MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED / OVERGENEROUS PUBLIC PENSIONS: As City Goes Broke, One Expense Is Safe:

Here in New York, the hostages go by different names, but serve the same function. They turn up without fail whenever the city is running short of money: library hours, firehouses, police officers, class sizes, day care centers, garbage pickup, health clinics. As perennial hostages to budget-making, these basic services, public servants and municipal buildings are captive to the current fiscal crisis.

Not so for the fastest-growing expense in the city since 2000: pension funds.

“The city’s payments to the pension plans have grown at 25 percent annually since fiscal year 2001,” said Martin Davis, a labor and pension analyst with the city’s Independent Budget Office.

In 2000, city taxpayers contributed $615 million. By June 2008, the amount had climbed to $5.6 billion. With investment losses over the last year or so, the public costs are sure to rise again. The value of city pensions is protected under the State Constitution, a trust between employer and worker; once employees enter the system, their benefits cannot be reduced. But they can be increased, and have soared, thanks to State Legislatures and governors keen to curry favor with large unions. . . .

So what began as a reward for taking a risk has become a guaranteed payment. On Monday, in the second year of a stock market slide, checks for about $12,000 will be put in the mail to thousands of retirees — many of whom have long since left New York for states with warmer climates and lower taxes.

If the taxpayers are smart, they’ll do the same thing . . . .