As the saying goes, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. But it seems New York public employees may be making too much — on their pension plans. And it’s not good news for taxpayers.

According to a foreboding new report from the Empire Center for Public Policy, tax-funded employer contributions to New York’s pension funds (the amount of money taxpayers fork over each year to cover the state’s obligation to its public-employee pension system) will be $17.3 billion in 2010, which is up a staggering 1,630% in the last 10 years. (In 2000, it was $1 billion.) The dramatic jump in contributions isn’t part of the natural course of funds — it’s a direct result of the financial crisis.

“This is to make up for the big investment losses of the last few years,”said E.J. McMahon, one of the authors of the report, entitled New York’s Exploding Pension Costs.

In the last two years, McMahon estimates $109 billion was lost during the financial downturn, 29% of total pension assets. That means New York needs to find other means to pay the 1.3 million state and local employees who belong to defined-benefit pension plans, which guarantee post-retirement income based on peak salary and career duration….

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