Bill > S06307

This bill amends the retirement and social security law and the education law to increase the base benefit amount for computation of pension cost-of-living adjustments (COLA). Specifically, it increases the base benefit amount from $18,000 to $21,000 starting in September 2025. Additionally, the COLA increment from 2002 to 2023 will be recomputed based on 100% of annual inflation instead of 50%, without retroactive payments. Future COLA increments will be based on 50% of annual inflation. This proposal primarily benefits current and former members of Tiers 1-5, with the increased costs being borne by current and future members of Tier 6. The estimated increase in the present value of benefits is approximately $5.43 billion for the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System and $626 million for the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System.