Increase Death Benefit Payment

Section 1. The legislature finds and declares that the late Theodore Raffel served the village of Southampton for nineteen years, three hundred sixty-four days and fifteen and one-half hours as a police officer. At the time of officer Raffel's death, a situation which was not due to negligence on the part of such individual, there had been paid into the New York state and local police and fire retirement system on his behalf contributions in the amount of approximately one hundred eighteen thousand dollars. Nevertheless, the amount of the death benefit paid to officer Raffel's widow was much less than that amount.

§ 2. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, the New York state and local police and fire retirement system is authorized and directed to pay to the beneficiary of police officer Theodore Raffel, who was employed by the village of Southampton as a police officer from 1966, until his death on June 1, 1986, the sum of all of the contributions paid by the village of Southampton to such system on behalf of such police officer, less any sums previously paid by such system to such beneficiary, with interest, compounded annually, calculated at the rate established in accordance with the provisions of subdivision c of section 1202 of the retirement and social security law. Such interest shall be calculated from June 1, 1986 to May 31, 2017.

§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD10681-03-7

S. 5505 2 A. 7069

FISCAL NOTE. -- Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:

This bill would create an additional death benefit paid to the benefi-

ciary of deceased police officer Theodore Raffel. The additional death

benefit amount would be the sum of the contributions paid by the Village

of Southampton to the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retire-

ment System on behalf of Mr. Raffel, less any sums previously paid by

such system to his beneficiary. Such balance would have 5% interest

applied for the period 6/1/86 -- 5/31/17.

If this bill is enacted, the estimated cost of the additional death

benefit would be approximately $180,000. This cost would be shared by

the State of New York and all participating employers in the New York

State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System.

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, 2016 actuarial valu-

ation. Distributions and other statistics can be found in the 2016

Report of the Actuary and the 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial

Report.

The actuarial assumptions and methods used are described in the 2015

and 2016 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, 2016

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 28, 2017, and intended for use only during

the 2017 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2017-75, prepared by

the Actuary for the New York State and Local Retirement System.