#The latest hit to New York governments: soaring pension costs

As if New York government budgets weren’t suffering enough amid the pandemic, news from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli just made the picture worse.

DiNapoli announced that local governments and the state will have to pony up more taxpayer cash to keep the pension system sound: Their contributions to the state’s police and fire fund (as a share of their payrolls) will spike 16 percent and to the Employees’ Retirement System, 11 percent.

That could translate into hundreds of millions of dollars — that they don’t have.

The (semi-)good news? Payments aren’t due until Feb. 1, 2022 (or Dec. 15, 2021, to qualify for a discount). And if markets do better than expected or payrolls shrink, things could improve, eventually.

Yet, as DiNapoli suggests, those are big ifs: “The economic backdrop,” the funds’ actuary wrote, “is one of turmoil and extraordinary uncertainty.”

The comptroller blames longer lifespans and faster retirements for the bump-ups, which come after years of flat or declining contributions. He also notes “slightly lower than expected investment results averaged over the last five years.”

True, those results include the massive falloff in the markets in March, when the pandemic broke out, and since then, they’ve rebounded considerably. Yet given their volatility — and the enormous uncertainty in the economy and in state and local budgets — higher contributions are wise.

DiNapoli’s order doesn’t cover New York City’s pension funds, but they face the same environment. City Hall, which shelled out $9.7 billion for its pension funds last year, or about 33 percent of payroll, should also be prepared for the worst.

The first step for all governments: Get a grip on benefits, most of which are fully guaranteed (unlike in the private sector) and backed by taxpayers.

Just as DiNapoli dropped his news, the Empire Center reported a whopping 6,178 state and local retirees were eligible for six-figure pensions last year, more than double the number in 2015. Many collect more than $200,000 a year.

Last year, a Post exposé revealed how some workers, particularly at the LIRR, wildly pad overtime before retiring, helping to inflate their pensions. State lawmakers need to rein in such largesse — but instead keep adding new sweeteners to buy unions’ support.

Equally critical: Get the economy going. That will gin up more tax revenue to cover higher pension costs and bolster the markets, helping to reduce those costs. How? By keeping tax rates down — and letting businesses open, open, open.