New York Assembly Bill A08748

New York 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 6/2/25
• Refer: 6/2/25
• Refer: 1/7/26

Caption

Exempts certain military service credit from being included in calculations of up to three years of military service credit for a public retirement system of the state.

Summary

This bill amends section 1000 of the Retirement and Social Security Law to change how military service credit is calculated for members of New York public retirement systems. Under current law, a member may purchase up to three years of service credit for qualifying military duty, but that three-year cap is reduced by any service credit already granted under section 242 of the Military Law. The bill would exclude section 242 military service credit from that three-year limit, allowing eligible members to receive up to three years of purchasable military service credit in addition to any credit granted under section 242. The bill also updates the statute’s references to use definitions from section 1 of the Veterans’ Services Law rather than the older Executive Law references. Those definitions include “qualifying condition” and “discharged LGBT veteran,” and the bill preserves the requirement that the member have a discharge other than bad conduct or dishonorable. The measure takes effect immediately.

Impact

The bill would alter the retirement credit rules for members of New York state and local public retirement systems by expanding the amount of military service that can be counted toward retirement benefits. It would amend the Retirement and Social Security Law to remove section 242 Military Law service credit from the calculation of the three-year maximum under section 1000, and it would modernize statutory cross-references to the Veterans’ Services Law. The practical effect is to increase potential retirement benefits for eligible veterans and to increase pension system liabilities and employer contribution costs, with fiscal notes indicating costs may be borne by the State, local employers, or both depending on the retirement system involved.

Sentiment

The available materials suggest generally favorable treatment of the bill’s purpose, which is to expand retirement credit for veterans and align the law with current veterans’ terminology. No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate or opposition in the record supplied. The fiscal notes, however, emphasize that the proposal would increase costs and administrative burdens, which indicates that budget impact is the main practical concern.

Contention

The main point of contention is fiscal: the bill would increase pension liabilities and employer contribution rates because more military service could be credited toward retirement. The actuarial notes state that the exact number of affected members is unknown, making the total cost difficult to estimate, and they distinguish between costs for different retirement systems and tiers. A secondary issue is statutory structure: the bill changes references from the Executive Law to the Veterans’ Services Law and explicitly exempts section 242 military service credit from the three-year cap, which may be viewed as a policy expansion of benefits for veterans and certain discharged LGBT veterans and individuals with qualifying conditions.