Gov. David Paterson has signed into law pension reform legislation that officials say will provide more than $35 billion in long-term savings to New York state taxpayers over the next thirty years.

The legislation creates a new Tier V pension level, raising the retirement age for state workers, increasing minimum service years to draw a pension and capping overtime wages that factor into retirement payments.

“In order to get our fiscal house in order, Albany must make fundamental reforms to the way it spends money. Tier V is the first substantive pension reform in a quarter century, and is another critical step toward making our government more accountable to taxpayers,” Paterson said in a statement. “The savings this reform achieves will help to lower property taxes by reducing not only State spending, but local spending as well.”

According to a Division of the Budget analysis, Tier V pension reform will achieve more than $35 billion in savings for cash-strapped state and local governments over the next three decades, including $2.8 billion in Western New York.

Critics, including the Empire Center for Public Policy, say the reform measure doesn’t go far enough, noting the changes apply to new and future workers.

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