Honorably discharged veterans who are members of a state retirement system can now purchase service credit for up to three years of military service performed, thanks to a bill sponsored by Senator William Larkin (Cornwall-on-Hudson) and co-sponsored by Senator Simcha Felder (Brooklyn). The new law is one of nine recent measures pushed by the Senate to provide important benefits and recognition to veterans and their families.

“We should be enormously grateful to the men and women who serve in the armed forces and extend to those veterans who live in New York State every opportunity to make their lives easier,” said Senator Felder. “Previously, only veterans who served during certain specified periods of war were eligible for this retirement benefit, which unfairly excluded a considerable number of them, including those who recently served in Afghanistan. Now, with the passage of this new law, even veterans who served in peace time can buy back military time towards their state pension.

“Financially speaking, this is one of the biggest benefits our State has extended to veterans in more than a decade,” Senator Felder continued. “I’m grateful to my colleague Senator Larkin—a veteran of three wars—for having championed this bill, to Senate Majority Leader Flanagan, and to Governor Andrew Cuomo for having signed off on it.”