S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
6515
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
March 19, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. M. MILLER -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to authorize the widow of Howard Mahler to file a retirement
option election form
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,
Robin Garfinkle, the widow of Howard Mahler, who was employed by the
Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services and was a member of
the New York state and local employees' retirement system, and who died
on December 23, 2014 prior to filing a retirement election form with the
New York state and local employees' retirement system and after 28 years
and 11 months of state service, shall be authorized to file such option
election form on behalf of her deceased husband with a joint allowance
full option, if on or before one year after the effective date of this
act she shall submit a request therefor to the state comptroller. In
addition, Howard Mahler's date of retirement shall be deemed to have
been December 22, 2014.
§ 2. All costs shall be borne by the state of New York, and the amount
payable to Robin Garfinkle shall be the full amount otherwise owed
pursuant to the provisions of this act, except any amounts paid by the
New York state and local employees' retirement system as the result of
the death of Howard Mahler prior to the filing of the request for a
service retirement benefit pursuant to this act shall be deducted from
the service retirement benefit payable thereafter.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE-- Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would deem Howard Mahler eligible for a service retirement
benefit effective December 22, 2014, notwithstanding the fact that he
died on December 23, 2014. Robin Garfinkle, the widow of Mr. Mahler,
shall be authorized to file a service retirement application with a date
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03621-02-1
A. 6515 2
of retirement of December 22, 2014 and an option election form selecting
the joint allowance full option on behalf of her deceased husband. The
amount paid to Ms. Garfinkle shall be less any sums previously paid by
the retirement system to any beneficiary of Mr. Mahler.
If this bill is enacted, there will be an immediate past service cost
of approximately $1.01 million which will be borne by the State of New
York as a one-time payment. This estimate is based on the assumption
that payment will be made on March 1, 2022.
Summary of relevant resources:
Membership data as of March 31, 2020 was used in measuring the impact
of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2020 actuari-
al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the
2020 Report of the Actuary and the 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report.
The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2020
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, 2020
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 fiscal note does not constitute a legal opinion on the viability
of the proposed change nor is it intended to serve as a substitute for
the professional judgment of an attorney.
This estimate, dated December 28, 2020, and intended for use only
during the 2021 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2021-2, prepared
by the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.