§ 526. Merger of local teachers' retirement and pension systems with the state system. 1. On April ninth, nineteen hundred twenty-three, the public school teachers' retirement fund or system or the teachers retirement or pension system of every city of the state having a population of less than one million, created, established or maintained under and pursuant to the provisions of any local act, having been dissolved and discontinued and said systems at such time having become a part of and been merged with the New York state teachers' retirement system created, established and maintained as provided in this article, on and after such date the provisions of this article shall apply, except as herein otherwise provided, to the city in and for which such local system was created, established and maintained and to the teachers employed in the public schools therein, to the same extent and with the same purpose and effect as though the said system in every such city had been dissolved and discontinued and had become a part of the state teachers' retirement system under the provisions of former § 1109-b of the education law, as added by chapter four hundred forty-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred eleven, prior to August first, nineteen hundred twenty-one.

Within thirty days after April ninth, nineteen hundred twenty-three, the trustees or other officers of any public school teachers' retirement fund or system dissolved and discontinued shall cause to be transferred to the state treasurer as ex officio treasurer and custodian of the funds of the New York state teachers' retirement system all the funds to the credit of such retirement fund or system so dissolved or discontinued. The treasurer or other custodian of any such public school teachers' retirement fund or system dissolved and discontinued shall pay and account for all moneys or funds in his possession, at such time, belonging to such retirement fund or system to the said state treasurer as ex officio treasurer and custodian of the funds of the New York state teachers' retirement system, and the funds so paid over shall thereupon become a part of the retirement fund of New York state teachers' retirement system.

2. All members of any public school teachers' retirement system or fund, dissolved and discontinued as herein provided, who are eligible to membership under the provisions of this article, may become members of the state teachers' retirement system, upon complying with the provisions of this article.

3. All persons who had been placed upon the retirement list in accordance with the provisions of the act creating any now dissolved and discontinued teachers' retirement system or fund, prior to April ninth, nineteen hundred twenty-three, shall be entitled to receive the same amounts which they would have been entitled to receive under the provisions of this article if the said retirement fund or system had been dissolved or discontinued as provided by law prior to August first, nineteen hundred twenty-one. And the amount paid to such annuitants shall in no case be less than the amount which they would have respectively received had the retirement system or fund of which they were members not been dissolved and discontinued as herein provided.