A 8231: Authorizes active members of the New York state and local police and fire retirement system to purchase service credit for service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8231 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY May 5, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. DURSO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees AN ACT in relation to authorizing active members of the New York state and local police and fire retirement system to purchase service credit for service with the Long Island Railroad Company police department The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any active 2 member of the New York state and local police and fire retirement system 3 who was a former police officer of the Long Island Railroad company 4 police department shall be eligible to apply to purchase up to three 5 years of service credit for such employment if, within one year of the 6 effective date of this act, the member shall (1) file a written request 7 to that effect with such retirement system; and (2) shall pay to the New 8 York state and local police and fire retirement system a sum equal to 9 the product of the number of years of service being claimed and three 10 percent of such member's compensation earned during the twelve months of 11 credited service immediately preceding the date that the member made 12 application for credit pursuant to this section. Such members shall have 13 at least five years of credited service, not including service credited 14 by this section, to be eligible to receive the credit authorized pursu- 15 ant to this section. 16 § 2. All past service costs attributable to the implementation of this 17 act shall be borne by the state of New York. 18 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill would allow active members of the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System (NYSLPFRS) to purchase up to three years of service credit for time rendered as a police officer in the Long Island Railroad Company (LIRR) police department. To be eligible, members must have at least five years of credited service (not including EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD08934-02-5 
 A. 8231 2 this LIRR service). Currently, service with the LIRR must be credited in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police retirement program before it can be transferred to NYSLPFRS. Members would be required to pay three percent of their most recent compensation for each year of additional service credit granted by this bill. If this bill is enacted during the 2025 Legislative Session, it is estimated that the past service cost will be 22% of affected member's compensation for each year of service credit that is purchased. This cost will be billed to the State of New York annually, based on those benefiting from this provision. The exact number of current members as well as future members who could be affected by this legislation cannot be readily determined. For one member known to be impacted by this bill, the cost to the State of New York will be approximately $153,000, assuming it is paid March 1, 2026. 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 March 27, 2025, and intended for use only during the 2025 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2025-125. As Chief Actuary of the New York State and Local Retirement System, I, Aaron Schottin Young, hereby certify that this analysis complies with applica- ble 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.