§ 40. Membership of retirement system. a. Each person who becomes a
member of the retirement system shall file a duly executed application
with the comptroller. Such application shall contain:

1. A detailed statement of all such person's service, and

2. A statement that he consents and agrees to membership and to the
contributions prescribed by this article.

b. Membership in the retirement system shall be mandatory for the
following:

1. All persons who enter or re-enter the service of the state or of a
participating employer on and after July first, nineteen hundred
forty-eight, except those:

(a) In the exempt class of the classified service.

(b) In the labor class.

(c) Who are laborers and who are not covered by article nine of the
military law.

(d) In the unclassified service.

(e) Who are teachers or instructors and who are eligible to membership
in another retirement system.

(f) Sixty years of age and over, whose positions in the exempt class,
labor class or unclassified service have by reason of a reclassification
of positions on or after December fifteenth, nineteen hundred
forty-eight, been placed in the competitive or non-competitive class of
the classified service.

(g) Whose positions are excluded from eligibility for membership in
the retirement system and are covered only by old-age and survivors
insurance.

(h) Whose positions pay compensation at a rate of less than fifteen
hundred dollars a year.

(i) Otherwise specifically provided for by law.
Persons employed in state or local institutions reporting to or subject
to the supervision of the state departments of correction, education,
social welfare, health or mental hygiene need not become members until
the completion of six months of service.

2. (a) Those persons who enter or re-enter service in the state
colleges of agriculture, home economics, veterinary medicine, or
industrial and labor relations, the state agricultural experiment
station at Geneva, or any other institution or agency under the
management and control of Cornell university as representative of the
state university trustees, or who enter or re-enter service in the state
college of ceramics under the management and control of Alfred
university as the representative of the state university trustees, and
who do not elect the optional retirement program established by article
eight-B of the education law, except employees who hold federal
cooperative appointments with the United States department of
agriculture as designated by the director of the New York state
cooperative extension service and who are eligible for participation in
the federal retirement system as provided in subparagraph (b) below.
Each such member shall be covered by the provisions of this article to
the full amount of the salary paid to him from direct or indirect
federal or state taxes. Any person who is in such service when this
paragraph takes effect and who has not made contribution to the annuity
savings fund of the New York state employees' retirement system may on
or before July first, nineteen hundred fifty-seven become a member of
the New York state employees' retirement system and receive credit for
allowable service rendered prior to January first, nineteen hundred
twenty-one, by filing with the comptroller a statement duly executed and
acknowledged, consenting and agreeing to membership and to the
deductions for annuity purposes prescribed in this article, provided he
or she shall pay to the proper fund in installments as he or she shall
elect, except that such payments shall be made within a period no
greater than the number of months of his or her service elapsed between
January first, nineteen hundred twenty-one and his or her date of
membership, an amount equal to the amount that would have been in the
fund had he or she been a member during such elapsed service. Such
persons shall receive member service credit for the time for which such
payments are made.

(b) (1) Any employee of a county extension service association and any
employee of Cornell university appointed for the first time on or after
August first, nineteen hundred seventy-seven who holds a federal
cooperative appointment with the United States department of agriculture
as designated by the director of the New York state cooperative
extension service and who is eligible for participation in the federal
retirement system shall be excluded from membership in the state
employees' retirement system;

