NY State has one of the largest and most profitable pension system in the country it covers police & fire, teachers and other municipal workers. I got hurt and cannot return back to my job of almost 31 yrs. The town I worked for contributed to the pension plan over the years, its based on an average of your final 3 yrs salary. At one time people would load up on overtime but now its controlled on just how much of that counts. Many workers can retire after 20 yrs service, which does produce some savings to the municipality with new replacement workers a lower pay scale. Without the pension now backing me up I'd be in bad shape. I survive on it but they are really slow in processing disability claims these days. Mostly public service pensions are never messed with. I've see trends in some states where the funds have been grossly mismanaged. The state Comptroller is the sole caretaker of $126.1 billion in the pension funds.
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/pension/