Assembly Bill A7703A

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

                                 7703--A

                       2011-2012 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                              May 16, 2011
                               ___________

Introduced  by  M. of A. GUNTHER, CANESTRARI, COLTON, BENEDETTO, JAFFEE,
  SCHIMEL, RUSSELL, BARRON, DenDEKKER, WEPRIN -- Multi-Sponsored  by  --
  M.  of  A.   AMEDORE, ARROYO, AUBRY, BARCLAY, BOYLAND, BOYLE, BRENNAN,
  BROOK-KRASNY, BURLING, BUTLER, CAHILL, CALHOUN, CASTRO, CLARK,  CONTE,
  COOK,  CORWIN,  CROUCH,  CUSICK,  CYMBROWITZ, DINOWITZ, DUPREY, ENGLE-
  BRIGHT, FINCH, GABRYSZAK, GALEF, GIBSON,  GIGLIO,  GOTTFRIED,  HAWLEY,
  HEASTIE,  HOOPER,  JACOBS,  KAVANAGH,  KOLB,  LATIMER, LAVINE, LIFTON,
  P. LOPEZ, V. LOPEZ, LUPARDO, MAGEE, MAISEL, MARKEY, McDONOUGH,  McENE-
  NY,  McKEVITT, MENG, J. MILLER, MILLMAN, OAKS, ORTIZ, PAULIN, PEOPLES-
  STOKES,  PERRY,  PRETLOW,  RABBITT,  RAIA,  RAMOS,  REILICH,   REILLY,
  J. RIVERA,  N. RIVERA,  P. RIVERA, ROBINSON, ROSENTHAL, SAYWARD, SCAR-
  BOROUGH, SWEENEY, TEDISCO, THIELE, TITONE, TITUS, TOBACCO, WEISENBERG,
  WRIGHT, ZEBROWSKI -- read  once  and  referred  to  the  Committee  on
  Governmental Employees -- recommitted to the Committee on Governmental
  Employees  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
  certain members who re-enter public service

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

  Section 1. Subdivisions 2 and 4 of section 645 of the  retirement  and
social security law, subdivision 2 as amended by chapter 322 of the laws
of  2002  and  subdivision 4 as added by chapter 640 of the laws of 1998
and as renumbered by chapter 646 of the laws of  1999,  are  amended  to
read as follows:
  2.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person [other than
a retiree of a public retirement system,] who previously was a member of
a public retirement system and whose membership in such  public  retire-
ment  system  ceased  by reason of (i) insufficient service credit, (ii)
withdrawal of accumulated contributions, or (iii) withdrawal of  member-

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD02318-04-2
              

A. 7703--A                          2

ship,  upon  rejoining  such  public retirement system or another public
retirement system, shall be deemed to have been a member of his  or  her
current  retirement  system  during the entire period of time commencing
with and subsequent to the original date of such previous ceased member-
ship,  provided  that  such person (a) makes application therefor to the
administrative head of his or her current public retirement system,  and
(b)  repays  the  amount  refunded,  if  any,  at the time such previous
membership ceased, together with interest at the rate  of  five  percent
per  annum  compounded annually from the date of such refund through the
date of repayment. Upon such reinstatement of date of  membership,  such
member  shall  be entitled to all the rights, benefits and privileges to
which he or she would have been entitled had his or her current  member-
ship  begun  on such original date of membership except that, solely for
the purposes of granting  retirement  credit  to  members  of  a  public
retirement  system  other  than  the  New York city teachers' retirement
system for service credited during such previous ceased membership where
such was in a public retirement system other than the  member's  current
retirement  system,  such previously credited service shall be deemed to
be prior service, not subsequent service.  Furthermore, any such  member
whose  original  date  of  membership  was prior to July first, nineteen
hundred seventy-three shall be entitled to all the rights, benefits  and
privileges  to  which  he  or she would have been entitled had he or she
been in active service on  June  thirtieth,  nineteen  hundred  seventy-
three. Any contribution made to the public retirement system pursuant to
article fourteen or fifteen of this chapter by a member who rejoined his
or  her current system on or after July twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred
seventy-six shall not be refunded.
  4. The provisions of this article shall be applicable to a person  who
[is,  on  the  date  this  article becomes effective] WAS A MEMBER ON OR
BEFORE JANUARY FIRST, NINETEEN HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE, or who subsequent to
such date becomes, a member of a public retirement system.
  S 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall  only  apply  to
all persons who are alive as of the effective date of this act and shall
apply  to  payments made on or after the effective date of this act; and
provided further, that any retirees qualifying under this act shall have
their retirement allowance recalculated from July 1, 2012 or the date of
reinstatement, whichever is later.
  FISCAL NOTE.-- Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
  This bill would allow certain  living  retirees  of  New  York  public
retirement systems who retired prior to December 16, 1999 and who previ-
ously  were  members of a New York public retirement system to be deemed
to have become members of the systems from which they retired as of  the
original  date of such previous ceased membership. Tier 3 and 4 retirees
of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System or the  New
York  State  Teachers' Retirement System who become Tier 1 or 2 retirees
and who have already purchased their previous service  would  receive  a
refund  of  these  contributions.    No  benefits will be deemed to have
accrued prior to the effective date of this act.
  In addition, this bill would also affect retirees who had  a  previous
ceased  membership  with  a public employee retirement system other than
the NYS & LERS or the NYS & LPFRS.
  If this bill is enacted, insofar as this bill  affects  the  New  York
State  and Local Employees' Retirement System (ERS), approximately 1,484
retirees of the ERS will be affected. The estimated  past  service  cost
would be approximately $15.9 million.

A. 7703--A                          3

  Pursuant to section 25 of the Retirement and Social Security Law, this
ERS  past service cost would be borne by the State of New York and would
require an itemized appropriation by the State of New York sufficient to
pay the cost of the provision. The State may amortize this past  service
cost  over  a period of 5 years. The first year cost, including interest
would be approximately $3.7 million.
  Insofar as this bill would affect employers in the New York State  and
Local Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS), the estimated additional
costs  would  be negligible. These costs would be shared by the State of
New York and the participating employers in the PFRS.
  Summary of relevant resources:
  Data: March 31, 2011 Actuarial Year End  File  with  distributions  of
membership  and  other  statistics  displayed  in the 2011 Report of the
Actuary and 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.
  Assumptions and Methods: 2010 and 2011  Annual  Report  to  the  Comp-
troller  on  Actuarial  Assumptions,  Codes Rules and Regulations of the
State of New York: Audit and Control.
  Market Assets and GASB Disclosures: March 31, 2011 New York State  and
Local  Retirement System Financial Statements and Supplementary Informa-
tion.
  Valuations of Benefit Liabilities and Actuarial Assets: summarized  in
the 2011 Actuarial Valuations report.
  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 May 24, 2012 and intended for use only during the
2012  Legislative  Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2012-143, prepared by the
Actuary for the New York State and Local  Employees'  Retirement  System
and the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System.