ALBANY — A bill written by Assemblyman D. Billy Jones that would provide pension benefits to the families of a corrections officer who dies in the line of duty has passed the state Assembly for a second time, but its future remains unclear after Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed it late last year.

On Monday night, with five days left in the legislative session for the year, the Assembly voted to pass the bill that Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, refers to as the “death gamble,” bill. If signed into law, it would provide death benefits in a single lump sum payment to the families of corrections officers who die in the line of duty, calculated as if the officer had retired on the day of their death.

That kind of benefit has been provided to police officers, firefighters and teachers since 2000, aimed at incentivizing public employees to work past their retirement dates without “gambling” on losing their pensions if they were to die without formally filing for retirement.

“All law enforcement officers deserve ‘death gamble’ benefits including corrections officers,” Jones said. “Correction officers work every day to protect our communities and it is past time we make this law in New York State. It is not only the right thing to do, it will also help retain correction officers to help with the workforce shortage.”

Jones said that the bill would help with recruitment and retention in the state prisons and local jails that employ corrections officers, by putting their benefits in the same league as other state and local government employees.

The bill passed the full state legislature last year with bipartisan support, but has not yet moved in the Senate this year. After passage last year, Hochul vetoed it in early December.

The veto came with a raft of other, similar legislation aimed at expanding the state’s benefits and closing perceived inequities in how retirement and benefits calculations are made.

In her veto memo, Gov. Hochul said the bill and the other public employee benefits bills she was vetoing were unfunded and would lead to massive cost overruns for local and state government agencies.

“To provide all the benefits envisioned by these bills, the state and its localities would be required to pay a combined estimated total of $159.7 million in near-term costs and $220.4 million in long-term costs,” her memo reads. “These unplanned costs would put undue fiscal pressure on local governments already working to provide services to New Yorkers within limited budgets. Fixed costs associated with these benefit enhancements would hinder the ability of local governments to function effectively and would negatively impact the state’s overall economic competitiveness.”

Hochul said that bills like this should be negotiated as a part of the state budget, where their costs can be accounted for with cuts, new fees or taxes or other fundraising tools.

Jones said that he has been working for years to get this bill passed, and did try to get it included in the state budget this year, although that effort was unsuccessful.

According to the text of the 2024 version of the bill passed in the Assembly Monday, making just the change to benefits for corrections officers and security hospital treatment assistants, the state would see an immediate cost of about $10.4 million to fund the pension fund appropriately, and then an additional $1.7 million in annual costs for 2025, with an expected 0.1% of total salary payments in increases into the future.

A spokesperson for Hochul said the governor will review the legislation if it passes both houses — as of today, there are three days left for the Senate version to see a committee vote and move to a floor vote before the end of session.

Jones said on Tuesday afternoon that he is confident that the legislation will move forward in the Senate in the last few days of session, and said he feels that he and his colleagues who support the move have been successful to convince the governor and other leaders that the bill is necessary.

“We feel this is fair and equitable because of all other law enforcement agencies that have this benefit,” he said. “As far as we know, this bill is on the radar with the executive, and we feel that it’s important to do this.”