S 4599: Grants Nassau county fire marshals, supervising fire marshals, fire marshals, assistant fire marshals, assistant chief fire marshals or chief fire marshals pension benefits for service rendered beyond twenty-five years.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4599 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 10, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. JACKSON, MARTINEZ, MARTINS, PALUMBO, RHOADS -- 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 granting certain county fire marshals, supervising fire marshals, fire marshals, assistant fire marshals, assistant chief fire marshals or chief fire marshals pension benefits for service rendered beyond twen- ty-five years The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision t of section 604 of the retirement and social 2 security law, as amended by section 7 of part II of chapter 55 of the 3 laws of 2023, is amended to read as follows: 4 t. The early service retirement benefit for a member who is employed 5 in the county of Nassau as a county fire marshal, supervising fire 6 marshal, fire marshal, assistant fire marshal, assistant chief fire 7 marshal, chief fire marshal or division supervising fire marshal as 8 defined in section eighty-nine-w of this chapter shall be a pension 9 equal to one-fiftieth of final average salary times years of credited 10 service at the completion of twenty-five years of service as such county 11 fire marshal, supervising fire marshal, fire marshal, assistant fire 12 marshal, assistant chief fire marshal, chief fire marshal or division 13 supervising fire marshal, but not exceeding one-half of [his or her] 14 such member's final average salary, for service beyond twenty-five years 15 and for non-fire marshal county service the benefit is increased by 16 one-sixtieth of final average salary for each year of additional service 17 credit. 18 § 2. All past service costs associated with implementing the 19 provisions of this act shall be borne by the county of Nassau and may be 20 amortized over ten years. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD01330-02-5 
 S. 4599 2 1 § 3. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary none of the 2 provisions of this act shall be subject to the appropriation requirement 3 of section twenty-five of the retirement and social security law. 4 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately. FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill would modify the service retirement benefit for members of the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System employed by Nassau County in certain fire marshal job titles. The modified service retirement benefit will be one-half of final average salary (FAS) upon completion of twenty-five years of creditable service with additional sixtieths for each year of creditable service, including non-fire marshal service, in excess of twenty-five years. The current service retirement benefit is one-half of FAS upon completion of twenty-five years of creditable service. If this bill is enacted during the 2025 Legislative Session, we antic- ipate that there will be an increase of approximately $59,000 in the annual contributions of Nassau County for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026. In future years this cost will vary but is expected to average 0.8% of salary annually. In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be an immediate past service cost of approximately $910,000 which will be borne by Nassau County as a one-time payment. This estimate assumes that payment will be made on February 1, 2026. If Nassau County elects to amortize this cost over a 10-year period, the cost for each year includ- ing interest would be $116,000. These estimated costs are based on 43 affected members employed by Nassau County, with annual salary of approximately $5.8 million as of March 31, 2024. 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 7, 2025, and intended for use only during the 2025 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2025-7. 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.