Relates to certain members who re-enter public service; extends tier reinstatement provisions to a retiree of a public retirement system who was an active member of a public retirement system on or after January 1, 1989.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5596
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 27, 2015
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GUNTHER, COLTON, BENEDETTO, JAFFEE, SCHIMEL,
RUSSELL, DenDEKKER, WEPRIN -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. ARROYO,
AUBRY, BARCLAY, BRENNAN, BROOK-KRASNY, BUTLER, CAHILL, CLARK, COOK,
CORWIN, CROUCH, CUSICK, CYMBROWITZ, DINOWITZ, DUPREY, ENGLEBRIGHT,
FINCH, GALEF, GIGLIO, GOTTFRIED, HAWLEY, HOOPER, KAVANAGH, KEARNS,
KOLB, LAVINE, LIFTON, LOPEZ, LUPARDO, MAGEE, MARKEY, McDONOUGH, McKEV-
ITT, MILLER, OAKS, ORTIZ, PAULIN, PEOPLES-STOKES, PERRY, PRETLOW,
RAIA, RAMOS, RIVERA, ROBINSON, ROSENTHAL, SCARBOROUGH, TEDISCO,
THIELE, TITONE, TITUS, WALTER, WRIGHT, ZEBROWSKI -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
certain members who re-enter public service
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivisions 2 and 4 of section 645 of the retirement and
2 social security law, subdivision 2 as amended by chapter 322 of the laws
3 of 2002 and subdivision 4 as added by chapter 640 of the laws of 1998
4 and as renumbered by chapter 646 of the laws of 1999, are amended to
5 read as follows:
6 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person [other than
7 a retiree of a public retirement system,] who previously was a member of
8 a public retirement system and whose membership in such public retire-
9 ment system ceased by reason of (i) insufficient service credit, (ii)
10 withdrawal of accumulated contributions, or (iii) withdrawal of member-
11 ship, upon rejoining such public retirement system or another public
12 retirement system, shall be deemed to have been a member of his or her
13 current retirement system during the entire period of time commencing
14 with and subsequent to the original date of such previous ceased member-
15 ship, provided that such person (a) makes application therefor to the
16 administrative head of his or her current public retirement system, and
17 (b) repays the amount refunded, if any, at the time such previous
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02015-02-5
A. 5596 2
1 membership ceased, together with interest at the rate of five percent
2 per annum compounded annually from the date of such refund through the
3 date of repayment. Upon such reinstatement of date of membership, such
4 member shall be entitled to all the rights, benefits and privileges to
5 which he or she would have been entitled had his or her current member-
6 ship begun on such original date of membership except that, solely for
7 the purposes of granting retirement credit to members of a public
8 retirement system other than the New York city teachers' retirement
9 system for service credited during such previous ceased membership where
10 such was in a public retirement system other than the member's current
11 retirement system, such previously credited service shall be deemed to
12 be prior service, not subsequent service. Furthermore, any such member
13 whose original date of membership was prior to July first, nineteen
14 hundred seventy-three shall be entitled to all the rights, benefits and
15 privileges to which he or she would have been entitled had he or she
16 been in active service on June thirtieth, nineteen hundred seventy-
17 three. Any contribution made to the public retirement system pursuant to
18 article fourteen or fifteen of this chapter by a member who rejoined his
19 or her current system on or after July twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred
20 seventy-six shall not be refunded.
21 4. The provisions of this article shall be applicable to a person who
22 [is, on the date this article becomes effective] was a member on or
23 before January first, nineteen hundred eighty-nine, or who subsequent to
24 such date becomes, a member of a public retirement system.
25 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall only apply to
26 all persons who are alive as of the effective date of this act and shall
27 apply to payments made on or after the effective date of this act; and
28 provided further, that any retirees qualifying under this act shall have
29 their retirement allowance recalculated from January 1, 2015 or the date
30 of reinstatement, whichever is later.
FISCAL NOTE.--This bill would allow certain living retirees of New
York public retirement systems who retired prior to December 16, 1999
and who previously were members of a New York public retirement system
to be deemed to have become members of the systems from which they
retired as of the original date of such previous ceased membership. Tier
3 and 4 retirees of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement
System or the New York State Teachers' Retirement System who become Tier
1 or 2 retirees and who have already purchased their previous service
would receive a refund of these contributions. No benefits will be
deemed to have accrued prior to the effective date of this act.
In addition, this bill would also affect retirees who had a previous
ceased membership with a public employee retirement system other than
the NYS&LERS or the NYS&LPFRS.
If this bill is enacted, insofar as this bill affects the New York
State and Local Employees' Retirement System (ERS), approximately 1,320
retirees of the ERS will be affected. The estimated past service cost
would be approximately $13.9 million.
Pursuant to section 25 of the Retirement and Social Security Law, this
ERS past service cost would be borne by the State of New York and would
require an itemized appropriation by the State of New York sufficient to
pay the cost of the provision. The State may amortize this past service
cost over a period of 5 years. The first year cost, including interest
would be approximately $3.2 million.
Insofar as this bill would affect employers in the New York State and
Local Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS), the estimated additional
A. 5596 3
costs would be negligible. These costs would be shared by the State of
New York and the participating employers in the PFRS.
Summary of relevant resources:
The membership data used in measuring the impact of the proposed
change was the same as that used in the March 31, 2014 actuarial valu-
ation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2014
Report of the Actuary and the 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report.
The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2010,
2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 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, 2014
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 estimate, dated January 20, 2015 and intended for use only during
the 2015 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2015-31, prepared by
the Actuary for the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement
System and the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement
System.
FISCAL NOTE.--This bill would amend subdivisions 2 and 4 of Section
645 of the Retirement and Social Security Law to extend the tier rein-
statement provisions to any retiree of a public retirement system. The
retiree must be alive as of the effective date of the bill in order to
be eligible. This bill only applies to payments made on or after the
effective date of this act.
The annual cost to the employers of members of the New York State
Teachers' Retirement System for this benefit is estimated to be $5.9
million or .04% of payroll if this bill is enacted.
Employee data is from the System's most recent actuarial valuation
files, consisting of data provided by the employers to the Retirement
System. Data distributions and statistics can be found in the System's
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). System assets are as
reported in the System's financial statements, and can also be found in
the CAFR. Actuarial assumptions and methods are provided in the System's
Actuarial Valuation Report.
The source of this estimate is Fiscal Note 2015-8 dated February 24,
2015 prepared by the Actuary of the New York State Teachers' Retirement
System and is intended for use only during the 2015 Legislative Session.
I, Richard A. Young, am the Actuary for the New York State Teachers'
Retirement System. I am a member of the American Academy of Actuaries
and I meet the Qualification Standards of the American Academy of Actu-
aries to render the actuarial opinion contained herein.
