S 7758: Authorizes David Edwards to receive certain service credit under a twenty-five year retirement plan offering one-sixtieths after twenty-five years of total creditable service for service with the Binghamton Fire Department.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7758 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE May 5, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. WEBB -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions AN ACT to authorize the city of Binghamton to offer an optional retire- ment plan to firefighter David Edwards 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 to the contrary, 2 the city of Binghamton, in the county of Broome, a participating employ- 3 er in the New York state and local police and fire retirement system, 4 which previously elected to offer the optional one-sixtieths after twen- 5 ty-five years of total creditable service, established pursuant to 6 subdivision f of section 384 of the retirement and social security law, 7 to firefighters employed by such city who are covered by section 384 of 8 the retirement and social security law, is hereby authorized to make 9 participation in such plan available to David Edwards, a firefighter 10 employed by the city of Binghamton, who, for reasons not ascribable to 11 his own negligence, failed to make a timely application to participate 12 in such optional one-sixtieths for his twenty-five year retirement plan. 13 The city of Binghamton may so elect by filing with the state comp- 14 troller, within nine months of the effective date of this act, a resol- 15 ution of its own common council together with certification that such 16 firefighter did not bar himself from participation in such retirement 17 plan as a result of his own negligence. Thereafter, such firefighter may 18 elect to be covered by the provisions of subdivision f of section 384 of 19 the retirement and social security law, and shall be entitled to the 20 full rights and benefits associated with coverage under such section, by 21 filing a request to that effect with the state comptroller within one 22 year of the effective date of this act. 23 § 2. All employer past service costs associated with implementing the 24 provisions of this act shall be borne by the city of Binghamton and may 25 be amortized over a ten-year period. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD10871-02-5 
 S. 7758 2 1 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. FISCAL NOTE. -- Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50: This bill would allow the City of Binghamton to reopen the provisions of §384.f. of the Retirement and Social Security Law (RSSL) for fire- fighter David Edwards, who is currently covered under §384 of the RSSL. If this bill is enacted during the 2025 Legislative Session, we antic- ipate that there will be an increase of approximately $1,100 in the annual contributions of the City of Binghamton for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026. In future years this cost will vary as the bill- ing rates and salary of David Edwards change. In addition to the annual contributions discussed above, there will be an immediate past service cost of approximately $16,700 which will be borne by the City of Binghamton as a one-time payment. This estimate assumes that payment will be made on February 1, 2026. If the City of Binghamton elects to amortize this cost over a 10 year period, the cost for each year including interest would be $2,130. 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 April 9, 2025, and intended for use only during the 2025 Legislative Session, is Fiscal Note No. 2025-128. 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.