What's happening
This bill expands disability and pension benefits for certain New York City police pension fund members, including new contribution requirements.
Why it matters
Expands eligibility for enhanced pension and disability benefits. The bill allows more New York City police officers to opt into (or automatically be covered by) enhanced "Tier 3" pension benefits, including accidental disability retirement, by specifying new categories of eligible members and election windows.
Ensures access to accidental disability benefits regardless of retirement eligibility. The amendment clarifies that eligible police officers can still receive accidental disability benefits even if they qualify for a normal service retirement, addressing a previous gap that could deny benefits to some injured officers.
Imposes new and adjustable employee contribution rates. Enhanced plan members in the police pension fund will contribute an additional 1% of annual wages (on top of the existing 3%), with this rate subject to actuarial review and potential increase every three years (capped at an extra 1.5%), potentially affecting take-home pay.
Aims to balance benefit costs with employee contributions. By requiring periodic actuarial analyses and adjusting contribution rates accordingly, the bill seeks to ensure that the cost of enhanced benefits is largely offset by increased employee contributions, limiting additional costs to the city and taxpayers.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Expand NYPD Disability Benefits
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to civil service and pensions
- Referred to civil service and pensions
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
5410
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 24, 2017
Introduced by Sens. FLANAGAN, GOLDEN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to disability benefits for certain members of the New York city police pension fund
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 28 of section 501 of the retirement and social security law, as added by chapter 298 of the laws of 2016, is amended to read as follows:
28. "New York city enhanced plan member" shall mean (a) a New York city police/fire revised plan member who becomes subject to the provisions of this article on or after June fifteenth, two thousand sixteen and who is a member of the New York city fire department pension fund, (b) a police/fire member who is a member of the New York city fire department pension fund and who makes an election, which shall be irrevocable and shall be duly executed and filed with the administrative head of such pension fund no later than one hundred twenty days after the effective date of this subdivision, to be subject to the provisions of this article related to New York city enhanced plan members, [or] (c) a New York city police/fire revised plan member who became subject to the provisions of this article before June fifteenth, two thousand sixteen, who is a member of the New York city fire department pension fund, and who makes an election, which shall be irrevocable and shall be duly executed and filed with the administrative head of such pension fund no later than one hundred twenty days after the effective date of this subdivision, to be subject to the provisions of this article related to New York city enhanced plan members, (d) a New York city police/fire revised plan member who becomes subject to the provisions of this article on or after April first, two thousand seventeen and who is a member
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10806-01-7
S. 5410 2
of the New York city police pension fund, (e) a police/fire member who is a member of the New York city police pension fund and who makes an election, which shall be irrevocable and shall be duly executed and filed with the administrative head of such pension fund no later than one hundred twenty days after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand seventeen which amended this subdivision, to be subject to the provisions of this article related to New York city enhanced plan members, or (f) a New York city police/fire revised plan member who became subject to the provisions of this article before April first, two thousand seventeen, who is a member of the New York city police pension fund, and who makes an election, which shall be irrevocable and shall be duly executed and filed with the administrative head of such pension fund no later than one hundred twenty days after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand seventeen which amended this subdivision, to be subject to the provisions of this article related to New York city enhanced plan members.
§ 2. Subdivision b of section 507 of the retirement and social security law, as amended by chapter 18 of the laws of 2012, is amended to read as follows:
b. A police/fire member in active service, a New York city uniformed correction/sanitation revised plan member in active service or an investigator revised plan member in active service, or a vested member incapacitated as the result of a qualifying World Trade Center condition as defined in section two of this chapter, who is not eligible for a normal service retirement benefit shall be eligible for the accidental disability benefit either as provided in subdivision a of this section or if such member is physically or mentally incapacitated for performance of duty as the natural and proximate result of an accident sustained in such active service and not caused by such member's own willful negligence; provided, however, that no New York city enhanced plan member who is a member of the New York city police pension fund who is otherwise eligible for accidental disability benefits pursuant to this section shall be deemed to be ineligible for such benefits because such member is eligible for a normal service retirement benefit.
