An economic think tank called on Gov. Paterson yesterday to freeze the salaries of all public employees — from police officers to DMV clerks to teachers — as part of a $30 billion plan to skirt fiscal calamity.

The unprecedented action proposed by the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center would require the governor and the Legislature to declare a state fiscal emergency like the one used in the 1970s to save the city.

Taxpayers could save $1.6 billion this year alone if the government simply did not hand out raises, said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center…

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