Bill Text: NY A08402 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Relates to transfer of retirement membership for certain employees of SUNY within the professional, scientific and technical bargaining unit.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2018-12-07 - tabled [A08402 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-A08402-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8402--A 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY June 13, 2017 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. ABBATE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees -- recommitted to the Committee on Govern- mental Operations in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to transfer of retirement membership for certain employees of SUNY within the professional, scientific and technical bargaining unit 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 618 to read as follows: 3 § 618. Transfer of membership into New York state and local employees' 4 retirement system. a. Definitions. Whenever used in this section: 5 1. The term "eligible employee" shall mean a person who as of the 6 effective date of this section is an employee of the state university of 7 New York in a position within the professional, scientific and technical 8 bargaining unit and who is, as of said effective date, a member of the 9 optional retirement program and who is a registered nurse who first 10 became an employee of the state university of New York at Stony Brook 11 Hospital on a date between January first, nineteen hundred ninety-six 12 and December thirty-first, nineteen hundred ninety-nine and who is still 13 employed by the state university of New York as of the date said employ- 14 ee files an application pursuant to subdivision b of this section; 15 2. The term "optional retirement program" shall mean the optional 16 retirement program established pursuant to article eight-B of the educa- 17 tion law. 18 b. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an eligible employee 19 shall be allowed to become a member of the New York state and local 20 employees' retirement system by filing an application with said retire- 21 ment system no later than December thirty-first, two thousand nineteen. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11575-08-8A. 8402--A 2 1 c. An eligible employee who files an application to become a member of 2 the New York state and local employees' retirement system shall be 3 deemed to be a member of that retirement system with a date of member- 4 ship as of the date said eligible employee was first employed by the 5 state university of New York. The eligible employee's membership in the 6 optional retirement program shall terminate as of the date said applica- 7 tion is filed. 8 d. An eligible employee who becomes a member of the New York state and 9 local employees' retirement system pursuant to subdivision b of this 10 section may elect to purchase credit for previous service for any period 11 during which said employee was a member of the optional retirement 12 program by filing an application with the New York state and local 13 employees' retirement system no later than December thirty-first, two 14 thousand nineteen and by paying to said retirement system an amount as 15 determined by the comptroller equal to the full cost of such previous 16 service credit purchased which shall include an amount equivalent to the 17 additional costs to the employer of providing retirement service credit 18 to such employee while such employee was a member of the optional 19 retirement program as determined by the actuary for the retirement 20 system. Said payment may be made by a transfer of funds from the employ- 21 ee's optional retirement program account to the New York state and local 22 employees' retirement system. Said payment may also be made in one 23 payment by the employee or by payroll deduction over a period not to 24 exceed five years. 25 § 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, none 26 of the provisions of this act shall be subject to section 25 of the 27 retirement and social security law. 28 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill will allow any employee of the State University of New York (SUNY) who is a registered nurse in a position within the Professional, Scientific and Technical bargaining unit, who first became employed with SUNY at Stony Brook Hospital between January 1, 1996 and December 31, 1999, and who enrolled in the Optional Retirement Program, to terminate their memberships in the Optional Retirement Program and to be deemed to be members of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System (NYSLERS) with a date of membership as of the date of first employment by SUNY. Affected members will have to pay the entire past service cost as determined by the Comptroller in order to get retirement service credit for the service rendered before their dates of membership. If this bill is enacted, the number of employees who may be affected by this legislation cannot be readily determined. For every employee who does so elect, there will be an annual cost to the State of New York of approximately 15.8% of salary for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019. In addition to the annual cost above, for every member who elects this benefit, there will be a past service cost that will depend on the age, service and salary of the member. The members will be able to offset this cost by the transfer of funds from their Optional Retirement Program balances. For an individual member, if the amount transferred from the Optional Retirement Program is less than the past service cost, the member will be have to make up the difference either as a one-time payment or by making a series of payments over a period of five (5) years. 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, 2017 actuarial valu-A. 8402--A 3 ation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2017 Report of the Actuary and the 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Annual Report to the Comptroller on 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, 2017 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 June 1, 2018, and intended for use only during the 2018 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2018-119, prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.
