The campaign for reining in runaway school taxes across New York has a new poster boy: Long Island school administrator John Hunderfund.

By exploiting to the max the ridiculously generous retirement system for public employees, Hunderfund, the former superintendent of Commack schools, wangled himself a pension of no less than $316,245 a year, according to Newsday.

That’s the fattest taxpayer-financed pension in the state.

Not only that, Hunderfund took advantage of a double-dipping loophole that allowed him back onto the public payroll as head of the Malverne schools.

Between his whopping retirement payout and his new salary of almost $200,000, he’s pulling down more than half a million dollars a year.

This is the kind of extravagant spending that pushes school taxes on Long Island and elsewhere into the stratosphere – and drags down the economy of the entire state. And this is the kind of extravagant spending that Gov. Paterson can stop, by pushing for a cap on school taxes.

Don’t dismiss this as just Long Island’s problem. Through the taxes they send to Albany, everyone in the state – especially residents of New York City – subsidizes gold-plated education for suburban kids even as their own schools operate on far stingier budgets.

Under the so-called School Tax Reduction program, or STAR, the state spends billions on property tax rebates. The lion’s share of the money for this program comes from New York City, and the lion’s share of payouts heads to the suburbs.

The richer the district, the more its taxpayers benefit.

Worst of all, the program doesn’t even work. Taxes have risen an average of 7% a year since it went into effect – largely because school officials took it as license to spend even more.

Hunderfund is just the tip of an iceberg. Nine other retired superintendents are collecting pensions north of $186,000. Meanwhile, lawyers in private practice have been piling up big government pensions by pretending to be full-time employees of the school districts they represent.

One lawyer, in fact, purported to be working full-time for five districts at once – a scheme that sparked investigations by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and federal prosecutors.

In fact, while the average New York school spends $19,000 per pupil, some Nassau and Suffolk school districts burn through two, three or even four times as much, according to an analysis by the Empire Center for Public Policy. The Amagansett schools spend $67,102 per pupil – more than enough to enroll each and every one of their 111 students in Columbia, with full room and board. Bridgehampton spends $80,274 per pupil.

Dramatic action by state lawmakers is necessary to impose sanity – and here’s how to do it: Flatly limit tax hikes to no more than, say, 3% a year unless district voters give special permission in a referendum.

That’s one of the ideas on the table for a state panel, headed up by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, that’s looking at ways to bring down local taxes. Not surprisingly, the suggestion has run into heated opposition from teachers unions and school boards.

Suozzi must not back down. And if he follows through, the ball will then be in Paterson’s court.

A school board operating under a strict cap would finally have to think twice before approving over-the-top perks for top administrators.

One thing’s for sure: More money from Albany will not, by itself, stop excessive local spending. Albany approved historic increases over the past two years, and districts are still seeking hikes averaging 4.2% this year.

Local spending has run amok. We’re all suffering as a result. Only a cap can end the craziness.

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