Malliotakis, Abbate push bill to help veterans boost pensions
Military veterans who worked for New York State will be able to get higher state pensions if a bill supported by the Assembly Committee on Government Employees is signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
But that’s a big if, supporters of the legislation admitted. Cuomo vetoed a similar bill last year.
The bill, called the Veterans Equality Act, would allow public employees who are veterans of the U.S. military to buy back state service credit toward their pensions. Public employees would be eligible if they had at least five years of service as state employees and were honorably discharged from the military. The legislation would cover veterans of all wars as well as veterans who served in the military but did it serve in war zones.