Provides alternative death benefits for certain members of the state retirement system employed by Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester county in certain law enforcement and corrections positions who are entitled to service retirement at the time of their death.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7923
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 28, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ABBATE -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
death benefits for certain members employed by Nassau, Suffolk or
Westchester county
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 508-b to read as follows:
3 § 508-b. Death benefits for certain members employed by Nassau county,
4 Suffolk county or Westchester county. 1. As used in this section, the
5 following terms shall have the following meanings:
6 (a) "Nassau county employee" shall mean a correction officer,
7 uniformed correction division personnel, sheriff, undersheriff or deputy
8 sheriff, as defined in section eighty-nine-g of this chapter.
9 (b) "Suffolk county employee" shall mean any warden, deputy warden,
10 correction captain, correction lieutenant, correction lieutenant inves-
11 tigator, correction sergeant, correction sergeant investigator,
12 correction investigator, correction officer, sheriff, undersheriff or
13 deputy sheriff who is employed by Suffolk county.
14 (c) "Westchester county employee" shall mean a sheriff, deputy sher-
15 iff, undersheriff, correction officer, correction officer-sergeant,
16 correction officer-captain, assistant warden, associate warden or warden
17 who is employed by Westchester county and in a plan that allows for
18 immediate retirement upon the completion of a specified period of
19 service without regard to age.
20 2. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, where a
21 Nassau county employee, Suffolk county employee or Westchester county
22 employee would have been entitled to a service retirement benefit at the
23 time of his or her death and where his or her death occurs on or after
24 the effective date of this section, the beneficiary or beneficiaries may
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11413-03-9
A. 7923 2
1 elect to receive, in a lump sum, an amount payable which shall be equal
2 to the pension reserve that would have been established had the member
3 retired on the date of his or her death, or the value of the death bene-
4 fit and the reserve-for-increased-take-home-pay, if any, whichever is
5 greater.
6 § 2. The retirement and social security law is amended by adding a new
7 section 606-b to read as follows:
8 § 606-b. Death benefits for certain members employed by Nassau county,
9 Suffolk county or Westchester county. 1. As used in this section, the
10 following terms shall have the following meanings:
11 (a) "Nassau county employee" shall mean a correction officer,
12 uniformed correction division personnel, sheriff, undersheriff or deputy
13 sheriff, as defined in section eighty-nine-g of this chapter.
14 (b) "Suffolk county employee" shall mean any warden, deputy warden,
15 correction captain, correction lieutenant, correction lieutenant inves-
16 tigator, correction sergeant, correction sergeant investigator,
17 correction investigator, correction officer, sheriff, undersheriff or
18 deputy sheriff who is employed by Suffolk county.
19 (c) "Westchester county employee" shall mean a sheriff, deputy sher-
20 iff, undersheriff, correction officer, correction officer-sergeant,
21 correction officer-captain, assistant warden, associate warden or warden
22 who is employed by Westchester county and in a plan that allows for
23 immediate retirement upon the completion of a specified period of
24 service without regard to age.
25 2. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, where a
26 Nassau county employee, Suffolk county employee or Westchester county
27 employee would have been entitled to a service retirement benefit at the
28 time of his or her death and where his or her death occurs on or after
29 the effective date of this section, the beneficiary or beneficiaries may
30 elect to receive, in a lump sum, an amount payable which shall be equal
31 to the pension reserve that would have been established had the member
32 retired on the date of his or her death, or the value of the death bene-
33 fit and the reserve-for-increased-take-home-pay, if any, whichever is
34 greater.
35 § 3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, none
36 of the provisions of this act shall be subject to the appropriation
37 requirement of section 25 of the retirement and social security law.
38 § 4. All past service costs associated with this act shall be paid by
39 the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester. Each such county shall
40 be responsible for one-third of such costs.
41 § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would modify the in-service death benefit for retirement
eligible tiers 3 through 6 members of the New York State and Local
Employees' Retirement System who are employed by Nassau, Suffolk or
Westchester counties and are in certain correction officer, deputy sher-
iff and warden job titles. The in-service death benefit will be the
value of the pension reserve as if the member had retired on their date
of death.
If this legislation is enacted during the 2019 legislative session, we
anticipate that there will be an increase in the annual contributions of
the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester of approximately
$110,000, $160,000 and $93,000, respectively.
In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be
an immediate past service cost of approximately $8.94 million, of which
A. 7923 3
$2.98 million is to be borne by each of the counties of Nassau, Suffolk
and Westchester as a one-time payment.
These estimated costs are based on 940, 1,234 and 879 affected members
employed by the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, respective-
ly, with salaries of approximately $106 million, $154 million and $88
million, respectively.
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, 2018 actuarial valu-
ation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2018
Report of the Actuary and the 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report.
The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2015,
2016, 2017 and 2018 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, 2018
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 May 16, 2019, and intended for use only during
the 2019 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2019-2, prepared by the
Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
