BILL NUMBER: S7986A
SPONSOR: RYAN C
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
authorizing members or officers of the state police who were previously
firefighters to count such firefighter service towards such member's or
officer's retirement plan
 
PURPOSE:
Allows members of New York state and local police officers who previous-
ly served as career firefighters to receive full credit and be given
full allowance for service previously rendered as a firefighter
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Amends section 81-b of the retirement and social security law
to allow police officers who previously served as firefighters to have
their time served as a firefighter counted towards their retirement
Section 2. Establishes the effective date
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Under the current retirement rules, a paid career firefighter for a
municipality who goes on to become a Trooper with the New York State
Police is not allowed to receive all their service credits in their
retirement for their total years of service in both the municipal fire
department and the state police even though both the New York state
police and municipal fire department are both part of the NYS Police and
,Fire Retirement System. With this, a firefighter who did 7 years with a
municipal Fire Department and then became a trooper and serves as a
trooper for 20 years receives a total service credit of 20 years in the
NYS Police and Fire Retirement System under the State Police Plan 381b,
rather than getting service credit for both time served in each depart-
ment with 27 years of service.
This legislation would allow full credit for a paid career as a fire-
fighter in any village, town, city, county, or fire district who later
serves as a police officers at the local or state level to be included
in their retirement. Both our police and firefighters risk their lives
to keep the rest of us safe, and we should not be penalizing those fire-
fighters who make the decision to join State Police by requiring them to
start their retirement from the beginning. Ensuring that they receive
the retirement credit that they have earned is the least we can do.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Fiscal note attached
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S7986: 381-b retirement and social security law, 381-b(c) retirement and social security law
S7986A: 381-b retirement and social security law, 381-b(c) retirement and social security law