STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4018 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 9, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. PHEFFER AMATO, JONES, WALLACE, BURDICK, ROZIC, TAPIA, LAVINE, WOERNER, ZEBROWSKI, SILLITTI, GUNTHER, STERN, THIELE, FAHY, LUPARDO, CLARK, CONRAD, AUBRY, RAMOS, FALL, COLTON, BARRETT, DeSTEFANO, DURSO, DARLING, JEAN-PIERRE, J. A. GIGLIO, BUTTENSCHON, SAYEGH, WALSH -- read once and referred to the Committee on Govern- mental 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 law enforcement 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 state law enforcement; twenty year 4 retirement plan. a. Membership. Every non-seasonally appointed sworn 5 member or officer of the division of law enforcement in the department 6 of environmental conservation, a forest ranger in the service of the 7 department of environmental conservation, which shall mean a person who 8 serves on a full-time basis in the title of forest ranger I, forest 9 ranger II, forest ranger III, assistant superintendent of forest fire 10 control, superintendent of forest fire control or any successor titles 11 or new titles in the forest ranger title series in the department of 12 environmental conservation, a police officer in the department of envi- 13 ronmental conservation, the regional state park police, and university 14 police officers who enter or re-enter service in any such title shall be 15 covered by the provisions of this section, and every member described in 16 this subdivision in such service on or before one year prior to the 17 effective date of this section may elect to be covered by the provisions 18 of this section by filing an election therefor with the comptroller. To 19 be effective, such election must be duly executed and acknowledged on a 20 form prepared by the comptroller for that purpose. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD01826-02-3A. 4018 2 1 b. Retirement allowance. A member, covered by the provisions of this 2 section at the time of retirement, shall be entitled to retire upon 3 completion of twenty years of total creditable service in such titles, 4 and shall retire upon the attainment of the mandatory retirement age 5 prescribed by this section, by filing an application therefor in a 6 manner similar to that provided in section three hundred seventy of this 7 article. 8 1. Upon completion of twenty years of such service and upon retire- 9 ment, each such member shall receive a pension which, together with an 10 annuity for such years of service as provided in paragraph four of this 11 subdivision, shall be sufficient to provide him or her with a retirement 12 allowance of one-half of his or her final average salary. 13 2. Upon completion of more than twenty years of such service and upon 14 retirement, each such member shall receive, for each year of service in 15 excess of twenty, an additional pension which, together with an annuity 16 for each such year as provided in paragraph four of this subdivision, 17 shall be equal to one-sixtieth of his or her final average salary, 18 provided, however, that the pension payable pursuant to this section 19 shall not exceed three-quarters of final average salary. 20 3. Upon attainment of the mandatory retirement age without completion 21 of twenty years of such service, each such member shall receive a 22 pension which, together with an annuity for such years of service as 23 provided in paragraph four of this subdivision, shall be equal to one- 24 fortieth of his or her final average salary for each year of creditable 25 service in such titles. Every such member shall also be entitled to an 26 additional pension equal to the pension for any creditable service 27 rendered while not an employee in such titles as provided under para- 28 graphs three and four of subdivision a of section three hundred seven- 29 ty-five of this article. This latter pension shall not increase the 30 total allowance to more than one-half of his or her final average sala- 31 ry. 32 4. The annuity provided under paragraphs one, two and three of this 33 subdivision shall be the actuarial equivalent, at the time of retire- 34 ment, of the member's accumulated contributions based upon the rate of 35 contribution fixed under section three hundred eighty-three of this 36 title and upon the salaries earned while in such service. Such annuity 37 shall be computed as it would be if it were not reduced by the actuarial 38 equivalent of any outstanding loan nor by reason of the member's 39 election to decrease his or her contributions toward retirement in order 40 to apply the resulting amount toward payment of contributions for old 41 age and survivor's insurance. Any accumulated contributions in excess of 42 the amount required to provide the annuity computed pursuant to this 43 paragraph shall be used to increase the member's retirement allowance. 