STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5883 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 21, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sens. SKOUFIS, GALLIVAN, HELMING, HINCHEY, ORTT -- 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 providing county correction officers with a special optional twenty year retirement plan 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 article 14-C to read as follows: 3 ARTICLE 14-C 4 OPTIONAL RETIREMENT PLAN FOR COUNTY CORRECTION OFFICERS OR DEPUTY 5 SHERIFFS PERFORMING AS CORRECTION OFFICERS 6 Section 561. Definitions. 7 562. Optional twenty year retirement plan for certain members 8 whose employer elects to provide same. 9 563. Additional pension benefit for members of optional twenty 10 year retirement plan. 11 564. Consistent provisions. 12 § 561. Definitions. For purposes of this article: 13 (a) "Member" shall mean a person who is employed as a county 14 correction officer or a deputy sheriff who is engaged directly in 15 correction officer duties that aggregate fifty per centum of their 16 service by a county which elects by resolution or local law, duly 17 adopted, to provide the benefits as authorized by this article. 18 (b) "Retirement system" shall mean the New York state and local 19 employees' retirement system. 20 (c) "Creditable service" shall include any and all services performed 21 as a sheriff, undersheriff or deputy sheriff, or correction officer. 22 Credit for service as a member or officer of the state police or as a 23 paid fireman, policeman or officer of any organized fire department or EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD05836-02-3S. 5883 2 1 police force or department of any county, city, village, town, fire 2 district or police district, shall also be deemed to be creditable 3 service and shall be included in computing years of total service for 4 retirement pursuant to this section, provided such service was performed 5 by the member while contributing to the retirement system pursuant to 6 the provisions of this article or article eight of this chapter. 7 § 562. Optional twenty year retirement plan for certain members whose 8 employer elects to provide same. (a) Any member of the retirement system 9 may elect to become a member pursuant to the provisions of this section 10 within one year after he or she becomes a member, if his or her employer 11 has elected to make the benefits provided by this section available to 12 members, or within one year after his or her employer elects to make the 13 benefits provided by this section available to its members. 14 (b) Elections made pursuant to this section shall be in writing and 15 shall be duly acknowledged and filed with the comptroller. Any member 16 who files such an election pursuant to this section may withdraw it 17 after it has been filed for at least a year. Such withdrawal shall be by 18 written notice duly acknowledged and filed with the comptroller. 19 (c) A member participating on the basis of this section at the time of 20 retirement shall be entitled to retire after the completion of twenty 21 years of total creditable service or upon the attainment of age sixty- 22 two, by filing an application therefor in a manner similar to that 23 provided in this chapter. 24 (i) Upon completion of twenty years of such service and upon retire- 25 ment, each such member shall receive a pension sufficient to provide him 26 or her with a retirement allowance equal to one-fortieth of his or her 27 final average salary for each year of total creditable services for 28 which he or she is otherwise entitled but not exceeding in the aggregate 29 one-half of his or her final average salary. 30 (ii) Upon attainment of age sixty-two and upon retirement without 31 completion of twenty years of such service, each such member shall 32 receive a pension sufficient to provide him or her with a retirement 33 allowance equal to one-fortieth of his or her final average salary for 34 each year of creditable service. Every such member shall also be enti- 35 tled to an additional pension equal to the pension for any other credit- 36 able service rendered as otherwise provided for in this chapter. This 37 latter pension shall not increase the total allowance to more than one- 38 half of his or her final average salary. 39 (d) The increased pensions to such members, as provided by this 40 section, shall be paid from additional contributions made by the partic- 41 ipating employer on account of such members. The actuary of the retire- 42 ment system shall compute the additional contribution required for each 43 member who elects to receive the special benefits provided under this 44 section. Such additional contributions shall be computed on the basis of 45 contributions during the prospective service of such member which will 46 cover the liability of the retirement system for such extra pensions. 47 Upon approval of the comptroller, such additional contributions shall be 48 certified by him or her to the chief fiscal officer or the participating 49 employer. The amount thereof shall be included in the annual appropri- 50 ation of the participating employer. Such amount shall be paid on the 51 warrant of the chief fiscal officer of the participating employer to the 52 pension accumulation fund of the retirement system. 53 (e) In computing the twenty years of completed service of a member, 54 full credit shall be given for military service as defined in subdivi- 55 sions twenty-nine-a and thirty of section three hundred two of this 56 chapter.S. 5883 3 1 (f) Every member participating on the basis of this section shall be 2 separated from the service on the last day of the calendar month next 3 succeeding the calendar month in which he or she attains age sixty-two, 4 provided, however, that such a member who attained the age of sixty-two 5 before his or her employer elected to make the benefits provided by this 6 section available to him or her, or who attains the age of sixty-two 7 within one month after his or her employer makes such benefits avail- 8 able, to be eligible for a pension computed in accordance with the 9 provisions of this section, shall be separated from the service within 10 three months after his or her employer makes such benefits available. 