The Issue: Gov. Cuomo’s pension-reform plan and the union-fueled opposition to it in Albany.

***

I’ve been following The Post’s series on the soaring pension costs, and every government, local and otherwise, is rightfully upset (“Undoing Andrew,” Bob McManus, PostOpinion, March 7).

What all the politicians who are now crying the blues seem to forget is that these pension costs didn’t just develop by themselves. It was all these politicians who, at one time, negotiated and approved the pension plans.

Either they didn’t understand the impact on future costs, or they didn’t care, knowing that they got the union vote and that they would be long out of office before this pension explosion took place.

Maybe they can take a lesson from the past and correct this mess, but I doubt it.

W. Deutsch

West Nyack

***

I am tired of people talking about public workers’ pensions as if they are some huge gift.

Under the state pension plan, the average retiree gets a benefit of about $19,000, which he or she earned by working many years for the public.

There aren’t any retired public workers buying mansions in the Hamptons.

It is the Wall Street fat cats and their friendly politicians who want to take money out of the pockets of retirees.

It is time we got back to respecting the people who do the work — the American middle class.

Agatha Rice

North Babylon

***

Kudos to Gov. Cuomo for leading the effort to reform the pension system.

There is one additional pension reform that he should push for: New York elected officials and state employees who are found guilty of job-related crimes should lose their pensions.

Why should convicted Assembly members, senators and other state employees who misuse their jobs get to keep their pensions?

Paul Feiner

Greenburgh

***

It’s rare when a sitting politician (in this case, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver) actually admits that he is owned by the unions, but this is getting embarrassing.

Why don’t we reform politicians’ pensions? That way, if they are getting less than union workers, they will know how the rest of us feel.

Maybe then they will act responsibly and rein in pension costs.

Charles Honadel

Staten Island

***

I’m sick of being ruled by the minority, i.e. the public-employee unions and other special-interest groups.

Silver’s latest pie in the eye to yet another governor was the last straw for me.

Perhaps it’s time for taxpayers to unionize. Then we could use our dues to directly influence our legislators, just like the unions and special interests do.

Given that there are many more of us than there are of them, we could turn this state and city around in a hurry.

On the other hand, if the taxpayers simply picked up our phones, wrote several letters, sent a few e-mails and, most important, made a few modest donations to our legislators at election time, we could very quickly deny the public-employee unions the undue influence they wield.

I often get the feeling that our legislators hear only the chattering of the unions and special- interest groups. It’s time to drown those voices out.

Speak up, New York.

Paul Schmidt

Manhattan

***

Why is the state employee the new demon?

What’s really killing New York’s budget are the entitlement programs and billions of dollars being thrown at a failing education system.

Mario Costanza

Woodstock

***

What gets me upset is that when the subject of spending cuts comes up, it’s always about cutting back on the working people, such as workers’ pensions, and never about cutting back on the money given to welfare recipients.

Shouldn’t welfare recipients share in the cuts?

After all, it is the taxpayers who support their every need, like food, lodging and health benefits.

It’s long past time to cut their benefits.

Tom Quire

Jackson Heights