Twenty-seven of the top 55 earners for the Port Authority last year were police supervisors, including one recently retired sergeant and former professional basketball player who pulled down a whopping $264,114.

Topping the list was Thomas Hoey, a PAPD sergeant, who more than doubled his base salary of $107,464 in 2009 by taking home an additional $156,650 in overtime, according to SeeThroughNY, a government transparency Internet site.

Hoey was the third-highest paid Port Authority employee out of 7,449 staffers at the bi-state agency, according to the site.

In fact, he earned less than only two individuals — the agency’s top honcho, Director Christopher Ward at $304,494 and the second-in-command, Executive Director Susan Bass Levin at $290,862.

Of the 27 top earning supervisors, 14 were sergeants and 13 were lieutenants. All but one took home at least $200,000 last year, according to the list.

Lise [cq] Bang-Jensen, a spokeswoman for SeeThroughNY, which is part of the Empire Center for Public Policy, said the organization posted the Port Authority’s top earners as a public service for taxpayers.

“We have posted one and a half million government salaries on our web site [seethroughny.net], and the reason we did that is so taxpayers can see how their money is spent,” she said.

John Kelly, a Port Authority spokesman, insisted that the agency was working to keep overtime at a minium.

“Our responsibility to protect critical transportation facilities, necessitates some overtime, but since 2006, the Port Authority has reduced our total overtime budget by 24 percent. Curtailing overtime is an integral part of the port Authority’s zero growth operating budget,” he said.

Steve Prospero, president of the Port Authority Police Sergeants Benevolent Association, nor Jeff Baumbach, head of the Port Authority Lieutenants Beneveolent Association, returned calls for comment.

Hoey, who was assigned to the LaGuardia Airport command, is a former star basketball layer for Saint Michael’s College (Vt.), a Division II school and went on to play professional basketball for three seasons in Europe and South America before launching his police career, sources said.

He could not be reached for comment, but a police source defended him, insisting that he merely took advantage of critical shortage of sergeants and worked when he could.

“He didn’t steal this money – he worked every hour of it,” said the official, who said the PA’s inability to assign enough supervisors was at the root of the problem.

Paul Nunziato, president of the PAPD Police Benevolent Association, said overtime was critically related to staffing shortages.

“If you were to compare the PAPD of the late 80’s and early 90’s to the PAPD of today, with its increased responsibilities, proportionately there is less manpower,” Nunziato said.

“As a matter of fact, on September 11, 2001 PAPD manpower was the lowest it had been in it’s modern history.

“Media attention will only result in the Port Authority decreasing overtime and not addressing the underlying manpower deficiency. This will lead to critical patrol posts being unmanned,” he said.

He said that he brought up the issue of manpower understaffing at a monthly meeting in March with the Port Authority board of commissioners.

A 28th police official on the list – the 51st highest PA earner last year – was a cop, Police Officer Prett Porgow, who earned $89,647 as a base salary, but took home $201,389 with overtime.

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