11 (g) The provisions of this section shall be controlling notwithstand- 12 ing any other provision of this article to the contrary. 13 (h) The benefits of this section shall be available only to those 14 members whose employer elects to provide such benefits by adopting a 15 resolution or local law to such effect and filing a certified copy ther- 16 eof with the comptroller. 17 (i) The benefits provided by this section shall be payable to a 18 member, unless at the date of retirement such member would otherwise be 19 entitled to a greater benefit under other provisions of this chapter had 20 he or she withdrawn from this section, in which event such greater bene- 21 fits shall be payable. 22 § 563. Additional pension benefit for members of optional twenty year 23 retirement plan. (a) A participating employer which has elected, or 24 which elects to provide the benefits of the optional twenty year retire- 25 ment plan for its employees as specified in this article may elect to 26 make contributions for the purpose of providing an additional pension 27 pursuant to this section for members in its employ who are entitled to a 28 pension pursuant to section five hundred sixty-two of this article. 29 Every member employed by an employer which has elected the provisions of 30 section five hundred sixty-two of this article and this section may 31 elect to be covered by the provisions of this section by filing with the 32 comptroller, a duly executed and acknowledged form prepared by the comp- 33 troller for that purpose. 34 (b) Upon retirement, each such member shall receive, for each year of 35 service in excess of twenty, an additional pension which shall be equal 36 to one-sixtieth of his or her final average salary; provided, however, 37 that the total allowance payable pursuant to this section shall not 38 exceed three-quarters of such member's final average salary. 39 § 564. Consistent provisions. Nothing contained in this article shall 40 be construed to otherwise affect the applicability of article eleven, 41 fourteen or fifteen of this chapter. Any other provisions of this chap- 42 ter relating to mandatory contribution to the retirement system based 43 upon a member's date of membership in such system shall not be deemed to 44 be affected by the provisions of this article, and any member who on the 45 effective date of this article is not required to contribute shall not 46 be required to make any contributions as a result of this section. For 47 those members required to contribute to the retirement system, such 48 contribution shall be treated in the same manner as specified for such 49 members in article fourteen or fifteen of this chapter. 50 § 2. Any past service payments required of a county as a result of the 51 adoption of the benefits permitted by this act may be amortized over a 52 period of up to ten years at the option of such county. 53 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill would create Article 14-C in the Retirement and Social Secu- rity Law, creating county electable 20-year plans covering any countyS. 5883 4 correction officers and deputy sheriffs engaged directly in at least 50% correction officer duties. A county may elect to provide a retirement benefit equal to 50% of final average salary after 20 years of service. A county may further elect to provide for additional 60ths for service beyond 20 years. All service rendered as a correction officer, sheriff, undersheriff, or deputy sheriff, a member or officer of the State Police, a paid firefighter, a police officer, or an officer of any organized fire department or police force is creditable. The retirement benefit is not to exceed 75% of final average salary. If this bill is enacted during the 2023 legislative session, there will be an increase in the annual contributions of any electing county for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, as approximated in the following table. In future years, these costs will vary as the billing rates of the affected members change. Current Plan Electing 20-year plan Electing 20-year plan plus additional 60ths A15 7.5% 8.5% 89-e 4.3% 5.4% 551 3.3% 4.4% 551E 2.0% 3.1% In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be an immediate past service cost that will depend upon the members' service, salary, tier, current retirement plan, and new retirement plan. Once a county elects to provide this coverage, an exact cost will be determined based upon a roster of eligible members provided by the coun- ty. The past service cost may be amortized over a period of up to ten years. Further, we anticipate additional administrative costs to implement the provisions of this legislation. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plan qualification issues: granting correction officers service credit toward retirement in a 20-year plan could jeopardize the Retirement System's governmental plan status and its exemption from ERISA. This development could result in the loss of qualified status, which would mean the loss of tax benefits. This result would substantially impair the Retirement System's value to our more than one million participants. Prior to the enactment of this legislation, we recommend that a favor- able ruling be obtained from the IRS stating that these provisions would not harm the qualification status of the Retirement System. It is esti- mated that the costs to obtain such a ruling would be $38,000 for the services of the IRS, and $1,000 per hour for legal consultants. 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.S. 5883 5 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 February 27, 2023, and intended for use only during the 2023 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2023-55, prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.