Senate Bill S6321

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   6321
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              March 10, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen. PALUMBO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
 
 AN ACT to authorize the county of Suffolk and the village of Nissequogue
   to offer an optional twenty-year retirement  plan  to  police  officer
   Bridget Topping

   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 county of Suffolk and the village of Nissequogue, in the  county  of
 Suffolk,  participating employers 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  county  and  village,  are hereby authorized to make
 participation in such plan available to Bridget Topping, a police  offi-
 cer  employed  full-time  by  the county of Suffolk and part-time by the
 village of Nissequogue, who, for  reasons  not  ascribable  to  her  own
 negligence,  failed  to make a timely application to participate in such
 optional twenty-year retirement plan. The  county  of  Suffolk  and  the
 village  of Nissequogue may so elect by separately filing with the state
 comptroller, within nine months of  the  effective  date  of  this  act,
 resolutions of its own county legislature and the village board of trus-
 tees  together  with  certification that such police officer did not bar
 herself from participation in such retirement plan as a  result  of  her
 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 as well as section 384-e of such law,
 by filing a request to that effect with the state comptroller within one
 year of the effective date of this act.
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD04419-02-5
 S. 6321                             2
              

 
   § 2. All employer past service costs associated with implementing  the
 provisions  of  this act shall be borne by the county of Suffolk and may
 be amortized over a ten-year period.
   § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
   FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
   This bill would allow Suffolk County and the Village of Nissequogue to
 reopen  the provisions of section 384-d, together with section 384-e, of
 the Retirement and  Social  Security  Law  for  police  officer  Bridget
 Topping.
   If this bill is enacted during the 2025 Legislative Session, we antic-
 ipate  that  there  will  be an increase of approximately $20,000 in the
 annual contributions of Suffolk County and $1,400 in the annual contrib-
 utions of the Village of Nissequogue for the fiscal  year  ending  March
 31,  2026.  In future years this cost will vary as the billing rates and
 salary of Bridget Topping change.
   In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be
 an immediate past service cost of approximately $726,000 which  will  be
 borne  by  Suffolk  County  as a one-time payment. This estimate assumes
 that payment will be made on February 1, 2026. If Suffolk County  elects
 to amortize this cost over a 10-year period, the cost for the first year
 including interest would be $92,700.
   Summary of relevant resources:
   Membership  data as of March 31, 2024 was used in measuring the impact
 of the proposed change, the same data used in the April 1, 2024 actuari-
 al valuation. Distributions and other statistics can  be  found  in  the
 2024  Report  of the Actuary and the 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial
 Report.  The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the
 2024 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, 2024 New York State and Local Retirement System Financial Statements
 and Supplementary Information.
   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  February  26,  2025, and intended for use only
 during the 2025 Legislative Session, is  Fiscal  Note  No.  2025-81.  As
 Chief  Actuary  of  the  New  York State and Local Retirement System, I,
 Aaron Schottin Young, hereby certify that this  analysis  complies  with
 applicable  Actuarial  Standards  of  Practice  as  well  as the Code of
 Professional Conduct and Qualification Standards for  Actuaries  Issuing
 Statements of Actuarial Opinion of the American Academy of Actuaries, of
 which I am a member.