§ 902 — Benefit enhancements

§ 902. Benefit enhancements. a. 1. An eligible employee (i) with a\ndate of membership in a retirement system prior to July twenty-seventh,\nnineteen hundred seventy-six and (ii) who was in active service as of\nApril first, nineteen hundred ninety-nine and continued in active\nservice with a public employer up to and including (A) October first,\ntwo thousand or, if earlier, (B) the eligible employee's date of\nretirement or death, if applicable, (but no earlier than June first, two\nthousand) shall receive one-twelfth of a year of additional retirement\ncredit for each year of retirement credit for service rendered as of the\ndate of retirement or death, if applicable, up to a maximum of two years\nof retirement credit. Anything in the preceding sentence\nnotwithstanding, a member of the New York state teachers' retirement\nsystem with a date of membership in such system prior to July\ntwenty-seventh, nineteen hundred seventy-six (other than a member who\nhas not rendered at least twenty days of credited service in any plan\nyear beginning on or after July first, nineteen hundred ninety-two) who\nretires or dies, if applicable, on or after June first, two thousand\nshall be entitled to receive the additional retirement credit provided\nfor in such sentence from such system.\n 2. The additional retirement service credit provided for in paragraph\none of this subdivision shall not apply to (i) an employee who retires\nunder a retirement plan which allows all members of such plan, without\nregard to position, a twenty year service retirement without regard to\nage or to (ii) an employee who retires under a retirement plan which\nallows for twenty-five year service retirement without regard to age\nwhen it has been determined that the criminal law enforcement service\ncreditable for such employee is in the aggregate more than fifty per\ncentum for duties not as a correction officer.\n 3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, if the service\nretirement benefit of an eligible employee is subject to a maximum\nretirement benefit, the additional benefit authorized by this\nsubdivision shall be computed by multiplying the final average salary\ntimes the number of years of service credit granted by this subdivision\ntimes the benefit fraction of the plan under which the employee retires.\n b. 1. An eligible employee (i) with a date of membership in a\nretirement system on or after July twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred\nseventy-six and before January first, two thousand ten, and (ii) who has\nten or more years of membership or ten or more years of credited service\nwith a retirement system under the provisions of article fourteen or\nfifteen of this chapter shall not be required to contribute to a\nretirement system pursuant to section five hundred seventeen or six\nhundred thirteen of this chapter as of the cessation date.\n 2. No contribution made to a retirement system by an eligible employee\nprior to the eligible employee's cessation date shall be refunded,\nexcept as otherwise allowable pursuant to article fourteen or fifteen of\nthis chapter.\n 3. Nothing in this subdivision shall affect the obligation of an\neligible employee to repay any contributions previously refunded\npursuant to article fourteen or fifteen of this chapter with applicable\ninterest pursuant to section six hundred forty-five of this chapter in\nthe event such person rejoins a retirement system. Nothing in this\nsubdivision shall affect the obligation of an eligible employee to pay\nsuch amounts as may be required by section five hundred seventeen, six\nhundred nine or six hundred thirteen of this chapter or by any other\nprovision of law for service rendered prior to such employee's cessation\ndate or for service rendered prior to such employee's date of membership\nat a time such employee was not a member of a retirement system.\n c. The benefit enhancements provided for in this section shall be made\navailable to all eligible employees of a participating employer in a\nretirement system.\n