Bill Text: NY S04077 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Relates to death benefits for certain members under the jurisdiction of the department of corrections and community supervision.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 9-1)
Status: (Vetoed) 2017-11-29 - VETOED MEMO.193 [S04077 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-S04077-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4077--A Cal. No. 1462 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN SENATE February 2, 2017 ___________ Introduced by Sens. RITCHIE, HELMING, AVELLA, FUNKE, GALLIVAN, MARCHIONE, MURPHY, RANZENHOFER, YOUNG -- read twice and ordered print- ed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions -- committee discharged and said bill committed to the Committee on Rules -- ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to death benefits for certain members; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision b of section 448 of the retirement and social 2 security law is amended by adding a new paragraph 3 to read as follows: 3 3. Provided further, notwithstanding any other provision of this arti- 4 cle to the contrary, where a member is in a title as defined in subdivi- 5 sion i of section eighty-nine of this chapter under the jurisdiction of 6 the department of corrections and community supervision, and would have 7 been entitled to a service retirement benefit at the time of his or her 8 death and where his or her death occurs on or after July first, two 9 thousand seventeen, the beneficiary or beneficiaries may elect to 10 receive, in a lump sum, an amount payable which shall be equal to the 11 pension reserve that would have been established had the member retired 12 on the date of his or her death, or the value of the death benefit and 13 the reserve-for-increased-take-home-pay, if any, whichever is greater. 14 § 2. Subdivision b of section 508 of the retirement and social securi- 15 ty law, as amended by chapter 18 of the laws of 2012, is amended to read 16 as follows: 17 b. A member of a retirement system subject to the provisions of this 18 article who is a policeman, fireman, correction officer, investigator 19 revised plan member or sanitation man and is in a plan which permits 20 immediate retirement upon completion of a specified period of service EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD02565-04-7S. 4077--A 2 1 without regard to age or who is subject to the provisions of section 2 five hundred four or five hundred five of this article, shall upon 3 completion of ninety days of service be covered for financial protection 4 in the event of death in service pursuant to this subdivision. 5 1. Such death benefit shall be equal to three times the member's sala- 6 ry raised to the next highest multiple of one thousand dollars, but in 7 no event shall it exceed three times the maximum salary specified in 8 section one hundred thirty of the civil service law or, in the case of a 9 member of a retirement system other than the New York city employees' 10 retirement system, or in the case of a member of the New York city 11 employees' retirement system who is a New York city uniformed 12 correction/sanitation revised plan member or an investigator revised 13 plan member, the specific limitations specified for age of entrance into 14 service contained in subparagraphs (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) of para- 15 graph two of subdivision a of this section. 16 2. Provided further, notwithstanding any other provision of this arti- 17 cle to the contrary, where a member is in a title as defined in subdivi- 18 sion i of section eighty-nine of this chapter under the jurisdiction of 19 the department of corrections and community supervision, and would have 20 been entitled to a service retirement benefit at the time of his or her 21 death and where his or her death occurs on or after July first, two 22 thousand seventeen, the beneficiary or beneficiaries may elect to 23 receive, in a lump sum, an amount payable which shall be equal to the 24 pension reserve that would have been established had the member retired 25 on the date of his or her death, or the value of the death benefit and 26 the reserve-for-increased-take-home-pay, if any, whichever is greater. 27 § 3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, none 28 of the provisions of this act shall be subject to the appropriation 29 requirement of section 25 of the retirement and social security law. 30 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire five 31 years after the date on which it shall have become a law. FISCAL NOTE. -- Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill would modify the in-service death benefit for tiers 2 through 6 state correction officers. The in-service death benefit will be the value of the pension reserve as if the member had retired on their date of death. The provision is scheduled to expire five years after the date it is enacted. If such a proposal is enacted during the 2017 legislative session, there will be a one-time past service cost of $13.7 million, which would be borne by the state of New York as a one-time payment. This estimate is based on the assumption that payment will be made on March 1, 2018. If this provision is extended or made permanent by subsequent legis- lation, there would be additional costs. These estimated costs are based on 20,690 state correctional officers with a total annual salary of approximately $1.5 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016. 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, 2016 actuarial valu- ation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2016 Report of the Actuary and the 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2015 and 2016 Annual Report to the Comptroller on Actuarial Assumptions, and the Codes Rules and Regulations of the State of New York: Audit and Control.S. 4077--A 3 The Market Assets and GASB Disclosures are found in the March 31, 2016 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 January 30, 2017, and intended for use only during the 2017 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2017-32, prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
