S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
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                                  8252

                       2015-2016 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                              June 15, 2015
                               ___________

Introduced by M. of A. ABBATE -- read once and referred to the Committee
  on Ways and Means

AN  ACT  to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
  the SUNY optional retirement program

  THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section  1. Paragraph 2 of subdivision d of section 613 of the retire-
ment and social security law, as amended by chapter 746 of the  laws  of
1990, is amended to read as follows:
  2.  Each participating employer of any employee (subject to this arti-
cle) who, in lieu of joining a public retirement system  of  the  state,
elected  an  optional  retirement  program  to which their employers are
thereby required to  contribute,  INCLUDING,  BUT  NOT  LIMITED  TO,  AN
ELECTION  UNDER  THE  PROVISIONS  OF  SUBDIVISION  THREE-A OR EIGHT-A OF
SECTION THREE HUNDRED NINETY OF THE EDUCATION LAW,  shall  pick  up  the
employee  contributions thereto which would otherwise be mandatory under
the provisions of state law and shall do so by reducing  the  salary  of
such  employee  by the amount of employee contributions to such optional
retirement  program  which  would  otherwise  be  mandatory  under   the
provisions of state law. The contributions so picked up shall be paid by
each  participating  employer  in lieu of the member contributions to be
paid by its employees and shall be treated as employer contributions  in
determining  income  tax treatment under section 414 (h) of the internal
revenue code.
  S 2. This act shall take effect immediately and  shall  be  deemed  to
have been in full force and effect on and after July 1, 2013.
  FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
  This  bill  clarifies that the State University of New York's Optional
Retirement Program (ORP) permits employee contributions to  be  "picked-
up"  under  Internal  Revenue Code for employees who make an election to
participate under the provisions of subdivision three-a  or  eight-a  of

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD11288-03-5
              

A. 8252                             2

section  three  hundred  ninety  of  the  education  law. The pick up of
contributions shall be made by a reduction  in  each  affected  member's
salary  by  an  amount equal to the member's required contributions. The
picked  up contributions would not be includable in the gross income for
income tax purposes but shall be deemed employee salary  for  all  other
purposes.  This is a technical amendment to ensure the income tax treat-
ment is properly authorized by statute. If  this  bill  is  enacted,  we
anticipate that there will be small administrative costs.
  This  estimate,  dated  June 9, 2015, and intended for use only during
the 2015 Legislative Session, was prepared by the Program  Administrator
of the Optional Retirement System for the State University of New York.