§ 3. Subdivision h of section 517 of the retirement and social security law, as added by chapter 298 of the laws of 2016, is amended to read as follows:
h. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of subdivision a of this section, New York city enhanced plan members who are members of the New York city fire department pension fund shall, as of the effective date of this subdivision pursuant to chapter two hundred ninety-eight of the laws of two thousand sixteen, contribute three percent of annual wages to the pension fund in which they have membership, plus an additional percentage of annual wages as set forth in [the] chapter two hundred ninety-eight of the laws of two thousand sixteen [which added this subdivision].
§ 4. Section 517 of the retirement and social security law is amended by adding a new subdivision i to read as follows:
i. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of subdivision a of this section, New York city enhanced plan members who are members of the New York city police pension fund shall, as of the effective date of this subdivision, contribute three percent of annual wages to the pension fund in which they have membership, plus an additional percentage of annual wages as set forth in the chapter of the laws of two thousand seventeen which added this subdivision.
S. 5410 3
§ 5. New York City enhanced plan members, as defined in section 501 of the retirement and social security law as amended by section one of this act, shall contribute, pursuant to subdivision i of section 517 of the retirement and social security law, as added by section four of this act, an additional one percent of annual wages to the pension fund in which they have membership. Every three years from the effective date of this act, the actuary of such pension fund shall prepare an analysis, using current actuarial methods and assumptions in effect as of the date of such analysis, assessing the total cost of providing the benefits established by this act expressed as an employee contribution of a percentage of annual wages of New York City enhanced plan members which would require no additional employer contribution. On the basis of such analysis, the additional percentage of annual wages provided for herein shall be adjusted to equal one percent of annual wages plus any amount by which the employee contribution calculated in such analysis exceeds 2.2 percent of annual wages; provided, however, that in no event shall the additional percentage of annual wages exceed 1.5 percent.
§ 6. Section 81 of chapter 18 of the laws of 2012 shall not apply to this act.
§ 7. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
If this bill were to be enacted in the 2017 legislative session, the
cost to the City of New York in fiscal year 2017-2018 would be approxi-
mately $13.5 million.
This fiscal note, dated March 24, 2017 is intended for use only during
the 2017 Legislative Session.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to disability benefits for certain members of the New York city police pension fund
Summary of provisions
This legislation would amend the New York State Retirement and Social Security Law to provide an Accident Disability Retirement benefit for Tier 3 and Tier 3R members of the Police Pension Fund. Specifically, this legislation:
*Provides an accidental disability retirement benefit equal to three-quarters of Final Average Salary (FAS) *Removes the Social Security offset from disability benefits *Includes Tier 2 Cost-of-Living Adjustment provisions *Requires that eligible members to initially contribute an additional one percent of wages which, depending on future cost calculations, may be raised to a maximum 1.5 percent.
Reasons for support
The City of New York deeply appreciates the service of its uniformed employees, and the need for strong disability protections in light of the dangers they face on a daily basis while maintaining our organized society.
This legislation is the product of tireless efforts of the Police Benevolent Association to work closely with.the City to arrive at an agreement which would provide the men and women of the New York Police Department to receive an accidental disability retirement pension equal to three-quarters of FAS.
Under the current model, police pension fund members of Tiers 3 & 3R who are injured in-the-line of duty stand to receive a disability benefit of 50'1 of salary, which is offset by 50% of any Social Security Disability income (a prerequisite to receiving a state disability retirement). This legislation no only increases the benefit to 75%, it removes the onerous Social Security offset.
This legislation represents a responsible compromise plan that ensures that our brave uniformed men and women would receive coverage in the event of tragic injury. In such an instance, making sure that uniformed officers, and their families, are provided for is of critical importance.
This legislation modifies the disability laws put in place by New York State in 2009 and 2012, but stops short of a complete rollback of the Governor's pension reforms that the Legislature passed and the Governor signed a few years ago. It recognizes that our uniformed employees must have disability benefits which protect them and their families in the event of injury while performing their job duties.
Fiscal impact
See fiscal note
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.