Intro
On May 12, 2026, with the chaos of the Legacy Replacement Project hanging over their heads, the NYCERS trustees adopted the regular administrative budget for FY-2027. The total budget was a -4.22% decrease from the FY-2026 budget.
The PS amount went from $55.9 million to $54.9 million.
- The payroll was cut by $1.0 million by reducing overtime from $3.6 million to $2.6 million.
- Of course, that is a sham because NYCERS doesn't need $2.6 million for overtime, never mind $3.6 million.
The OTPS (non payroll) expenses were reduced by approximately $5.7 million from $92.3 million to $86.6 million mostly from the Tech - Modernization and Implemetation code.
- Contract Services cut from $33.3 million to $29.0 million
- Contigency Reserve cut from $5.5 million to $4.0 million
What was actually spent in FY-2025
NYCERS has a persistent habit of underspending its budgeted appropriations.
In FY-2025 NYCERS spent:
- $66.0 million on PS and fringe expenses but was appropriated $70.0 million, and
- $62.9 million on OTPS expenses but was appropriated $95.9 million.
Details on the OTPS Cuts
In response to whatever has been decided about the LRP project,
the Accenture LRP contract for FY-2027 was increased from $10.8 million to $17.7 million, and
the QA Vendor contract was kept steady at $1.4 million.
NYCERS is still looking at a publically unresolved project running out to FY-2030 without any published implementation plan.
You will notice below that NYCERS has cut the LRP Risk Consultant from the budget. What was that person doing all these years since 2021.
The following Items were cut completely from the FY-2027 budget
- LRP Risk Consultant: $700K
- Accountatnt: $417K
- Server Consultant: $940K
- Salesforce Developer: $762K
- Java Developer: $500K
- Tech Architect: $250K
- Commo Consultant $500K
The following items were cut back in the FY-2027 budget
- Gartner: $840K
- Data Analysts: $250
- Project Manager: $500K
- Cobol Programmers: $2.5 million
- Procurement Support: $187K
- Server Engineer: $250K
| Fiscal Year | F/T Count | P/T Count | College Aides / Hourly | PS Budget | OTPS Budget | Fringe | Total | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 506 | 26 | 10 | $54,860,521 | $86,623,375 | $17,347,446 | $158,831,342 | -4.22% |
| 2026 | 501 | 30 | 16 | $55,860,520 | $92,309,697 | $17,663,655 | $165,833,872 | -0.13% |
| 2025 | 485 | 30 | 16 | $53,679,194 | $95,900,865 | $16,461,953 | $166,042,012 | 0.05% |
| 2024 | 485 | 30 | 16 | $54,290,508 | $98,040,138 | $13,633,903 | $165,964,549 | 13.37% |
| 2023 | 485 | 30 | 16 | $43,016,089 | $90,436,500 | $12,942,144 | $146,394,733 | 7.92% |
| 2022 | 474 | 27 | 16 | $38,397,943 | $85,531,063 | $11,719,465 | $135,648,471 | 37.94% |
| 2021 | 438 | 27 | 16 | $36,842,549 | $50,210,145 | $11,283,945 | $98,336,639 | 7.10% |
| 2020 | 438 | 27 | 16 | $35,262,139 | $45,862,557 | $10,689,350 | $91,814,046 | 4.97% |
| 2019 | 428 | 35 | 0 | $33,592,612 | $43,532,302 | $10,344,565 | $87,469,479 | 39.44% |
| 2018 | 411 | 35 | 0 | $31,704,410 | $21,832,718 | $9,194,015 | $62,731,143 | 3.55% |
| 2017 | 401 | 35 | 0 | $31,056,080 | $20,916,796 | $8,605,288 | $60,578,164 | 4.81% |
| 2016 | 392 | 35 | 0 | $30,233,989 | $19,407,619 | $8,155,517 | $57,797,125 | 4.70% |
| 2015 | 392 | 5 | 30 | $29,131,972 | $18,154,572 | $7,915,476 | $55,202,020 | 3.68% |
| 2014 | 383 | 5 | 30 | $26,813,635 | $18,761,240 | $7,669,819 | $53,244,694 | 2.18% |
| 2013 | 380 | 5 | 20 | $26,623,635 | $17,951,822 | $7,532,499 | $52,107,956 | 1.93% |
| 2012 | 372 | 12 | 0 | $25,756,827 | $18,781,428 | $6,603,649 | $51,122,139 | 1.14% |
| 2011 | 372 | 12 | 0 | $26,046,827 | $18,492,228 | $6,006,573 | $50,545,628 | 2.76% |
| 2010 | 372 | 12 | 0 | $26,046,827 | $17,777,228 | $5,362,640 | $49,186,695 | 1.88% |
| 2009 | 371 | 13 | 0 | $25,189,842 | $18,208,861 | $4,879,903 | $48,278,606 | 6.22% |
| 2008 | 371 | 13 | 0 | $23,597,857 | $17,259,313 | $4,799,066 | $45,656,236 | 10.80% |
| 2007 | 364 | 13 | 0 | $22,616,783 | $14,258,471 | 4,375,788 | $41,251,042 | 5.73% |
| 2006 | 342 | 13 | 30 | $20,255,911 | $14,683,855 | $ 4,076,823 | $39,016,589 | 1.01% |
| 2005 | 342 | 13 | 30 | $19,737,687 | $14,851,355 | $3,887,624 | $38,476,666 | 295.25% |
| **** | ||||||||
| 1980 | 219 | 0 | 0 | $3,558,977 | $1,079,851 | na | $4,638,828 | na |
| 1981 | 222 | 0 | 0 | $3,507,806 | $1,020,374 | na | $4,528,180 | -2.39% |
| 1982 | 220 | 0 | 0 | $3,970,212 | $1,177, 748 | na | $5,147,960 | 13.69% |
| 1983 | 224 | 0 | 0 | $4,429,362 | $1,230,672 | na | $5,660,034 | 9.95% |
