STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7176
IN SENATE
April 5, 2016
___________
Introduced by Sen. GOLDEN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
increasing the survivor's benefit of a retired state employee
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 657 of the retirement and social
2 security law, as added by chapter 75 of the laws of 1989, is amended to
3 read as follows:
4 2. The amount of a survivor's benefit under this section shall be a
5 lump sum of two thousand five hundred dollars, except that where a
6 retired state employee dies while reemployed as provided in subdivision
7 four of this section or dies within thirty days following retirement
8 pursuant to subdivision one of this section, the amount of the survi-
9 vor's benefit under this section, if any, shall be two thousand dollars
10 or such amount otherwise received pursuant to this subdivision less any
11 ordinary death benefit, exclusive of any ordinary death benefit attrib-
12 utable to the reserve-for-increased-take-home-pay, payable on account of
13 the death of such employee under a retirement system or pension plan
14 supported by funds of the state.
15 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill will increase the Survivor's Benefit by $500. For eligible
state employees who retired prior to April 1, 1970, the benefit will
increase form $2,000 to $2,500 and for eligible state employees who
retired after April 1, 1970, the benefit will increase form $3,000 to
$3,500.
If this bill is enacted, for the first year, the annual payment of
survivor's benefits which will be paid by the State of New York will
increase approximately $1.9 million.
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, 2015 actuarial valu-
ation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2015
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14701-02-6
S. 7176 2
Report of the Actuary and the 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report.
The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2015
Annual Report to the Comptroller on the 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, 2015
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 March 17, 2016, and intended for use only during
the 2016 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2016-81, prepared by
the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
