NY State Senate Bill 2023-S9538

Senate Bill S9538

2023-2024 Legislative Session

Authorizes active members of the New York state and local police and fire retirement system to purchase service credit for service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department

download bill text pdf

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Civil Service And Pensions Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Actions

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
May 16, 2024	referred to civil service and pensions

2023-S9538 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Civil Service And Pensions
Law Section:: Retirement

2023-S9538 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Authorizes active members of the New York state and local police and fire retirement system to purchase service credit for service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department.

2023-S9538 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S9538

SPONSOR: WEIK
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act in relation to authorizing active members of the New York state
and local police and fire retirement system to purchase service credit
for service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department

 
PURPOSE:

To authorize former members of the LIRR police who are still on active
duty with other active police departments to receive service credit for
their time with the LIRRPD.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

  Section  1-Section  1  permits  certain  active members of the NYS P&F
retirement system the ability to purchase up to three years  of  service
credit  with  the  Long Island Railroad Company police department to the
New York state and local police and fire retirement system.

  Section 2- provides that all past service costs shall be borne by  the
State.

Section 3- sets forth an immediate effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The Long Island Railroad Company operated its own police department (the
LIRRPD) until 1998, when the LIRRPD was consolidated into the MTA Police
Retirement  Program  (the "MTA Plan"). The MTA Plan is a defined benefit
pension plan that is not part of the State System. In 2015, the Legisla-
ture passed a statute that permitted  LIRRPD  police  officers  employed
after  the  merger to transfer their service time in the MTA Plan to the
State System (Chapter 533, Laws 2015).

Former LIRRPD officers who left to loin other police departments  before
the  merger  did not have the same opportunity to transfer their time to
the State System. This bill  will  correct  this  oversight  and  permit
active police officers who left the LIRRPD before 1998 to purchase up to
three years of prior service credit.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2022: S6302A Passed Senate

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

See fiscal note.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

2023-S9538 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   9538
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                               May 16, 2024
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  WEIK  --  read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
 
 AN ACT in relation to authorizing active members of the New  York  state
   and local police and fire retirement system to purchase service credit
   for service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department

   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Notwithstanding any other  provision  of  law,  any  active
 member of the New York state and local police and fire retirement system
 who  was  a  former  police  officer of the Long Island Railroad company
 police department shall be eligible to apply to  purchase  up  to  three
 years  of  service credit for such employment if, within one year of the
 effective date of this act, the member shall (1) file a written  request
 to that effect with such retirement system; and (2) shall pay to the New
 York  state  and  local police and fire retirement system a sum equal to
 the product of the number of years of service being  claimed  and  three
 percent of such member's compensation earned during the twelve months of
 credited  service  immediately  preceding  the date that the member made
 application for credit pursuant to this section. Such members shall have
 at least five years of credited service, not including service  credited
 by  this section, to be eligible to receive the credit authorized pursu-
 ant to this section.
   § 2. All past service costs attributable to the implementation of this
 act shall be borne by the state of New York.
   § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
   FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
   This bill would allow active members of the New York State  and  Local
 Police  and  Fire  Retirement  System (NYSLPFRS) to purchase up to three
 years of service credit for time rendered as a  police  officer  in  the
 Long  Island  Railroad  company  police department. Members must have at
 least five years of credited service (not including Long Island Railroad
 company police department service). Under current law, service with  the
 Long Island Railroad Company must be credited in the Metropolitan Trans-
 portation  Authority  police  retirement program before it can be trans-
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                            LBD11624-03-4
 S. 9538                             2
 
 ferred to the NYSLPFRS. Members would be required to make a  payment  of
 three  percent  of their most recent compensation per year of additional
 service credit granted by this bill.
   If  this  bill is enacted during the 2024 Legislative Session, insofar
 as this proposal affects the NYSLPFRS, it is  estimated  that  the  past
 service  cost  will be 22% of an affected member's compensation for each
 year of service credit that is purchased. For the  NYSLPFRS,  this  cost
 will  be  billed to the State of New York annually, based on those bene-
 fiting from this provision.
   The exact number of current members as  well  as  future  members  who
 could  be affected by this legislation cannot be readily determined. For
 one member known to be impacted by this bill, the cost to the  State  of
 New  York  will  be approximately $158,000, based on the assumption that
 payment will be made on March 1, 2025.
   Summary of relevant resources:
   Membership data as of March 31, 2023 was used in measuring the  impact
 of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2023 actuari-
 al  valuation.    Distributions and other statistics can be found in the
 2023 Report of the Actuary and the 2023 Annual  Comprehensive  Financial
 Report.
   The  actuarial  assumptions and methods used are described in the 2023
 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, 2023
 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  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  May 15, 2024, and intended for use only during
 the 2024 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No.  2024-78,  prepared  by
 the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.

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