S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
4623
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
I N S E N A T E
April 1, 2015
___________
Introduced by Sen. GRIFFO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
AN ACT to authorize members of the New York state and New York city
teachers' retirement systems and the New York state and local employ-
ees' retirement system to claim retirement credit for certain private
school teaching service
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, a member of the
New York state teachers' retirement system or the New York city teach-
ers' retirement system, or any member of the New York state and local
employees' retirement system who is employed by a school district, a
board of cooperative educational services, a vocational education and
extension board, an institution for the instruction of the deaf and
blind as enumerated in section 4201 of the education law or a school
district as enumerated in section 1 of chapter 566 of the laws of 1967,
or who is employed by the state of New York as an institutional teacher
as defined by section 136 of the civil service law, shall be entitled to
obtain credit for up to five years of service rendered as a teacher
employed by a private elementary or secondary school within the state of
New York chartered by or registered with the board of regents, or in a
private college within the state of New York authorized by the board of
regents to grant degrees, which would constitute service as a teacher,
had it been performed within New York state for an employer subject to
the applicable provisions of law governing such retirement system.
S 2. The crediting of service pursuant to this act shall be in accord-
ance with such rules and regulations as shall be adopted by the retire-
ment board of the New York state teachers' retirement system, the
retirement board of the New York city teachers' retirement system or the
state comptroller, as appropriate, provided that such rules and regu-
lations shall be substantially equivalent to the rules and regulations
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09905-02-5
S. 4623 2
otherwise applicable for the crediting of service pursuant to applicable
provisions of law governing each such retirement system, and provided
further that if such provisions have not expired such member makes the
applicable payments required pursuant to the provisions of sections 517
and 613, and paragraph 2 of subdivision b of section 609 of the retire-
ment and social security law.
S 3. The service credit granted pursuant to this act shall constitute
service for the sole purpose of computing the pension payable upon
retirement for service and under no circumstances shall the service
credit granted pursuant to this act be used either in determining the
total length of service credit for purposes of eligibility for a service
retirement benefit or in computing final average salary. Provided
further, no such credit shall be allowed for any service for which the
person is receiving a benefit or will be entitled to receive a benefit
at any future time from any other public or private retirement system or
plan in this state, any other state or from the federal government.
S 4. This act shall take effect June 30, 2015, except that any rule or
regulation necessary for the timely implementation of the provisions of
this act on its effective date are authorized and directed to be promul-
gated on or before such date.
FISCAL NOTE.-- Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill will allow members of certain public retirement systems who
are currently employed by a school district, a board of cooperative
educational service, a vocational education and extension board, an
institution for the deaf and blind or as an institutional teacher to
receive up to five years of service credit in such public retirement
systems for employment as a teacher in private schools in New York
State. The additional service credit granted pursuant to this legis-
lation shall constitute service credit solely for the purpose of comput-
ing the pension payable upon retirement, and shall not be used to deter-
mine eligibility for a service benefit. For certain individuals, member
contributions will be required to be paid to obtain such additional
service credit. Tier 6 members would be required to make a payment of
six percent of current compensation per year of additional service cred-
it granted by this bill. Members of all other tiers would be required to
make a payment of three percent of current compensation per year of
additional service credit granted by this bill.
If this bill is enacted, insofar as it affects the New York State and
Local Employees' Retirement System (ERS), it is estimated that the past
service cost will average approximately 12% (9% for Tier 6) of an
affected members' compensation for each year of additional service cred-
it that is purchased.
The exact number of current members as well as future members who
could be affected by this legislation cannot be readily determined.
Pursuant to Section 25 of the Retirement and Social Security Law, the
past service cost for the ERS will be borne entirely by the State of New
York and would require an itemized appropriation sufficient to pay the
cost of the provision. Since a member can apply for this service credit
at any time prior to retirement, a precise cost can't be determined
until each member, as well as future members, applies for the service
credit. Every year a cost will be determined (and billed to the state)
based on those benefiting from this provision.
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
S. 4623 3
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 March 23, 2015, and intended for use only during
the 2015 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2015-88, prepared by
the Actuary for the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement
System.