New York A 7861: Provides alternative retirement benefits for the police force at Erie County Medical Center

Bill Text

STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          7861
                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                     April 11, 2025
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  M. of A. PEOPLES-STOKES -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Governmental Employees
        AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in  relation  to
          providing alternative retirement benefits for the police force at Erie
          County Medical Center
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. The retirement and social security law is amended by adding
     2  a new section 89-y to read as follows:
     3    § 89-y. Alternative retirement benefits for the police force  at  Erie
     4  County Medical Center. a. For purposes of this section:
     5    1.  "Qualifying  member"  shall mean any member who is in service as a
     6  sworn member employed under the police department  of  the  Erie  County
     7  Medical Center.
     8    2.  "Qualifying  creditable  service"  shall  mean  creditable service
     9  rendered while a member is a qualifying member.
    10    b. 1. Any qualifying member, as  defined  in  subdivision  a  of  this
    11  section,  shall be eligible to retire pursuant to the provisions of this
    12  section. Such eligibility shall be an  alternative  to  the  eligibility
    13  provisions  available under any other plan of this article to which such
    14  member is subject. The comptroller may request certifications from agen-
    15  cy officials, as appropriate, to identify such eligible members.
    16    2. Any such qualifying member shall be entitled to  retire  after  the
    17  completion  of  twenty-five  years  of  qualifying  creditable  service,
    18  including such service credits transferred from  any  other  plan  under
    19  this  article,  by filing an application therefor in a manner similar to
    20  that provided in section seventy of this article and immediately collect
    21  their full annuity without penalty; or  members  shall  be  eligible  to
    22  retire and collect their full annuity without penalty upon completion of
    23  ten years of service as a sworn member employed under the police depart-
    24  ment  of  the  Erie  County  Medical  Center; provided, however, that no
         EXPLANATION--Matter in  (underscored) is new; matter in bracketsitalics
                              [] is old law to be omitted. 
                                                                   LBD04280-03-5

        A. 7861                             2
     1  member shall be eligible to retire until such member has  a  minimum  of
     2  ten years of qualifying creditable service.
     3    c.  A  member  retiring  under  the  provisions  of this section shall
     4  receive a retirement allowance consisting of a pension equal to one-fif-
     5  tieth of such member's final average salary for each year of  qualifying
     6  creditable  service. This retirement allowance shall not exceed seventy-
     7  five percent of such member's final average salary.
     8    d. Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent a member, who does not
     9  retire pursuant to  the  provisions  of  this  section,  from  utilizing
    10  service  which  is creditable service pursuant to the provisions of this
    11  section for the service credit pursuant to any other plan of this  arti-
    12  cle to which such member is subject.
    13    e.  All  members  may elect to transfer their years of service credits
    14  from any other plan of this article to which such member is  subject  to
    15  the  plan  described  in  this  section  and be eligible to receive full
    16  service credit.
    17    f. The increased costs of the benefits provided for  in  this  section
    18  shall be paid from additional contributions made by the employer.
    19    g. For all members appointed after the effective date of this section,
    20  mandatory  retirement  shall be enforced at age sixty-two with no penal-
    21  ties of any kind.
    22    h. The provisions of this section shall be controlling notwithstanding
    23  any other provision in this article to the contrary.
    24    § 2. Subdivision a of section 445 of the retirement and social securi-
    25  ty law, as amended by chapter 714 of the laws of  2023,  is  amended  to
    26  read as follows:
    27    a.  No  member of a retirement system who is subject to the provisions
    28  of this article shall retire without regard to age, exclusive of retire-
    29  ment for disability, unless []  is a police officer,he or shesuch member
    30  an investigator member  of  the  New  York  city  employees'  retirement
    3