Pheffer Amato’s Pension Improvement Bill Enacted
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato’s historic legislation was enacted this week as over 28,000 men and women in the New York City Board of Education Retirement System (BERS) were finally enrolled in the pension plan. For years, certain public employees who were part of the BERS pension plan had to manually enroll, while every other pension had an automatic enrollment. This caused massive problems when people went to retire, only to learn that after a career of public service they were not in the pension plan. Pheffer Amato’s bill, A.7156, changed the law to ensure all BERS employees going forward would be automatically enrolled, but also enrolled all eligible current employees into the BERS pension plan.
In addition, the Assemblywoman passed the bill in honor of Krystyna Naprawa, a Howard Beach resident who worked as a NYC crossing guard. She was tragically killed last year while helping people cross the street. “This bill created needed parity and fairness. We are now ensuring our crossing guards, school meal workers, school nurses, substitute teachers, school custodians and so many other important roles are given the chance to be in a pension plan and grow a form of financial stability. They’ve worked and earned this pension, and it was in Krystna’s honor that I fought to make this dream a reality. All of our public employees are now in a pension plan and can get everything they deserve,” Pheffer Amato said.