S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
4287
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
January 30, 2015
___________
Introduced by M. of A. STIRPE -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to authorize the city of Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga to
offer an optional twenty year retirement plan to police officer Thomas
R. Nicolini
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 to the contrary,
the city of Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga, a participating employ-
er in the New York state and local police and fire retirement system,
which previously elected to offer the optional twenty year retirement
plan, established pursuant to section 384-d of the retirement and social
security law, to police officers employed by such town, is hereby
authorized to make participation in such plan available to Thomas R.
Nicolini, a police officer employed by the city of Syracuse with a start
date of July 23, 1999, who, for reasons not ascribable to his own negli-
gence, failed to make a timely application to participate in such
optional twenty year retirement plan. The city of Syracuse may so elect
by filing with the state comptroller, on or before December 31, 2015, a
resolution of its town board together with certification that such
police officer did not bar himself from participation in such retirement
plan as a result of his own negligence. Thereafter, such police officer
may elect to be covered by the provisions of section 384-d of the
retirement and social security law, and shall be entitled to the full
rights and benefits associated with coverage under such section, by
filing a request to that effect with the state comptroller on or before
June 30, 2016.
S 2. All past costs associated with implementing the provisions of
this act shall be borne by the city of Syracuse.
S 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07459-01-5
A. 4287 2
This bill will allow the City of Syracuse to elect to reopen the
provisions of Section 384-d of the Retirement and Social Security Law
for police officer Thomas R. Nicolini.
If this bill is enacted and Officer Nicolini becomes covered under the
provisions of Section 384-d, we anticipate that there will be an
increase of approximately $9,400 in the annual contributions of the City
of Syracuse for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016. In future years,
this cost will vary as the billing rates and salary of Officer Nicolini
change.
In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be
an immediate past service cost of approximately $281,000 which would be
borne by the City of Syracuse as a one-time payment. This estimate is
based on the assumption that payment will be made on February 1, 2016.
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, 2014 actuarial valu-
ation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2014
Report of the Actuary and the 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report.
The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2010,
2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 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, 2014
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 November 21, 2014, and intended for use only
during the 2015 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2015-2, prepared
by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retire-
ment System.