Metro

City scrambles to cut pension bloat

The Bloomberg administration is reviewing the city’s costly pension system to determine if there’s a way to rein in exploding payouts unilaterally or whether “legal changes” are necessary, officials disclosed yesterday.

“We are starting to focus on all our expenses; clearly pensions are right near the top,” Mayor Bloomberg said after being asked at a City Hall press conference if the Fire Department Pension Fund needs to more closely scrutinize the disability pensions granted to three-quarters of retiring firefighters.

The Post reported last week that FDNY Lt. John McLaughlin retired in November 2001 with a three-quarters disability pension worth $86,000 a year and is now regularly competing in marathons and triathlons.

Neighbors sarcastically referred to the 55-year-old McLaughlin, who left the force as an asthmatic with diminished lung capacity, as “Johnny Lungs.”

Overall, the city’s pension costs are expected to reach $7.6 billion this year — up from $1.4 billion when Bloomberg took office in 2002. Next year, it’s expected to hit $8.7 billion.

On Sunday, The Post reported that taxpayers are shouldering 90 percent of the cost of the overburdened system, contributing an average of $8.60 for every $1 paid in by city workers.

The taxpayers’ share has skyrocketed by more than 900 percent in the last decade, from $703 million in 2000 to $6.5 billion in 2009, according to annual reports compiled by the city Comptroller’s Office.

Taxpayers put in $10 for every $1 the firefighters chip in, compared to $9 for every $1 from cops and $5.60 for every $1 from transit, sanitation and other civil servants.

Publicly and privately, fiscal monitors warn that the worrisome rate of growth isn’t sustainable.

Goldsmith indicated the city was examining what it could do on its own to contain costs, even though Albany largely dictates pension benefits.

“There are some process issues, and there are some legal issues,” Goldsmith said. “Whether there’s anything we can do out there on our own or whether we need legal changes, that review process is going on now.”

Legal changes would likely require action by Albany.

In the case of firefighters, Albany has granted a presumption that any serious health ailment is job related.

“If a firefighter has emphysema, it’s presumed he got it on the job — even if he was smoking two packs a day,” explained one city official.

Pension costs may be going through the roof, but Bloomberg insists abuses aren’t rampant.

“I think it’s probably safe to say in most cases there are not abuses,” said the mayor, who has representatives on each of the city’s pension boards.