Exploding public retiree health benefits will cost state and local taxpayers $250 billion in the coming decades, a new report projects.

New York City, according to the report by the Empire Center for Public Policy, faces $84 billion in unfunded health insurance costs for retired public workers over the next 30 to 40 years.

“The retiree health care iceberg is getting bigger and bigger and more dangerous with each passing year,” said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow with the Empire Center.

The state, including the SUNY and CUNY systems, will be saddled with $73 billion in costs, according to the report.

McMahon warned that most governments have little money set aside to pay these costs and could meet fiscal ruin if nothing is done.

“It can be changed, but the problem is nobody is making the effort to change it,” McMahon said.

“It involves doing battle with the unions and unions resist change,” he added.

The report recommended existing employees and retirees pay a greater share of their health care costs and that retiree health benefits for newly-hired workers be eliminated.

Medical trust funds, the report recommended, should be created to provide health insurance coverage to new retirees….

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