Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and her would-be successors took to the steps of City Hall yesterday to bemoan the 40 percent budget cut her office suffered at the hands of the City Council last week.

O, woe is them.

Mark Green, typically, out-hyperboled the field — charging that the cut besmirched the “178-year” history of an office created in 1994.

Green, its first incumbent, was succeeded by Gotbaum — and is now seeking to succeed her.

That’s because the job’s principal use is as a potential springboard to the mayoralty — which Green sought and lost, pitiably, to Mike Bloomberg in 2001.

But hope springs eternal, which is why City Councilmen Bill de Blasio and Eric Gioia, along with gadfly Norm Siegel, also joined Gotbaum yesterday.

They all want the cut restored, because they’re running for advocate, too.

All the more reason to cut it again.

This time, completely.