New York state recently announced an Early Retirement Incentive (ERI) program for certain participants in the New York State Employees' Retirement System (NYSERS) or the State University of New York Optional Retirement Plan (SUNY-ORP).

This program, approved by Cornell's Board of Trustees and President David J. Skorton, is available to Cornell's contract college and Cooperative Extension employees who meet certain requirements. ERI has two parts, Part B, whose window for retirement starts immediately and runs to Sept. 30, 2010, and Part A, with a window for retirement of Oct. 3-Dec. 31.

Part B is only available to faculty, staff and Cooperative Extension employees enrolled in Tiers 2, 3 and 4 of NYSERS, who are at least age 55 but less than age 62 with at least 25 but less than 30 years of state service credit by the date of retirement. The employee must have been an active employee on payroll Feb. 1-July 2 and must submit an application by Aug. 30.

Those who retire under Part B will receive a full retirement benefit, without the age reductions normally required for retiring prior to age 62 with less than 30 years of service. Because of the short window for application, those interested in Part B should contact Benefit Services as soon as possible.

Part A of the ERI is available to faculty and staff and Cooperative Extension employees enrolled in NYSERS or SUNY-ORP who are at least 50 years old, have at least 10 years of state service credit and are active, paid employees Feb. 1-Oct. 3. Those interested in retiring under Part A must submit an application by Nov. 30.

ORP participants who retire under Part A will receive in their ORP retirement account an amount from Cornell equal to 1/12th multiplied by years of service, multiplied by 15 percent, multiplied by annual salary as of March 1, 2010, not to exceed 45 percent of salary. So an employee making $75,000 with 20 years of service will receive ([1/12 x 20] x 15% x $75,000) $18,750 added to their retirement account.

NYSERS members (all tiers) retiring under Part A will receive retirement benefits based on formulas that consider their final average salary, years of service and age.

While retirement benefits will be reduced for most NYSERS members who retire before age 62, certain incentives under Part A help offset them: They will receive one month's additional retirement service credit for each year of NYSERS credited service, to a maximum of 36 months.

Some retiring NYSERS members will be eligible for both Part A and Part B and will need to choose between the two.

In all cases, employees must have at least 10 years of employment in a New York State Health Insurance Plan (NYSHIP) eligible position and be actively enrolled in NYSHIP at the time of retirement to receive continued health insurance benefits into retirement.

To help contract college and Cooperative Extension employees with ERI concerns, the Resource Center of Benefit Services will conduct information meetings in colleges and units in August and September.

"I would strongly encourage all employees eligible for the ERI to attend one of the informational meetings that we will hold in the colleges and units -- and all NYSERS members should talk with a NYSERS representative as well -- in the upcoming months," said Paul Bursic, director of Benefit Services.

Answers to frequently asked questions, benefit formulas, calculators, contact information and web pages for NYSERS is available at http://www.hr.cornell.edu/benefits/. Employees can reach the Resource Center of Benefit Services at 130 Day Hall, 607-255-3936 or e-mail benefits@cornell.edu.