Democrats hate “wasting” a good crisis, but Gov. Kathy Hochul is taking it to new extremes by milking the 2020 pandemic: On Tuesday, she extended the state’s “disaster emergency” yet again, citing COVID.

When will this insanity end? The nation is into its third year since the outbreak, and it’s been 18 months since vaccines became available (Two weeks to flatten the curve? Ha!).

Hochul clearly seeks to cling to her added “temporary” powers by dragging out the “emergency” for as long as she can. The extension lets her continue to bypass the Legislature and modify or suspend certain laws — and pander to hysterics among the Democrats’ base.

Yet she offers no sound justification for the move, since every sane New Yorker realizes the “emergency” is long over. She notes “over 100” new COVID-19 hospital admissions a day, but New York has well over 100 hospitals — so that averages to less than one admission per hospital. How’s that an “emergency”?

Indeed, COVID numbers in New York have been trending down for weeks: Hospitalizations topped 18,000 in April 2020 and 12,000 in January; on Monday, they were below 2,000. In a state with nearly 20 million people.

Yes, the bug continues to spread, but new daily cases plummet further with every passing day. Besides, people who test positive usually suffer only mild symptoms at most. Daily statewide deaths with COVID (not necessarily from it) have dropped to the single digits.

Again, where’s the “emergency”?

Meanwhile, Hochul is all too happy to have her health commissioner keep ordering mass-transit riders to mask up, even while not requiring them in numerous other congested areas. Straphangers and LIRR/MetroNorth riders must feel like suckers compared to their maskless counterparts on NJ Transit.

Seriously: NJ Transit riders are experiencing absolutely no COVID surge. Maybe that’s why so many riders are ignoring Hochul’s mask rules.

Republicans looking to replace Hochul as governor, by contrast, have vowed to lift any remaining COVID mandates and make New York normal again, like most of America. That’s great — but must the state elect a new gov to finally put this post-pandemic lunacy behind it?