| 1984 | 231 | 0 | 0 | $5,026,847 | $1,194,237 | na | $6,221,084 | 9.91% |
| 1985 | 239 | 0 | 0 | $5,446,600 | $1,241,976 | na | $6,688,576 | 7.5% |
| 1986 | 247 | 0 | 30 | $5,916,793 | $1,423,743 | na | $7,340,536 | 9.76% |
| 1987 | 245 | 0 | 30 | $6,621,803 | $1,881,300 | na | $8,167,220 | 11.26% |
| 1988 | 265 | 0 | 30 | $6,621,803 | $1,881,300 | na | $8,503,103 | 4.11% |
| 1989 | 285 | 0 | 30 | $7,849,731 | $1,932,351 | na | $9,782,082 | 15.4% |
| 1990 | 280 | 0 | 30 | $8,284,883 | $2,578,693 | na | $10,863,576 | 11.06% |
| 1991 | 229 | 0 | 30 | $6,826,473 | $2,475,205 | na | $9,301,678 | -14.38% |
| 1992 | 225 | 0 | 30 | $6,646,549 | $2,216,262 | na | $8,862,811 | -4.72 |
| 1993 | 223 | 0 | 30 | $6,858,991 | $2,198,882 | na | $9,057,873 | 2.20% |
| 1994 | 194 | 0 | 30 | $6,778,541 | $2,183,101 | na | $8,961,642 | -1.06% |
| 1995 | 167 | 0 | 30 | $6,202,062 | $2,080,504 | na | $8,282,566 | -7.58% |
| 1996 | 154 | 0 | 30 | $6,199,709 | $2,573,715 | na | $8,773,424 | 5.93% |
| 1997 | 200 | 0 | 30 | |||||
| 1998 | 230 | 0 | 30 | |||||
| 1999 | 270 | 0 | 30 | |||||
| 2000 | 290 | 0 | 30 | |||||
| 2001 | 320 | 13 | 30 | |||||
| 2002 | 320 | 13 | 30 | |||||
| 2003 | 334 | 13 | 30 | |||||
| 2004 | 334 | 13 | 30 |
1 comment:
If NYCERS is now saying 2030, that is not a normal “5-year modernization” anymore. That would mean the project has effectively become a nearly decade-long implementation from the June 2021 Phase 1 start, or about 15 years from the early 2015–2016 modernization planning language.
Based on the public timeline, that is a serious warning sign:
Point in time Publicly stated status
2016 NYCERS said it had begun a multi-year modernization to replace its legacy data processing environment with a new Pension Administration System. 
2019 NYCERS issued the LRP RFP for a comprehensive pension administration software/system integration project. 
2021 Phase 1 began June 22, 2021, with five phases expected to take about one year each. 
2022–2023 Expected completion was stated as June 2026. 
2024 Target completion moved to September 2026; NYCERS disclosed Phase 2 timeline impacts from legacy-system changes. 
2025–2026 Public excerpt says legacy dependencies required timeline adjustments, Phase 2.0 was delivered in January 2025, and a comprehensive re-baseline plan was due to the Board by April 2026. 
So if they are now saying 2030, that suggests the re-baseline is not a small slip. It is closer to a 4-year extension beyond the 2026 target.
My take: 2030 may be technically believable, but operationally it is troubling. It likely means one or more of these happened:
1. They underestimated legacy dependencies.
NYCERS’ own FY-2025 language says Phase 2 development uncovered legacy dependencies requiring timeline adjustments. That usually means the new system could not replace pieces cleanly because old business rules, files, batch jobs, calculations, or interfaces were more entangled than expected. 
2. They may be doing phased partial releases instead of true replacement.
Phase 2.0 in January 2025 sounds like a partial delivery to keep progress moving while the harder remaining work was re-planned. That often happens when the original phase plan no longer matches reality. 
3. The project scope is huge.
The 2019 RFP asked for a pension administration solution integrated with other systems such as Salesforce CRM, self-service, workflow, document management, and automation of more than 80% of key calculations. That is not a basic database conversion. 
4. Governance should now be questioned.
A move from 2026 to 2030 should trigger hard questions: what exactly is delivered, what remains, what vendor milestones were missed, what dependencies were discovered, what has been spent, what penalties or change orders exist, and whether the current plan is still cheaper than alternatives.
Compared to California, this looks worse. CalSTRS also had a difficult modernization, vendor transition, and very high costs, but it still brought BenefitConnect into production in 2025. NYCERS moving to 2030 would put it materially behind that kind of benchmark.
So the blunt answer is: 2030 is explainable, but it is not reassuring. For members and unions, the right concern is not simply “why is it taking so long?” It is:
What portion of the legacy pension system will actually be retired by 2030, and what measurable member-service improvements will happen before then?
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