STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6686
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 25, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SOLAGES, COLTON, GRIFFIN, WOERNER -- read once
and referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
establishing a twenty year retirement plan for members or officers of
the regional state park police
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 383-e to read as follows:
3 § 383-e. Retirement of officers of the regional state park police;
4 twenty year retirement plan. a. Membership. Every non-seasonally
5 appointed sworn member or officer of the regional state park police who
6 enters or re-enters service in any such title shall be covered by the
7 provisions of this section, and every member described in this subdivi-
8 sion in such service on or before one year prior to the effective date
9 of this section may elect to be covered by the provisions of this
10 section by filing an election therefor with the comptroller. To be
11 effective, such election must be duly executed and acknowledged on a
12 form prepared by the comptroller for that purpose.
13 b. Retirement allowance. A member, covered by the provisions of this
14 section at the time of retirement, shall be entitled to retire upon
15 completion of twenty years of total creditable service in such titles,
16 and shall retire upon the attainment of the mandatory retirement age
17 prescribed by this section, by filing an application therefor in a
18 manner similar to that provided in section three hundred seventy of this
19 article.
20 1. Upon completion of twenty years of such service and upon retire-
21 ment, each such member shall receive a pension which, together with an
22 annuity for such years of service as provided in paragraph four of this
23 subdivision, shall be sufficient to provide him or her with a retirement
24 allowance of one-half of his or her final average salary.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06254-02-1
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1 2. Upon completion of more than twenty years of such service and upon
2 retirement, each such member shall receive, for each year of service in
3 excess of twenty, an additional pension which, together with an annuity
4 for each such year as provided in paragraph four of this subdivision,
5 shall be equal to one-sixtieth of his or her final average salary,
6 provided, however, that the pension payable pursuant to this section
7 shall not exceed three-quarters of final average salary.
8 3. Upon attainment of the mandatory retirement age without completion
9 of twenty years of such service, each such member shall receive a
10 pension which, together with an annuity for such years of service as
11 provided in paragraph four of this subdivision, shall be equal to one-
12 fortieth of his or her final average salary for each year of creditable
13 service in such titles. Every such member shall also be entitled to an
14 additional pension equal to the pension for any creditable service
15 rendered while not an employee in such titles as provided under para-
16 graphs three and four of subdivision a of section three hundred seven-
17 ty-five of this article. This latter pension shall not increase the
18 total allowance to more than one-half of his or her final average sala-
19 ry.
20 4. The annuity provided under paragraphs one, two and three of this
21 subdivision shall be the actuarial equivalent, at the time of retire-
22 ment, of the member's accumulated contributions based upon the rate of
23 contribution fixed under section three hundred eighty-three of this
24 title and upon the salaries earned while in such service. Such annuity
25 shall be computed as it would be if it were not reduced by the actuarial
26 equivalent of any outstanding loan nor by reason of the member's
27 election to decrease his or her contributions toward retirement in order
28 to apply the resulting amount toward payment of contributions for old
29 age and survivor's insurance. Any accumulated contributions in excess of
30 the amount required to provide the annuity computed pursuant to this
31 paragraph shall be used to increase the member's retirement allowance.
32 c. Credit for previous service. In computing the years of total cred-
33 itable service for each member described herein, full credit shall be
34 given and full allowance shall be made for service rendered as a police
35 officer or state university peace officer or member of a police force or
36 department of a state park authority or commission or an organized
37 police force or department of a county, city, town, village, police
38 district, authority or other participating employer or member of the
39 capital police force in the office of general services while a member of
40 the New York state and local police and fire retirement system, of the
41 New York state and local employees' retirement system or of the New York
42 city police pension fund and for all service for which full credit has
43 been given and full allowance made pursuant to the provisions of section
44 three hundred seventy-five-h of this article provided, however, that
45 full credit pursuant to the provisions of such section shall mean only
46 such service as would be creditable service pursuant to the provisions
47 of section three hundred eighty-three, three hundred eighty-three-a,
48 three hundred eighty-three-b, as added by chapter six hundred seventy-
49 four of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-six, three hundred eighty-
50 three-b, as added by chapter six hundred seventy-seven of the laws of
51 nineteen hundred eighty-six, three hundred eighty-three-c or three
52 hundred eighty-three-d of this title or pursuant to the provisions of
53 title thirteen of the administrative code of the city of New York for
54 any member contributing pursuant to this section who transferred to the
55 jurisdiction of the department of environmental conservation including
56 but not limited to environmental conservation officers and forest
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1 rangers, regional state park police or state university of New York
2 peace officers.
3 d. Retirement for cause. Upon receipt of a certificate from the head
4 of the entity where such member is employed or his or her designee, a
5 member as described in subdivision a of this section, who has accrued
6 twenty-five or more years of service credit under this section shall be
7 retired on the first day of the second month next succeeding the date
8 such certificate was filed with the comptroller.
9 e. Credit for military service. In computing the years of total cred-
10 itable service full credit shall be given and full allowance shall be
11 made for service of such member in war after World War I as defined in
12 section three hundred two of this article, provided such member at the
13 time of his or her entrance into the armed forces was in police service
14 as defined in subdivision eleven of section three hundred two of this
15 article.
16 f. Transfer of membership to employees' retirement system. Any member
17 currently enrolled pursuant to this section and who previously trans-
18 ferred service credit from the New York state and local employees'
19 retirement system to the New York state and local police and fire
20 retirement system, may elect to transfer such previously transferred
21 service credit back to the New York state and local employees' retire-
22 ment system, and such member shall have the option to retroactively
23 transfer his or her membership into such employees' retirement system.
24 g. The provisions of this section shall be controlling, notwithstand-
25 ing any provision of this article to the contrary.
26 § 2. All past service costs associated with implementing the
27 provisions of this act shall be borne by the state of New York and may
28 be amortized over a period of ten years.
29 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
30 have become a law.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would allow any non-seasonally appointed sworn member or
officer of the regional state park police to become covered by the
provisions of a special 20-year retirement plan, which will provide a
benefit of one-half of final average salary upon retirement, and an
additional benefit of one-sixtieth of final average salary for each year
of creditable service in excess of 20 years, not to exceed 12 such
years.
If this bill is enacted during the 2021 legislative session, we antic-
ipate that there will be an increase of approximately $1.0 million in
the annual contributions of the State of New York for the fiscal year
ending March 31, 2022. In future years, this cost will vary as the bill-
ing rates and salary of the affected officers change.
In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be
an immediate past service cost of approximately $10.4 million which will
be borne by the State of New York as a one-time payment. This estimate
is based on the assumption that payment will be made on March 1, 2022.
If the State of New York elects to amortize this cost over a 10-year
period, the cost for the first year including interest would be $1.37
million.
These estimated costs are based on 245 affected officers employed by
the State of New York, with annual salary of approximately $22 million
as of March 31, 2020.
Summary of relevant resources:
Membership data as of March 31, 2020 was used in measuring the impact
of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2020 actuari-
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al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the
2020 Report of the Actuary and the 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report.
The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2020
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, 2020
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 February 19, 2021, and intended for use only
during the 2021 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2021-98,
prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement
System.