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
________________________________________________________________________
6387--B
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 18, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. GOUNARDES -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
-- recommitted to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions in
accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee -- 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
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01365-13-4
S. 6387--B 2
1 alarm dispatcher level one or a New York city supervising fire alarm
2 dispatcher level two who is diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic
3 stress disorder resulting in disability to such fire alarm dispatcher,
4 presently employed, and who shall have sustained such disability while
5 so employed, shall have such diagnosis be presumptive evidence that such
6 disability was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty, unless
7 the contrary be proven by competent evidence.
8 3. The annual retirement allowance payable shall be equal to the
9 three-quarters of their final average salary, subject to the provisions
10 of section sixty-four of this chapter for members of the New York state
11 and local employees' retirement system or section 13-176 of the adminis-
12 trative code of the city of New York for members of the New York city
13 employees' retirement system.
14 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
SUMMARY: This proposed legislation would provide a rebuttable statuto-
ry presumption to Fire Alarm Dispatchers, whose disability results from
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and provide a performance of duty
disability retirement benefit equivalent to 75% of the member's Final
Average Salary (FAS) offset by an explicit Workers' Compensation bene-
fit.
ILLUSTRATION - INCREASE (DECREASE) IN EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS
by Fiscal Year for the first 25 years ($ in Thousands)
Year One Incident One Incident
Per Year
2025 56 56
2026 56 114
2027 56 174
2028 56 236
2029 56 299
2030 56 365
2031 56 432
2032 56 501
2033 56 573
2034 56 646
2035 56 722
2036 56 800
2037 56 881
2038 56 964
2039 0 992
2040 0 1,022
2041 0 1,053
2042 0 1,084
2043 0 1,117
2044 0 1,151
2045 0 1,185
2046 0 1,221
2047 0 1,257
2048 0 1,295
2049 0 1,334
Employer contribution impact beyond Fiscal Year 2049 is not shown.
The potential increases in employer contributions will be allocated to
New York City.
EXPECTED INCREASE (DECREASE) IN ACTUARIAL LIABILITIES
as of June 30, 2023 ($ in Thousands)
S. 6387--B 3
Present Value (PV) Per Disability
PV of Benefits: 443
PV of Employee Contributions: (33)
PV of Employer Contributions: 477
Unfunded Accrued Liabilities: 477
AMORTIZATION OF UNFUNDED ACCRUED LIABILITY
Recognized as Ongoing Gain/Loss Per Disability
Number of Payments: 14
Amortization Payment: 56 K
CENSUS DATA: The number of members who will benefit in the future from
this fiscal note is unknown. The estimates presented herein are based on
preliminary census data collected as of June 30, 2023. The census data
for the potentially impacted population used to develop the average
costs is summarized below.
NYCERS
Active Members
- Number Count: 187
- Average Age: 41.0
- Average Service: 12.2
- Average Salary: 82,900
IMPACT ON MEMBER BENEFITS: Currently, an active member of NYCERS who
is employed as a Fire Alarm Dispatcher and becomes disabled due to PTSD,
is eligible for an ordinary disability retirement, generally a lifetime
payment of 1/60th of Final Average Salary (FAS) times service not less
than 1/3 of FAS.
Under the proposed legislation, the performance of duty disability
benefit would be equal to:
* 75% of Final Average Salary (FAS), where
* FAS is defined as 3-Year FAS for Tier 4 and 5-Year FAS for Tier 6,
with
* an explicit Workers' Compensation offset.
ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODS: The estimates presented herein have been
calculated based on the Revised 2021 Actuarial Assumptions and Methods
of NYCERS.
The number of additional members and eligible retirees who will bene-
fit in the future from this fiscal note is unknown and included as per
incident disability costs. The cost of this proposed legislation could
vary greatly depending on the number of future members who benefit and
on their length of service, age, and salary history.
The estimated per incident financial impact for disabled members has
been calculated assuming 50% would retire under the current ordinary
disability benefit, and 50% would continue working if the proposed
legislation were not passed.
RISK AND UNCERTAINTY: The costs presented in this Fiscal Note depend
highly on the actuarial assumptions, methods, and models used, demo-
graphics of the impacted population, and other factors such as invest-
ment, contribution, and other risks. If actual experience deviates from
actuarial assumptions, the actual costs could differ from those
presented herein. Quantifying these risks is beyond the scope of this
Fiscal Note.
S. 6387--B 4
This Fiscal Note is intended to measure pension-related impacts and
does not include other potential costs (e.g., administrative and Other
Postemployment Benefits).
STATEMENT OF ACTUARIAL OPINION: Marek Tyszkiewicz and Gregory Zelikov-
sky are members of the Society of Actuaries and the American Academy of
Actuaries. We are members of NYCERS but do not believe it impairs our
objectivity and we meet the Qualification Standards of the American
Academy of Actuaries to render the actuarial opinion contained herein.
To the best of our knowledge, the results contained herein have been
prepared in accordance with generally accepted actuarial principles and
procedures and with the Actuarial Standards of Practice issued by the
Actuarial Standards Board.
FISCAL NOTE IDENTIFICATION: This Fiscal Note 2024-48 dated May 3, 2024
was prepared by the Chief Actuary for the New York City Retirement
Systems and Pension Funds. This estimate is intended for use only during
the 2024 Legislative Session.
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.
S. 6387--B 5
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.
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 May 15, 2024, and intended for use only during
the 2024 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2024-183, prepared by
the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
