Metro

Ticking louder

A pension bomb is about to explode at City Hall.

The Bloomberg administration, already looking to cut $2 billion from the city budget, is about to get hit with a shocking bill that could total more than $1 billion to cover growing shortfalls in the city’s pension systems, The Post has learned.

City actuaries are running the numbers and preparing the final report to present to Mayor Bloomberg by next month, but a preliminary analysis shows the official “rate of return” on the five pension funds’ investments will slip from 8 to 7 percent, said sources briefed on the situation.

That reduction would translate into a $1.4 billion hit to the city treasury.

Plus, the city’s analysts have already signaled they’re likely to announce additional cost increases because retirees are living longer and therefore costing the pension systems more.

“It’s getting worse,” City Council Finance Chairman Domenic Recchia (D-Brooklyn) told The Post yesterday.

“We’re going to have to make some adjustments.”

Robert North, the city’s chief actuary, said his staffers are “continuing to work on getting the recommendations together.”

He declined to say what those recommendations might be.

Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said the administration “had the foresight to put away $1 billion to soften the blow of any changes when some wanted us to spend those funds last year.

“There is a long way to go in this process and we will be working with the actuary to make sure the changes are reasonable.”

LaVorgna also said exploding pension costs are a major reason why the mayor has been promoting pension reform since coming to office 10 years ago.

News of the impending pension hit comes in the wake of the administration’s announcement Tuesday that the city is facing a projected budget gap of $4.6 billion for the fiscal year that starts next July.

To cover the shortfall, the Mayor’s Office is ordering every agency — including the NYPD and the school system — to cut their budgets by 2 percent this year and 6 percent next year.

jmargolin@nypost.com