S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
7490
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
May 22, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GUNTHER, COLTON, BENEDETTO, JAFFEE, SCHIMEL,
RUSSELL, BARRON, DenDEKKER, WEPRIN -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A.
ARROYO, AUBRY, BARCLAY, BRENNAN, BROOK-KRASNY, BUTLER, CAHILL, CLARK,
COOK, CORWIN, CROUCH, CUSICK, CYMBROWITZ, DINOWITZ, DUPREY, ENGLE-
BRIGHT, FINCH, GABRYSZAK, GALEF, GIBSON, GIGLIO, GOTTFRIED, HAWLEY,
HEASTIE, HOOPER, JACOBS, KAVANAGH, KOLB, LAVINE, LIFTON, LUPARDO,
MAGEE, MAISEL, MARKEY, McDONOUGH, McKEVITT, MILLER, MILLMAN, OAKS,
ORTIZ, PAULIN, PEOPLES-STOKES, PERRY, PRETLOW, RABBITT, RAIA, RAMOS,
REILICH, RIVERA, ROBINSON, ROSENTHAL, SCARBOROUGH, SWEENEY, TEDISCO,
THIELE, TITONE, TITUS, WEISENBERG, WRIGHT, ZEBROWSKI -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
certain members who re-enter public service
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
1 Section 1. Subdivisions 2 and 4 of section 645 of the retirement and
2 social security law, subdivision 2 as amended by chapter 322 of the laws
3 of 2002 and subdivision 4 as added by chapter 640 of the laws of 1998
4 and as renumbered by chapter 646 of the laws of 1999, are amended to
5 read as follows:
6 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person [other than
7 a retiree of a public retirement system,] who previously was a member of
8 a public retirement system and whose membership in such public retire-
9 ment system ceased by reason of (i) insufficient service credit, (ii)
10 withdrawal of accumulated contributions, or (iii) withdrawal of member-
11 ship, upon rejoining such public retirement system or another public
12 retirement system, shall be deemed to have been a member of his or her
13 current retirement system during the entire period of time commencing
14 with and subsequent to the original date of such previous ceased member-
15 ship, provided that such person (a) makes application therefor to the
16 administrative head of his or her current public retirement system, and
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03012-03-3
A. 7490 2
1 (b) repays the amount refunded, if any, at the time such previous
2 membership ceased, together with interest at the rate of five percent
3 per annum compounded annually from the date of such refund through the
4 date of repayment. Upon such reinstatement of date of membership, such
5 member shall be entitled to all the rights, benefits and privileges to
6 which he or she would have been entitled had his or her current member-
7 ship begun on such original date of membership except that, solely for
8 the purposes of granting retirement credit to members of a public
9 retirement system other than the New York city teachers' retirement
10 system for service credited during such previous ceased membership where
11 such was in a public retirement system other than the member's current
12 retirement system, such previously credited service shall be deemed to
13 be prior service, not subsequent service. Furthermore, any such member
14 whose original date of membership was prior to July first, nineteen
15 hundred seventy-three shall be entitled to all the rights, benefits and
16 privileges to which he or she would have been entitled had he or she
17 been in active service on June thirtieth, nineteen hundred seventy-
18 three. Any contribution made to the public retirement system pursuant to
19 article fourteen or fifteen of this chapter by a member who rejoined his
20 or her current system on or after July twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred
21 seventy-six shall not be refunded.
22 4. The provisions of this article shall be applicable to a person who
23 [is, on the date this article becomes effective] WAS A MEMBER ON OR
24 BEFORE JANUARY FIRST, NINETEEN HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE, or who subsequent to
25 such date becomes, a member of a public retirement system.
26 S 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall only apply to
27 all persons who are alive as of the effective date of this act and shall
28 apply to payments made on or after the effective date of this act; and
29 provided further, that any retirees qualifying under this act shall have
30 their retirement allowance recalculated from July 1, 2013 or the date of
31 reinstatement, whichever is later.
FISCAL NOTE.-- Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would allow certain living retirees of New York public
retirement systems who retired prior to December 16, 1999 and who previ-
ously were members of a New York public retirement system to be deemed
to have become members of the systems from which they retired as of the
original date of such previous ceased membership. Tier 3 and 4 retirees
of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System or the New
York State Teachers' Retirement System who become Tier 1 or Tier 2 reti-
rees and who have already purchased their previous service would receive
a refund of these contributions. No benefits will be deemed to have
accrued prior to the effective date of this act.
In addition, this bill would also affect retirees who had a previous
ceased membership with a public employee retirement system other than
the NYS&LERS or the NYS&LPFRS.
If this bill is enacted, insofar as this bill affects the New York
State and Local Employees' Retirement System (ERS), approximately 1,434
retirees of the ERS will be affected. The estimated past service cost
would be approximately $15.1 million. Pursuant to section 25 of the
Retirement and Social Security Law, this ERS past service cost would be
borne by the State of New York and would require an itemized appropri-
ation by the State of New York sufficient to pay the cost of the
provision. The State may amortize this past service cost over a period
of 5 years. The first year cost, including interest would be approxi-
mately $3.5 million.
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Insofar as this bill would affect employers in the New York State and
Local Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS), the estimated additional
costs would be negligible. These costs would be shared by the State of
New York and the participating employers in the PFRS.
Summary of relevant resources:
Data: March 31, 2012 Actuarial Year End File with distributions of
membership and other statistics displayed in the 2012 Report of the
Actuary and 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.
Assumptions and Methods: 2010, 2011 and 2012 Annual Report to the
Comptroller on Actuarial Assumptions, Codes Rules and Regulations of the
State of New York: Audit and Control.
Market Assets and GASB Disclosures: March 31, 2012 New York State and
Local Retirement System Financial Statements and Supplementary Informa-
tion.
Valuations of Benefits Liabilities and Actuarial Assets: summarized in
the 2012 Actuarial Valuations report.
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 January 29, 2013 and intended for use only during
the 2013 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2013-53, prepared by
the Actuary for the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement
System and the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement
System.
FISCAL NOTE.--This bill would amend subdivisions 2 and 4 of Section
645 of the Retirement and Social Security Law to extend the tier rein-
statement provisions to any retiree of a public retirement system. The
retiree must be alive as of the effective date of the bill in order to
be eligible. This bill only applies to payments made on or after the
effective date of this act.
The annual cost to the employers of members of the New York State
Teachers' Retirement System for this benefit is estimated to be $6.0
million or .04% of payroll if this bill is enacted.
The source of this estimate is Fiscal Note 2013-33 dated May 9, 2013
prepared by the Actuary of the New York State Teachers' Retirement
System and is intended for use only during the 2013 Legislative Session.
I, Richard A. Young, am the Actuary for the New York State Teachers'
Retirement System.
I am a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and I meet the
Qualification Standards of the American Academy of Actuaries to render
the actuarial opinion contained herein.