(2) any person who on or before July thirty-first, nineteen hundred
seventy-seven holds a state cooperative appointment as designated by the
director of the New York state cooperative extension service, may elect
to receive federal cooperative appointment in the manner provided for by
the relevant federal laws, rules and regulations and to participate in
the federal retirement system and discontinue participation in the state
retirement system by filing a written notice of termination, on or
before December thirty-first, nineteen hundred seventy-eight with the
comptroller. Any employee who is a member of the New York state
employees' retirement system at the time he or she elects coverage in
the federal retirement program shall be deemed to be a person who
discontinues service on the effective date of such election, for the
purpose of determining his or her eligibility for rights and benefits in
such state system; provided however, that if he or she does not withdraw
accumulated contributions, (i) continued service with the county
extension service association or Cornell university while under the
federal retirement program shall be deemed to be member service in the
state employees' retirement system for the purpose of determining
eligibility for any vested retirement allowance, retirement allowance or
ordinary death benefit under such system dependent upon a specified
period of total service or upon attainment of a specified age while in
service or upon death while in service; and (ii) the amount of any such
benefit to which the person or his or her estate or person designated by
him or her may become entitled under either such system shall be
computed only on the basis of service otherwise creditable to him or her
therein and his or her compensation during such service. Electing
employees and their beneficiaries shall not be entitled to any right or
benefit under the New York state employees' retirement system other than
a vested retirement allowance, retirement allowance or ordinary death
benefit to the extent provided for in this chapter.

3. Every police officer and firefighter, appointed to and employed by
a city, county, town, village or police or fire district, in a position
in the classified civil service, other than in a position in the exempt
class, and who is not eligible to become a member of a local pension
system. Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, so far as
such police officers and firefighters are concerned, their employers
shall be treated in all respects as if they were participating
employers. Such employers shall pay into the pension accumulation fund
the amount required to pay the accrued liability on account of such
police officers and firefighters, as computed by the actuary. Such
payment shall be made in such installments as the comptroller shall
require.

c. The following may become members of the retirement system:

1. An officer or employee who is in the service of a participating
employer on the date it becomes a participating employer, unless his
office or position has been excluded from eligibility for membership in
the retirement system pursuant to sections thirty or thirty-one of this
article.

2. An officer or employee in the service of the state or of a
participating employer who would be excluded from membership by the
provisions of subdivision e of this section except for the fact that he,
nevertheless, may become a member pursuant to a specific provision of
law.

3. Any other person in the service of the state or a participating
employer, except as provided in subdivision b or subdivision e of this
section.

4. Officers or employees of the federal government who have at least
five years of member service credit at the time they become federal
officers or employees may continue as contributing members.

The provisions of this paragraph four as hereby amended shall not
affect the membership of officers or employees of the federal government
heretofore commenced or continued hereunder, provided, however, that all
memberships hereunder shall be conditioned upon the receipt by the
retirement system of the payments required by section forty-two of this
article.

5. A person who:

(a) Is a teacher within the meaning of subdivision four of section
five hundred one of the education law,

(b) Is not a member of the New York state teachers' retirement system
and has not elected the optional retirement program established either
by article eight-b or by article three, part V of the education law,

(c) On or after April first, nineteen hundred fifty, enters upon his
employment as such a teacher in a state-operated institution or
community college under the jurisdiction of the board of trustees of the
state university, and

(d) Elects to become a member of this retirement system upon his entry
into such employment and at no other time.

6. An officer or employee who is in the service of an institution for
the instruction of the deaf, mute or the blind, which receives state
pupils whose instruction and support are paid for by the state or a
participating employer.

7. All war veterans in state service on March twenty-first, nineteen
hundred thirty, entitled to benefit under the provisions of former
section twenty-one-a of the civil service law or former subdivision
eight of section three of the public buildings law or section two
hundred fourteen or two hundred fifteen of the military law shall have
the right to elect to become members of the New York state employees'
retirement system, and to be covered by all the provisions of law
relative thereto. Upon exercising such right, such war veteran shall be
deemed to have waived his rights to any benefits under such sections.

8. Any person who is regularly employed under the control of the
division of military and naval affairs whose duties in such employment
require substantially all normal working hours and whose regular
compensation is paid by the United States from funds allocated to the
New York army national guard, or the New York air national guard. For
purposes of eligibility for membership in the retirement system, such
employees shall be deemed to be employees of the state. The provisions
of this paragraph eight shall be effective only if and during the time
that the United States shall undertake to and does provide the
employers' contributions which the state is required to pay to the
retirement system on account of the memberships of such employees.

9. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of subdivision e of this
section, or of this chapter or of any other law, an officer or employee
in the service of the state or of a participating employer who, at the
time of entering such service, was or is entitled to benefits by any
other pension or retirement system maintained by the state or a
political subdivision thereof, provided such benefits, exclusive of any
annuity based solely on his own contributions and interest thereon, are
suspended during his active membership in the retirement system. He
shall contribute to the retirement system as a new member.

d. A member, discontinued from the government service because the
office in which he was employed was transferred to:

1. The federal government, or

2. Any public authority or public corporation organized pursuant to
the laws of this state and which is not a participating employer,
may file a written election with the comptroller stating that he elects
to continue as a member. Such election shall be subject to the approval
of the comptroller and such continuance shall be conditioned upon the
receipt by the retirement system of the payments required by section
forty-two of this article.

e. Any person who is or may be entitled to benefits by any other law
providing for pensions and annuities for civil service employees, wholly
or partly at the expense of the state or of a political subdivision
thereof, shall not be a member. This provision, however, shall not:

1. Affect the membership of any person who legally is a member of the
retirement system on July first, nineteen hundred forty-eight.

2. Exclude from membership any person who is or may become a member
pursuant to paragraph two of subdivision c of this section.

3. Exclude from membership any person paid a salary from two or more
sources, each of which entitles him to membership in a retirement
system.

4. Exclude from membership any person holding office pursuant to
appointment by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the
senate, who at the time of such appointment would otherwise be entitled
to a retirement allowance wholly or partly at the expense of the state
or of a political subdivision thereof.

5. Exclude from membership any person who is or may become eligible
for old-age and survivors insurance benefits pursuant to the provisions
of this article except where his position was or is excluded from
eligibility for membership in this retirement system in order to extend
old-age and survivors insurance coverage to it and such eligibility
shall not have been restored.

f. Termination of membership. Membership in the retirement system
shall cease upon the occurrence of any one of the following conditions:

1. When seven years have elapsed since a member has performed
government service provided, however, that no part of such seven year
period shall run during such time as a member, with at least five years
of member service credit, shall serve as an officer or employee of the
federal government or the United Nations or other international
organizations of which the United States of America is a member.

2. When a member shall die.

3. When a member shall retire.

4. When a member shall have withdrawn all or part of his accumulated
contributions. Acceptance by a member of a refund of excess
contributions pursuant to subdivision g of section twenty-one,
subdivision c of section seventy-two, subdivision c or d of section
seventy-one, subdivision c or d of section seventy-one-a or subdivision
c of section eighty-four, subdivision i of section eighty-five or
subdivision h of section eighty-six of this article or borrowing from
his fund in the retirement system pursuant to section fifty of this
article shall not terminate his membership. Acceptance of such a refund
of excess contributions by a member entitled to a vested retirement
allowance pursuant to section seventy-six of this chapter shall not
terminate his right to such vested retirement allowance nor shall
acceptance by him of a refund of the amount of his contributions and
regular interest thereon which is in excess of the amount of the
accumulated contributions which he would then have to his credit had he
been contributing on the basis of his rate of normal contribution
terminate his right to such vested retirement allowance.

5. When a member who has not attained eligibility for a retirement
allowance or a vested retirement allowance has discontinued service with
the state or a participating employer for a period of at least thirty
consecutive days and has requested termination of membership on a form
prepared by the comptroller for such purpose by filing such form with
the comptroller. If such person subsequently rejoins the retirement
system within five years from the date he discontinued service with the
state or a participating employer, such person shall be entitled to
every retirement right, benefit and privilege which would have been
available to him had he reentered employment on the date of such
discontinuance from service.

g. As to any class of persons whose compensation is only partly paid
by the state or a participating employer or who are serving on a
temporary or other than per annum basis, the comptroller, in his
discretion, may:

1. Deny the right to become members, or

2. Make optional the individual entrance of those whose membership
otherwise would be mandatory.