At the Port Authority, overtime is the gift that keeps on giving.
A group of top-earning PA retirees padded their lifelong six-figure pensions by working an average of $90,611 in overtime in their final year, a Post analysis of pension records from 1987 to 2010 shows.
That combined overtime for the 203 top-earning retirees costs state taxpayers $18.3 million a year.
PA officers can collect pensions up to two-thirds of their final average pay, which includes overtime. The average pay is based on the top three successive years of earnings.
Many cops and sergeants boosted their OT dramatically in their immediate pre-retirement years, according to state records obtained through the Freedom of Information Law.
The officers worked nights, weekends, holidays or weeks without any days off, sources said.
Leading the list of 2010 pension-padding retirees was Thomas Hoey, a sergeant assigned to La Guardia Airport, who more than doubled his base salary of $107,464 by grabbing $189,262 in OT his last year. He retired with a $153,244 pension.
Coming in second was Sgt. Nicholas Kowana, who was assigned to the PATH railroad station in Newark. He earned $144,333 in overtime, boosting his pension to $140,388.
Sgt. Barry Pikaard, who supervised cops at the George Washington Bridge, worked $125,679 in overtime, inflating his pension to $106,766.
The PA defended the astronomical OT:
“Since 2008, the Port Authority reduced its total police overtime budget by 26 percent . . . Curtailing overtime is an integral part of our strategy that has allowed us to maintain a zero-growth operating budget for . . . three years.”