STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7004--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 28, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. HELMING, ASHBY, BORRELLO, CHAN, GALLIVAN, MATTERA,
MURRAY, OBERACKER, RHOADS, ROLISON, WALCZYK -- 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 committee
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
providing state correction officers with a special optional twenty
year retirement plan
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 article 14-C to read as follows:
3 ARTICLE 14-C
4 OPTIONAL RETIREMENT PLAN FOR STATE CORRECTION OFFICERS
5 Section 561. Definitions.
6 562. Optional twenty year retirement plan for certain state
7 correction officers.
8 563. Additional pension benefit for members of optional twenty
9 year retirement plan.
10 564. Consistent provisions.
11 § 561. Definitions. For purposes of this article:
12 (a) "Member" shall mean a person who is employed as a state correction
13 officer or other state employee who is engaged directly in correction
14 officer duties.
15 (b) "Retirement system" shall mean the New York state and local
16 employees' retirement system.
17 (c) "Creditable service" shall include any and all services performed
18 as a state correction officer. Credit for service as a member or officer
19 of the state police or as a paid firefighter, police officer or officer
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01334-04-6
S. 7004--A 2
1 of any organized fire department or police force or department of any
2 county, city, village, town, fire district or police district, shall
3 also be deemed to be creditable service and shall be included in comput-
4 ing years of total service for retirement pursuant to this section,
5 provided such service was performed by the member while contributing to
6 the retirement system pursuant to the provisions of this article or
7 article eight of this chapter.
8 § 562. Optional twenty year retirement plan for certain state
9 correction officers. (a) Any member of the retirement system may elect
10 to become a member pursuant to the provisions of this section within one
11 year after the effective date of this article or within one year after
12 such person becomes a member.
13 (b) Elections made pursuant to this section shall be in writing and
14 shall be duly acknowledged and filed with the comptroller. Any member
15 who files such an election pursuant to this section may withdraw it
16 after it has been filed for at least a year. Such withdrawal shall be by
17 written notice duly acknowledged and filed with the comptroller.
18 (c) A member participating on the basis of this section at the time of
19 retirement shall be entitled to retire after the completion of twenty
20 years of total creditable service or upon the attainment of age sixty-
21 two, by filing an application therefor in a manner similar to that
22 provided in this chapter.
23 (i) Upon completion of twenty years of such service and upon retire-
24 ment, each such member shall receive a pension sufficient to provide a
25 retirement allowance equal to one-fortieth of the final average salary
26 for each year of total creditable service for which such member is
27 otherwise entitled but not exceeding in the aggregate one-half of their
28 final average salary.
29 (ii) Upon attainment of age sixty-two and upon retirement without
30 completion of twenty years of such service, each such member shall
31 receive a pension sufficient to provide a retirement allowance equal to
32 one-fortieth of the final average salary for each year of creditable
33 service. Every such member shall also be entitled to an additional
34 pension equal to the pension for any other creditable service rendered
35 as otherwise provided for in this chapter. This latter pension shall
36 not increase the total allowance to more than one-half of their final
37 average salary.
38 (d) The increased pensions to such members, as provided by this
39 section, shall be paid from additional contributions made by the state
40 on account of such members. The actuary of the retirement system shall
41 compute the additional contribution required for each member who elects
42 to receive the special benefits provided under this section. Such addi-
43 tional contributions shall be computed on the basis of contributions
44 during the prospective service of such member which will cover the
45 liability of the retirement system for such extra pensions. Upon
46 approval of the comptroller, such additional contributions shall be
47 certified by them. The amount thereof shall be included in the annual
48 appropriation of the state. Such amount shall be paid on the warrant of
49 the comptroller to the pension accumulation fund of the retirement
50 system.
51 (e) In computing the twenty years of completed service of a member,
52 full credit shall be given for military service as defined in subdivi-
53 sions twenty-nine-a and thirty of section three hundred two of this
54 chapter.
55 (f) Every member participating on the basis of this section shall be
56 separated from the service on the last day of the calendar month next
S. 7004--A 3
1 succeeding the calendar month in which such member attains age sixty-
2 two, provided, however, that such a member who attained the age of
3 sixty-two before the effective date of this article, to be eligible for
4 a pension computed in accordance with the provisions of this section,
5 shall be separated from the service within three months of such effec-
6 tive date.
