After signing a law changing the public pension system in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo dispatched top staff across the state to celebrate the new retirement plan with a promise of $80 billion in savings for taxpayers during the next three decades.

It’s a whopping number — and it fades when put in context:

• The savings are a small slice of the pie. Across the state, public employers have seen their pension bills rise by 59 percent from 2010 to 2012, which local governments pay largely with property and sales taxes.

• Savings apply only to new hires. The costs are cut only as current workers move off the payroll and a new generation of police, nurses, teachers, prison guards, lawyers and office workers join New York’s public sector under a new pension level, called Tier 6.

• Hiring is down. It comes at a time when governments — including the state of New York — are trying to avoid hiring and shrinking their workforces to save payroll and health-care costs.

That leaves Central New York governments, facing rising pension bills this year, with immediate savings that are almost too small to matter.

Syracuse has 1,822 current workers eligible for pensions under the old rules. The city hired about 60 new people last year, and if the same trend follows for the next budget cycle, the city could look to about $60,000 in pension savings.

“That’s not a whole lot of money when you consider the city’s pension bill is over $30 million,” said Mary Vossler, director of Management and Budget.

Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, in Syracuse last week as part of the governor’s statewide celebratory pension tour, doesn’t buy that.

“I shake my head at those that say it doesn’t provide any immediate savings,” said Duffy, who as a former Rochester police officer, police chief and mayor has seen pension struggles from many sides. “That is such baloney.”…..

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