44 c. Credit for previous service. In computing the years of total cred- 45 itable service for each member described herein, full credit shall be 46 given and full allowance shall be made for service rendered as a police 47 officer or state university peace officer or member of a police force or 48 department of a state park authority or commission or an organized 49 police force or department of a county, city, town, village, police 50 district, authority or other participating employer or member of the 51 capital police force in the office of general services while a member of 52 the New York state and local police and fire retirement system, of the 53 New York state and local employees' retirement system or of the New York 54 city police pension fund and for all service for which full credit has 55 been given and full allowance made pursuant to the provisions of section 56 three hundred seventy-five-h of this article provided, however, thatA. 4018 3 1 full credit pursuant to the provisions of such section shall mean only 2 such service as would be creditable service pursuant to the provisions 3 of section three hundred eighty-three, three hundred eighty-three-a, 4 three hundred eighty-three-b, as added by chapter six hundred seventy- 5 four of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-six, three hundred eighty- 6 three-b, as added by chapter six hundred seventy-seven of the laws of 7 nineteen hundred eighty-six, three hundred eighty-three-c or three 8 hundred eighty-three-d of this title or pursuant to the provisions of 9 title thirteen of the administrative code of the city of New York for 10 any member contributing pursuant to this section who transferred to the 11 jurisdiction of the department of environmental conservation including 12 but not limited to environmental conservation officers and forest 13 rangers, regional state park police or state university of New York 14 peace officers. 15 d. Retirement for cause. Upon receipt of a certificate from the head 16 of the entity where such member is employed or his or her designee, a 17 member as described in subdivision a of this section, who has accrued 18 twenty-five or more years of service credit under this section shall be 19 retired on the first day of the second month next succeeding the date 20 such certificate was filed with the comptroller. 21 e. Credit for military service. In computing the years of total cred- 22 itable service full credit shall be given and full allowance shall be 23 made for service of such member in war after world war I as defined in 24 section three hundred two of this article, provided such member at the 25 time of his or her entrance into the armed forces was in police service 26 as defined in subdivision eleven of section three hundred two of this 27 article. 28 f. Transfer of membership to employees' retirement system. Any member 29 currently enrolled pursuant to this section and who previously trans- 30 ferred service credit from the New York state and local employees' 31 retirement system to the New York state and local police and fire 32 retirement system, may elect to transfer such previously transferred 33 service credit back to the New York state and local employees' retire- 34 ment system, and such member shall have the option to retroactively 35 transfer his or her membership into such employees' retirement system. 36 g. The provisions of this section shall be controlling, notwithstand- 37 ing any provision of this article to the contrary. 38 § 2. All past service costs associated with implementing the 39 provisions of this act shall be borne by the state of New York and may 40 be amortized over a period of ten years. 41 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 42 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 division of law enforcement, a police officer, or forest ranger in the department of environmental conservation, a regional state park police officer, or a university police officer 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 years. If this bill is enacted during the 2023 legislative session, we antic- ipate that there will be an increase of approximately $6.0 million in the annual contributions of the State of New York for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. In future years, this cost will vary as the bill- ing rates and salary of the affected members change.A. 4018 4 In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be an immediate past service cost of approximately $66.7 million which will be borne by the State of New York as a one-time payment. This estimate assumes that payment will be made on March 1, 2024. 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 $8.51 million. These estimated costs are based on 1,167 affected members employed by the State of New York, with annual salary of approximately $133 million as of March 31, 2022. Summary of relevant resources: Membership data as of March 31, 2022 was used in measuring the impact of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2022 actuari- al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2022 Report of the Actuary and the 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Annual Report to the Comptroller on Actuarial Assump- tions, 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, 2022 New York State and Local Retirement System Financial Statements and Supplementary Information. 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 January 13, 2023, and intended for use only during the 2023 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2023-22, prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.