Pension reform bill adopted by the State's Legislature

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591491714418426610.post-19016872027641918322009-12-02T15:15:00.002-05:002009-12-02T15:24:14.798-05:00Pension reform bill adopted by the State's LegislaturePension reform bill adopted by the State's Legislature S66026 RULES;* Same as A40026, Assembly Rules The State Legislature passed the Governor’s Program Bill #213 creating a new Tier V plan. Key components of Tier V include: 1. Raising the minimum age at which most civilians can retire without penalty from 55 to 62 and imposing a penalty of up to 38 percent for any civilian who retires prior to age 62. 2. Requiring employees to continue contributing 3 percent of their salaries toward pension costs so long as they accumulate additional pension credits. 3. Increasing the minimum years of service required to draw a pension from 5 years to 10 years. 4. Capping the amount of overtime that can be considered in the calculation of pension benefits for civilians at $15,000 per year, and for police and firefighters at 15 percent of non-overtime wages. Members of the NYS Teachers Retirement System will have a separate Tier V benefit structure that will achieve equivalent savings as other civilian public employees. It includes: 1. Raising the minimum age an individual can retire without penalty from 55 to 57 years. 2. Contributing 3.5 percent of their annual wages to pension costs rather than 3.0 percent. 3. Increasing the 2 percent multiplier threshold for final pension calculations from 20 to 25 years. In accordance with the Constitutional protections provided public officers and employees against the diminution or impairment of their pension benefits, the new Tier V provisions apply only to public employees joining the retirement system after January 1, 2010. These provisions will apply to the State workforce and to employees of localities outside New York City. In addition, the bill will implement an agreement between Mayor Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to enact reform of their pensions. On June 2, 2009 the Governor vetoed a bill that would have provided Tier II benefits to all new police officers and firefighters, matching the benefits of current employees at a significant cost to local governments. This “temporary” bill had been extended on a bi-annual basis since 1981. * The bill is entitled "An act to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to establishing police and fire retirement provisions; to amend the retirement and social security law and chapter 625 of the laws of 1975, amending the retirement and social security law relating to the extension of temporary rights and benefits, in relation to making the coordinated-escalator retirement plan and the coordinated retirement plan permanent; to amend the civil service law, in relation to extending the expiration of public arbitration of disputes between public employers and employee organizations (Part A); to amend the retirement and social security law and the general municipal law, in relation to persons joining a public retirement system on or after January 1, 2010; and to amend chapter 729 of the laws of 1994 relating to affecting the health insurance benefits and contributions of retired employees of school districts and certain boards, in relation to eliminating the expiration of the provisions thereof (Part B); and to amend the retirement and social security law, the administrative code of the city of New York and the education law, in relation to new entrants to the New York city teachers' retirement system and the New York city board of education retirement system (Part C)."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2591491714418426610-1901687202764191832?l=publicpersonnellaw.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>The Public Employment Law Pressnoreply@blogger.com0