Bill Text: NY S06049 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Provides a cost-of-living adjustment for New York public retirement systems.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-03-19 - PRINT NUMBER 6049A [S06049 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-S06049-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6049--A 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN SENATE May 10, 2017 ___________ Introduced by Sen. GOLDEN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions -- recommitted to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit- tee AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, the education law and the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to providing cost-of-living adjustments The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision a of section 78-a of the retirement and social 2 security law, as added by chapter 125 of the laws of 2000, is amended to 3 read as follows: 4 a. [A] Effective on the first day of September, two thousand eighteen, 5 a cost-of-living adjustment shall be payable on the basis provided for 6 in this section to: (i) all pensioners who have attained age [sixty-two] 7 fifty-five and have been retired for five years; (ii) [all pensioners8who have attained age fifty-five and have been retired for ten years;9(iii)] all disability pensioners regardless of age who have been retired 10 for five years; and [(iv)] (iii) all recipients of an accidental death 11 benefit regardless of age who have been receiving such benefit for five 12 years. 13 § 2. Subdivision a of section 378-a of the retirement and social secu- 14 rity law, as added by chapter 125 of the laws of 2000, is amended to 15 read as follows: 16 a. [A] Effective on the first day of September, two thousand eighteen, 17 a cost-of-living adjustment shall be payable on the basis provided for 18 in this section to: (i) all pensioners who have attained age [sixty-two] 19 fifty-five and have been retired for five years; and (ii) [all pension-20ers who have attained age fifty-five and have been retired for tenEXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11287-03-8S. 6049--A 2 1years; and (iii)] all disability pensioners regardless of age who have 2 been retired for five years. 3 § 3. Subdivision a of section 532-a of the education law, as added by 4 chapter 125 of the laws of 2000, is amended to read as follows: 5 a. [A] Effective on the first day of September, two thousand eighteen, 6 a cost-of-living adjustment shall be payable on the basis provided for 7 in this section to: (i) all pensioners who have attained age [sixty-two] 8 fifty-five and have been retired for five years; (ii) [all pensioners9who have attained age fifty-five and have been retired for ten years;10(iii)] all disability pensioners regardless of age who have been retired 11 for five years; and [(iv)] (iii) all recipients of an accidental death 12 benefit regardless of age who have been receiving such benefit for five 13 years. 14 § 4. Subdivision a of section 13-696 of the administrative code of the 15 city of New York, as amended by chapter 288 of the laws of 2001, is 16 amended to read as follows: 17 a. [A] Effective on the first day of September, two thousand eighteen, 18 a cost-of-living adjustment shall be payable to retired members of the 19 New York city employees' retirement system, the New York city teachers' 20 retirement system, the New York city police pension fund, the New York 21 city fire department pension fund, the New York city board of education 22 retirement system or the relief and pension fund of the department of 23 street cleaning provided for in subchapter one of this chapter on the 24 basis provided for in this section to: (i) all retired members who have 25 attained age [sixty-two] fifty-five and have been retired for five 26 years; (ii) [all retired members who have attained age fifty-five and27have been retired for ten years; (iii)] all members who retired for 28 disability regardless of age who have been retired for five years; and 29 [(iv)] (iii) all recipients of an accidental death benefit regardless of 30 age who have been receiving such benefit for five years. 31 § 5. This act shall take effect immediately. FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill would provide an increase in the defined benefit cost-of- living adjustment (COLA) for New York public retirement systems. Start- ing with a payment in September 2018, COLA will be payable to pensioners who have attained age fifty-five and been retired at least five years. Insofar as this bill affects the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System, pursuant to Section 25 of the Retirement and Social Security Law, the increased costs would be borne entirely by the State of New York and would require an itemized appropriation sufficient to pay the cost of the provision. If this bill were enacted, the increase in the present value of benefits would be approximately $418 million. Insofar as this bill affects the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS), the increased costs would be shared by the State of New York and the participating employers in the PFRS. If this bill were enacted, the increase in the present value of benefits would be approximately $77 million. The estimated first year cost would be approximately $1.8 million to the State of New York and approximately $7.5 million to the participating employers in the PFRS. 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- ation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2017 Report of the Actuary and the 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.S. 6049--A 3 The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2015, 2016, and 2017 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, 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 January 19, 2018, and intended for use only during the 2018 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2018-37, prepared by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.