2023 New York Laws › STF - State Finance › Article 14 - Salaries and Employee Benefits › 201-A - Flexible Benefits Program for Certain State Officers and Employees.

§  201-a.  Flexible  benefits  program  for certain state officers and
  employees. 1. This section shall be applicable to employees  as  defined
  in  subdivision  one  of section eleven of chapter four hundred sixty of
  the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-two, as amended  and  employees  and
  officers  of  public authorities and public benefit corporations, annual
  employees of the legislative branch, and  judges  and  justices  of  the
  unified  court  system  and  non-judicial employees of the unified court
  system whose positions are not in  collective  negotiating  units  under
  article  fourteen  of  the civil service law who elect to participate in
  the benefits of the employee benefit program provided by  paragraph  (a)
  of  subdivision  two  of section eleven of chapter four hundred sixty of
  the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-two, as amended.
2. The director  of  employee  relations,  in  consultation  with  the
  director   of  the  budget  and  the  president  of  the  civil  service
  commission, is authorized  to  establish  a  flexible  benefits  program
  consistent  with  sections  seventy-nine,  one hundred five, one hundred
  six, one hundred twenty-five and one hundred twenty-nine of the internal
  revenue code and regulations adopted  pursuant  thereto,  and  implement
  such program subject to the approval of the director of the budget.
3. At the request of an employee as defined in subdivision one of this
  section,  the comptroller shall, by payroll deduction, defer the payment
  of part of the compensation of such employee as provided  in  a  written
  statement   by   the  employee  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and
  maintaining a flexible spending account as authorized in subdivision two
  of this section, and shall  transfer  the  amount  so  deferred  to  the
  authorized program administrator.
4.  The  term  "program  administrator"  shall  mean  that  agent,  as
  determined by the director of employee relations,  responsible  for  the
  maintenance  and  management of flexible spending accounts as authorized
  in subdivision two of this section.
5. Moneys held in  such  accounts  for  the  employees  of  each  such
  participating  employer  shall  be  held by the program administrator as
  agent  for  the  participating  employee  and  shall  be  accounted  for
  separately and shall remain the property of such participating employer.
  Notwithstanding  any law to the contrary, moneys may be paid out of such
  accounts without any appropriation by law. All payments of  moneys  from
  such  accounts  shall  be  made  only  in  accordance  with the flexible
  benefits program audit of the state comptroller. Any unexpended balances
  in such accounts at the end of a plan year as that term is so defined by
  the internal revenue service shall be returned to  the  control  of  the
  participating  employer  and,  in  the case of the state, to the general
  fund.
6. To the extent permitted by section one hundred twenty-five  of  the
  internal  revenue  code  and  regulations  adopted pursuant thereto, any
  salary deferred by an employee as defined in  subdivision  one  of  this
  section  under  a flexible benefits program established pursuant to this
  section shall be considered part of annual compensation for the  purpose
  of computing retirement benefits.
7. Notwithstanding any other law, rule, or regulation to the contrary,
  where,  and  to  the  extent that, an agreement between the state and an
  employee organization entered into pursuant to article fourteen  of  the
  civil  service  law  on  behalf of employees in a collective negotiating
  unit established pursuant to article fourteen of the civil  service  law
  provides  for  flexible benefits provided by this section, such flexible
  benefit program shall be established in accordance with such agreement.