarial Standards of Practice issued by the
Actuarial Standards Board.
FISCAL NOTE IDENTIFICATION: This Fiscal Note 2026-40 dated March 13,
2026 was prepared by the Chief Actuary for the New York City Retirement
Systems and Pension Funds and is intended for use only during the 2026
Legislative Session.
