The MPRA Application Process

The Fund submitted the PPP application to Treasury on August 31, 2016.  Treasury notified us that the application was accepted on September 2, 2016.

If you think the Plan miscalculated the reduction to your benefits, then you have the right to submit a claim to the Plan to have the calculation reviewed and corrected, but you should wait until after the PPP application is approved and goes into affect. The Plan’s summary plan description (“SPD”) tells you how to submit a claim. The SPD also describes your right to have a court review the Plan’s final decision on your claim.

If you believe the information used to calculate your estimate at the end of this notice is wrong, please contact the Plan office at 877.698.3863, P.O. Box 4928 Syracuse, NY 13221 or at benefits@nytfund.org.

Treasury has up to 225 days from the date it accepts the application (September 2, 2016) to review the application and decide whether it is approved.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury, in consultation with the PBGC and the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”), decides whether the application will be approved.

Treasury has made the application available for public review and comment at;

https://www.treasury.gov/services/Pages/Plan-Applications.aspx

If the Treasury rejects the PPP application, the proposed benefit reductions will not go into effect on July 1, 2017.

If Treasury approves the PPP, then all eligible voters of the Fund will be given the opportunity to vote on the proposed reductions within 30 days after Treasury’s approval.  

Eligible voters include all Fund participants and beneficiaries.

The Treasury has sole authority to conduct the vote, collect and count the votes.  The voting will be conducted online or by phone. 

Generally, unless a majority of all of the Fund’s participants and beneficiaries vote against the PPP, it will receive a final approval from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and be implemented on July 1, 2017. 

If the participants and beneficiaries vote to reject the PPP, the benefit reductions will not take effect.  HOWEVER, if the participants and beneficiaries vote to reject the PPP, and if Treasury determines that the Fund is a “systemically important” plan (a plan with a present value of projected PBGC financial assistance payments that exceeds $1 billion), Treasury can approve the Fund’s PPP, or a modified version of the proposed reductions under the PPP, regardless of the vote outcome. 

Under MPRA, a “systemically important” plan is a plan that Treasury determines has a present value of projected PBGC financial assistance payments that exceeds $1 billion.

We believe the Fund may be considered “systemically important,” but that is a determination that only Treasury can make under MPRA.

If the Plan is not determined to be a systemically important plan, Treasury will not allow the reductions to go into effect if the participants and beneficiaries vote to reject the PPP. We believe it is important that participants vote to approve the PPP so we can attempt to save the Fund.