Relates to disability retirement benefits for the presumption of post-traumatic stress disorder for communications technicians, communications specialists, communications operators, radio dispatchers, or emergency dispatchers by any state agency, department, or division, county 911 dispatchers, county 911 dispatcher supervisors, New York city fire alarm dispatchers, supervising fire alarm dispatchers level one and supervising fire alarm dispatchers level two.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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6861--A
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 8, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PHEFFER AMATO -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Governmental Employees -- recommitted to the Committee on
Governmental Employees in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 --
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
disability retirement benefits for the presumption of post-traumatic
stress disorder for certain titles
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 605-h to read as follows:
3 § 605-h. Disability retirement for certain dispatchers. 1. A member
4 employed as a communications technician, communications specialist,
5 communications operator, radio dispatcher, or emergency dispatcher by
6 any state agency, department, or division, a county 911 dispatcher, a
7 county 911 dispatcher supervisor, a New York city fire alarm dispatcher,
8 a New York city supervising fire alarm dispatcher level one or a New
9 York city supervising fire alarm dispatcher level two shall be entitled
10 to disability retirement allowance, if, at the time application therefor
11 is filed, such member is physically or mentally incapacitated for
12 performance of duty as a result of contracting post-traumatic stress
13 disorder while so employed and as a result of their employment.
14 2. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or of any general,
15 special or local law to the contrary, any member who is a communications
16 technician, communications specialist, communications operator, radio
17 dispatcher, or emergency dispatcher by any state agency, department, or
18 division, a county 911 dispatcher, a county 911 dispatcher supervisor, a
19 New York city fire alarm dispatcher, a New York city supervising fire
20 alarm dispatcher level one or a New York city supervising fire alarm
21 dispatcher level two who is diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01365-08-4
A. 6861--A 2
1 stress disorder resulting in disability to such fire alarm dispatcher,
2 presently employed, and who shall have sustained such disability while
3 so employed, shall have such diagnosis be presumptive evidence that such
4 disability was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty, unless
5 the contrary be proven by competent evidence.
6 3. The annual retirement allowance payable shall be equal to the
7 three-quarters of their final average salary, subject to the provisions
8 of section sixty-four of this chapter.
9 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would grant improved disability eligibility to any Tier 3,
4, 5 or 6 member of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement
System (NYSLERS) employed in the title of
1. Communication technician, specialist, or operator,
2. Radio dispatcher or Emergency dispatcher, or
3. County 911 dispatcher or supervisor.
For any member so employed who is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress
disorder, resulting in disability, such diagnosis shall be considered as
presumptive evidence that the disability was incurred in the performance
of the member's duties, unless the contrary be proven by competent
evidence. The annual accidental disability benefit for these members
would be 75% of final average salary (FAS), minus workers' compensation.
Current disability benefits vary by employer.
Insofar as this bill affects the New York State and Local Employees'
Retirement System (NYSLERS), pursuant to Section 25 of the Retirement
and Social Security Law, the increased costs would be borne entirely by
the State of New York and would require an itemized appropriation suffi-
cient to pay the cost of the provision. If this bill were enacted during
the 2024 Legislative Session, the increase in the present value of bene-
fits would be approximately $1.4 billion.
In the NYSLERS, this benefit improvement will be funded by (1) billing
a past service cost to cover retrospective benefit increases and (2)
increasing the billing rates charged annually to cover prospective bene-
fit increases, as follows:
(1) To fund retrospective costs, the State of New York will be
required to pay $445 million as of March 1, 2025.
(2) To fund prospective costs, the annual contribution required of the
State of New York and local participating employers will increase by
2.0% of affected member salary, or approximately $42 million to the
State of New York and 49.5 million to the local participating employers,
beginning in fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. This permanent annualcost will vary in subsequent billing cycles with changes in the billing
rate and salary of the affected members.
Further, this proposal will require many of the 3,000 participating
employers to modify their reporting to the NYSLERS to identify the
affected members. As a result, we anticipate additional administrative
costs to implement the provisions of this legislation.
The exact number of current members as well as future members who
could be affected by this legislation cannot be readily determined.
Summary of relevant resources:
Membership data as of March 31, 2023 was used in measuring the impact
of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2023 actuari-
al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the
2023 Report of the Actuary and the 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial
Report.
A. 6861--A 3
The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2023
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, 2023
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 April 12, 2024, and intended for use only during
the 2024 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2024-6, prepared by the
Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
