Taxpayers were supposed to win this one.Gov. David A. Paterson had rattled his saber. There would be layoffs, he threatened, if state employees didn’t get real about the condition of New York’s finances in the worst recession in 75 years.

In the end, taxpayers didn’t win what they should have. Paterson and two of the large public employee unions negotiated a new pension tier for new workers, but there were zero givebacks—and no cost-cutting layoffs.

The governor is the elected leader who represents everyone in the state and the one person who could do something, and he did not.

Unlike millions of New Yorkers in the private sector who have given up raises and taken other painful steps to preserve their jobs—or who have flat-out lost their jobs—the public sector workers whose paychecks are funded by the gasping private sector will do nothing immediate beyond taking buyouts, which will be offered to 4,500 workers at a cost of $20,000 per buyout. Most of those who will be willing to take that amount probably were ready to leave anyway. And even if all the targeted workers take the offer, the state would be returning only to its 2004 employment level.

In exchange, Paterson caved in on his announced plan to lay off 8,700 of the state’s 136,500 workers, and will drop a plan requiring workers to forfeit their 3 percent raises this year and to defer one week’s pay. All of which is to say that in the midst of a grinding recession, Albany continues to think that the rules that apply to everyone in the private sector do not apply there.

The only benefit to taxpayers—and it is, to be sure, a noteworthy one—is the creation of the new pension tier. Assuming the plan is adopted by the Legislature—an uncertain assumption given the change in control of its senior chamber—the minimum retirement age for future employees will rise from 55 to 62. They also will be required to make a 3 percent contribution to their pensions over the course of their careers, instead of just during the first 10 years. Workers will become vested in the plan after 10 years of service instead of the current five, and they will be limited in the amount of overtime they can use toward pension benefits in their final years on the job.

How does that compare to your pension? The plan remains far more generous than most private sector workers will ever see. It doesn’t cover police, fire and teachers. And its benefits to taxpayers won’t be seen for another decade. It’s better, but it’s not what taxpayers needed.

Recognition of the state’s $3 billion deficit, with another $3 billion gap expected next year, and what had to be done to make ends meet went out the window when the unions walked into Paterson’s office.

In the meantime, those public sector workers will not notice there’s a recession under way. We don’t wish economic pain on anyone, but facts are facts. In the private sector, thousands of New Yorkers have lost their jobs or given up money as businesses adjust to decreased revenue. That hasn’t happened in the public sector in New York, whose state government has been hit harder by revenue gaps than most because of Wall Street tax losses. If the Legislature adopts this bill, it still won’t happen.

If Republicans hold onto the Senate, they need to send this bill back for reconsideration. Pay cuts, layoffs, furloughs, givebacks and other money-savers need to be back on the table before Albany gives in to this giveaway.