STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8006
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 15, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. JACKSON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
AN ACT in relation to authorizing the county of Dutchess to offer an
optional twenty-five year retirement plan to certain deputy sheriffs
employed by such county
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the
2 county of Dutchess, a participating employer in the New York state and
3 local retirement system that elected to make the twenty-five year
4 retirement plan provided in section 551 of the retirement and social
5 security law available to deputy sheriffs employed by the county of
6 Dutchess is hereby authorized to make such plan available to certain
7 deputy sheriffs who, for reasons not ascribable to their own negligence,
8 failed to make a timely application to participate in such twenty-five
9 year retirement plan. Such employees are Arthur Hart with a start date
10 of November 30, 1998, Stephen J Reverri Jr. with a start date of May 7,
11 2001, Robert M Freer II with a start date of November 5, 2001, Phillip
12 Lemere with a start date of December 3, 2001, Corey Ritch with a start
13 date of February 7, 2004, Dawn Bonds with a start date of February 9,
14 2004, Brian Wilber with a start date of October 12, 2004, Joel R Petrus
15 with a start date of July 11, 2005, Stephen Slattery with a start date
16 of July 11, 2005, Dominick Marcello with a start date of September 23,
17 2006, Ryan Griffin with a start date of May 7, 2007, Adam Harris with a
18 start date of May 7, 2007, Kate Capalbo with a start date of April 11,
19 2009, Jared T Griffin with a start date of May 9, 2009, Jeffrey Cohen
20 with a start date of March 31, 2012, Adrienne Licari with a start date
21 of July 2, 2012, William Butler with a start date of April 1, 2013,
22 Christopher Sheridan with a start date of October 21, 2013, Paul Digiov-
23 anni with a start date of April 28, 2014, Justin Hogan with a start date
24 of June 8, 2015, James Flanagan with a start date of February 29, 2016,
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11927-04-5
S. 8006 2
1 Kyle Esposito with a start date of September 19, 2016, Paul Reinheimer
2 with a start date of October 11, 2016, Justin Bogdanffy with a start
3 date of October 31, 2016, Christian Robillard with a start date of May
4 1, 2017, Ryan Duval with a start date of January 2, 2018, Michael Derosa
5 with a start date of July 2, 2018, Scott Haire with a start date of
6 April 15, 2019, Timothy Stabell with a start date of April 15, 2019,
7 Seth Thomas with a start date of February 24, 2020, Carl Short with a
8 start date of March 2, 2020, Brendan Harriott with a start date of April
9 13, 2020, Amber Perrotta with a start date of October 5, 2020, Ashley
10 Stroka with a start date of March 22, 2021, Travis Beyea with a start
11 date of September 7, 2021, John Andersen with a start date of March 21,
12 2022, Crystal Burnett with a start date of May 23, 2022, Matthew Staf-
13 ford with a start date of May 23, 2022, Phillip Vallone with a start
14 date of May 23, 2022, Gabrielle Rocco with a start date of June 6, 2022,
15 Tyler Conley with a start date of June 27, 2022, Hosanna Santo with a
16 start date of June 27, 2022, Conner Carey with a start date of July 5,
17 2022, D'Andre Barr with a start date of February 27, 2023, Ryan Kozlow-
18 ski with a start date of February 27, 2023, Daniel Ramsey with a start
19 date of March 27, 2023, Dylan Merritt with a start date of August 28,
20 2023, Emily Abbatantuono with a start date of August 28, 2023, John
21 Carney with a start date of December 30, 2023, Brian Santiago with a
22 start date of January 16, 2024, and Raymond Sherrer with a start date of
23 March 4, 2024. The county of Dutchess may so elect by filing with the
24 state comptroller, on or before one hundred eighty days after this act
25 shall have become law, a resolution of its governing body together with
26 certification that such deputy sheriffs did not bar themselves from
27 participating in the twenty-five year retirement plan provided in
28 section 551 of the retirement and social security law as a result of
29 their own negligence. Thereafter, such deputy sheriffs may individually
30 elect to be covered by the provisions of the twenty-five year retirement
31 plan provided in section 551 of the retirement and social security law,
32 and shall be entitled to the full rights and benefits associated with
33 coverage under such section, by filing an election with the New York
34 state and local retirement system within one year of the effective date
35 of this act.
36 § 2. To the extent practicable, the county of Dutchess shall provide a
37 link to an electronic version of the election form that can be down-
38 loaded and shall assist with outreach to ensure that the members have
39 been notified of their election option.
40 § 3. All employer past service costs associated with implementing the
41 provisions of this act shall be borne by the county of Dutchess and may
42 be amortized over a five-year period.
43 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would allow Dutchess County to reopen the provisions of
Article 14-B of the Retirement and Social Security Law (RSSL) to all
individuals named therein.
If this bill is enacted during the 2025 Legislative Session, we antic-
ipate that there will be an increase of approximately $68,000 in the
annual contributions of Dutchess County for the fiscal year ending March
31, 2026. In future years this cost will vary but is expected to average
1.1% of salary annually.
In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be
an immediate past service cost of approximately $60,000 which will be
borne by Dutchess County as a one-time payment. This estimate assumes
that payment will be made on February 1, 2026. If Dutchess County elects
S. 8006 3
to amortize this cost over a 5-year period, the cost for each year
including interest would be $13,400.
These estimates are based on 51 affected members employed by Dutchess
County, with annual salary of approximately $4.97 million as of March
31, 2024.
Summary of relevant resources:
Membership data as of March 31, 2024 was used in measuring the impact
of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2024 actuari-
al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the
2024 Report of the Actuary and the 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial
Report. The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the
2024 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, 2024 New York State and Local Retirement System Financial Statements
and Supplementary Information.
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 May 14, 2025, and intended for use only during
the 2025 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2025-172. As Chief
Actuary of the New York State and Local Retirement System, I, Aaron
Schottin Young, hereby certify that this analysis complies with applica-
ble 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 Actuaries, of which I am a
member.