7 (g) The provisions of this section shall be controlling notwithstand-
8 ing any other provision of this article to the contrary.
9 (h) The benefits provided by this section shall be payable to a
10 member, unless at the date of retirement such member would otherwise be
11 entitled to a greater benefit under other provisions of this chapter had
12 such member withdrawn from this section, in which event such greater
13 benefits shall be payable.
14 § 563. Additional pension benefit for members of optional twenty year
15 retirement plan. (a) A participating employer may elect to make contrib-
16 utions for the purpose of providing an additional pension pursuant to
17 this section for members who are entitled to a pension pursuant to
18 section five hundred sixty-two of this article. Every member employed
19 by the state may elect to be covered by the provisions of this section
20 by filing with the comptroller, a duly executed and acknowledged form
21 prepared by the comptroller for that purpose.
22 (b) Upon retirement, each such member shall receive, for each year of
23 service in excess of twenty, an additional pension which shall be equal
24 to one-sixtieth of the final average salary; provided, however, that the
25 total allowance payable pursuant to this section shall not exceed three-
26 quarters of such member's final average salary.
27 § 564. Consistent provisions. Nothing contained in this article shall
28 be construed to otherwise affect the applicability of article eleven,
29 fourteen or fifteen of this chapter. Any other provisions of this chap-
30 ter relating to mandatory contribution to the retirement system based
31 upon a member's date of membership in such system shall not be deemed to
32 be affected by the provisions of this article, and any member who on the
33 effective date of this article is not required to contribute shall not
34 be required to make any contributions as a result of this section. For
35 those members required to contribute to the retirement system, such
36 contribution shall be treated in the same manner as specified for such
37 members in article fourteen or fifteen of this chapter.
38 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would add article 14-C to the retirement and social security
law, providing New York state correction officers and other state
employees engaged directly in correction officer duties, the option to
retire with twenty years of service credit. The benefit would be one-
half of final average salary (FAS). The State may elect to provide an
additional one-sixtieth of FAS for each year of service credit beyond 20
years, not to exceed three-fourths (75%) of FAS. Any member electing to
become covered under this new plan is expected to lose eligibility for
the performance of duty disability benefit under section 507-b.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plan qualification risk: Granting
service credit in a 20-year plan to state employees with correction
officer duties, other than correction officers, jeopardizes the Retire-
ment System's governmental plan status and its exemption from the
Employees Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). This would result in
the loss of critical tax benefits and would substantially impair the
System's value to over 1.25 million participants.
S. 7004--A 4
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 Retirement System. It is esti-
mated that the costs to obtain such a ruling would be $50,000 for the
services of the IRS, and $1,000 per hour for legal consultants.
We estimate that the state of New York's annual contributions will
increase $45 million for the 20-year plan and an additional $16 million
to award additional sixtieths beginning FYE 2027. Annual costs will vary
but are expected to average 3.8% and 5.0% of salary, respectively.
In addition, there will be an immediate past service cost of $828
million for the 20-year plan and an additional $524 million to award
additional sixtieths. All costs will be borne by the state of New York
as a one-time payment. This cost assumes that payment will be made on
March 1, 2027.
These estimated costs are based on 14,529 affected members employed by
the State of New York, with annual salary of approximately $1.6 billion
as of March 31, 2025.
Summary of relevant resources:
Membership data as of March 31, 2025 was used to measure the impact of
the bill, the same data used in the Actuarial Valuations dated April 1,
2025. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2025 Report
of the Actuary and the 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. The
actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2025 Annual
Report to the Comptroller on Actuarial Assumptions, and the Codes, Rules
and Regulations of the State of New York: Audit and Control. The fair
value of assets and GASB disclosures can be found in the 2025 Financial
Statements and Supplementary Information.
Assumptions, demographics, and other considerations may have been
modified to better reflect specific provisions of any proposed benefit
change(s).
This fiscal note does not constitute a legal opinion on the viability
of the bill, nor is it intended to serve as a substitute for the profes-
sional judgment of an attorney.
This estimate, dated February 23, 2026, and intended for use only
during the 2026 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note Number 2026-57. As
Chief Actuary of the New York State and Local Retirement System
(NYSLRS), I, Aaron Schottin Young, hereby certify that this analysis
complies with applicable 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 Actu-
aries, of which I am a member. I am a member of NYSLRS but do not
believe it impairs my objectivity.
