The Court of Appeals sustained the New York State Comptroller’s decision that a New York - New Jersey Port Authority [Authority] compensation adjustment program [Program] that “artificially enhanced certain employees' final average salaries”* were not “pensionable compensation” under Retirement and Social Security Law §431(3).** The Authority’s Program served “to increase ... retirement benefits” for employees and thus, said the Court, "any additional compensation paid in anticipation of retirement" must be excluded from final average salary calculations.”
The Court opined that “[g]overnment pensions are based on employees' regular average salaries. All New York State employees rely on the integrity of the pension system. The protection against its manipulation is one of the Comptroller's primary responsibilities.
The genesis of the Program was a statutory retirement incentive program*** that offered additional pension benefits to certain public employees if they retired before the end of the 2002. The purpose of the retirement incentive was "to achieve cost-savings for public employers and to avoid layoffs of public employees in th[e] time of fiscal need" following the September 11 attacks. However the Authority employees [Petitioners] in this CPLR Article 78 action were key executives of the Authority and exempted from the Program. As an alternative, the Authority’s Chief Administrative Officer [CAO] recommended "a compensation adjustment program" that would "achieve [an] equivalent level of pension benefit for" employees, including [the CAO] who would be exempted from the retirement incentive.”
A Retirement System member's pension benefit depends upon their final average salary, i.e., "the average salary earned by … a member during any three consecutive years which provide the highest average salary" (Retirement and Social Security Law §443 [a]). The CAO suggested a salary increase to replicate the level of pension benefit that the executive employees would not otherwise be able to receive and the CAO’s proposal was adopted as a "retention program" the Petitioners signed letter agreements acknowledging their exemption from the retirement incentive and their acceptance of the "retention program," which was described as being "designed to provide a limited number of staff members with a parity' benefit" and received “the promised pay raises, which ranged from 4.5% to 11% of salary and were included in biweekly payroll checks, for periods ranging from nine months to ten years.”
Subsequently all Petitioners received determination letters from the New York State and Local Employees Retirement System [ERS], stating that the compensation adjustment payments should have been, or (in the case of the last three) would be, excluded from final average salaries for pension calculation purposes. ERS explained that the allowances were "retention payments made to delay retirement," and constituted "compensation paid in anticipation of eventual retirement." RSSL §431, however, provides that "[i]n any retirement or pension plan to which the state or municipality thereof contributes, the salary base for the computation of retirement benefits shall in no event include … any additional compensation paid in anticipation of retirement" (Retirement and Social Security Law §431 [3].”
The Hearing Officer found that the Authority had given "each of the applicants additional compensation to increase their final average salaries so that their pensions would equal what their pensions would have been had they been eligible for the retirement incentive and taken it in December 2002" and ruled that the ERS had acted reasonably in excluding the allowance payments from final average salary, concluding that ERS "had the authority to determine what payments were excludable as . . . made in anticipation of eventual retirement . . . , whether the applicant joined ERS before or after the effective date of § 431." The Executive Deputy Comptroller adopted these findings and conclusions and denied petitioner employees' applications for reconsideration.
The Appellate Division annulled the Comptroller's determination, granted the petition, and remitted the matter to the Retirement System (164 AD3d 1038 [3d Dept 2018]). The Court concluded that the "payments are more appropriately characterized as . . . made to delay petitioners' retirements, not to artificially inflate their final average salary in anticipation of retirement."****
RSSL §431 provides that "retirement benefits are to be computed on the basis of an employee's regular salary and not on any kind of termination pay or other form of additional compensation paid in anticipation of retirement." The salary base for the computation of retirement benefits “shall in no event include any of the following earned or received, on or after April first, nineteen hundred seventy-two:”
1. Lump sum payments for deferred compensation, sick leave, accumulated vacation or other credits for time not worked;
2. Any form of termination pay;
3. Any additional compensation paid in anticipation of retirement; or
4. That portion of compensation earned during any twelve months included in such salary base period which exceeds that of the preceding twelve months by more than twenty per centum."
However “pension boosting” may be made available to encourage individuals “to retire early” by promising an enhanced pension or may be offered in other contexts, including in exchange for a promise not to retire, as demonstrated by the decision in Thompson v New York State Teachers' Retirement Sys., 78 AD3d 1456.
Finding that the record contains substantial evidence supporting the Comptroller's determination that the Authority provided the compensation adjustments “to artificially increase the executive employees' final average salaries so that, upon retirement, they would receive pension increases roughly equivalent to those they would have received under the retirement incentive program” and supports the conclusion that the compensation, by design, was made in anticipation of petitioner employees' retirement within the meaning of the statute, the Court of Appeals reversed the ruling of by the Appellate Division and dismissed the petition.
3. Any additional compensation paid in anticipation of retirement; or
4. That portion of compensation earned during any twelve months included in such salary base period which exceeds that of the preceding twelve months by more than twenty per centum."
However “pension boosting” may be made available to encourage individuals “to retire early” by promising an enhanced pension or may be offered in other contexts, including in exchange for a promise not to retire, as demonstrated by the decision in Thompson v New York State Teachers' Retirement Sys., 78 AD3d 1456.
Finding that the record contains substantial evidence supporting the Comptroller's determination that the Authority provided the compensation adjustments “to artificially increase the executive employees' final average salaries so that, upon retirement, they would receive pension increases roughly equivalent to those they would have received under the retirement incentive program” and supports the conclusion that the compensation, by design, was made in anticipation of petitioner employees' retirement within the meaning of the statute, the Court of Appeals reversed the ruling of by the Appellate Division and dismissed the petition.
* The decision characterizes such employees as “ executive employees” of the Authority.
** The Authority is a participating employer in the New York State and Local Employees Retirement System.
*** See Chapter 69 of the Laws of 2002.
**** See 164 AD3d at 1040.
The decision is posted on the Internet at:
http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2020/2020_00997.htm