Normally, if a state governor came up with a pension proposalthat might save the taxpayers a huge chunk of change and help resetthe books, there'd be jubilation. High-fives all around. It mighteven bump up some bond ratings.

But news this week that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has optedto solve that state's public pension issues by cutting his cities'retirement costs and locking in their pension contribution ratesfor the next quarter century - that has not created quite the tidalwave of good will, as perhaps expected.

The pay-it-forward (or later) mathematics, according to ahandful of experts and local leaders interviewed in aBloomberg profile, helps put New York at risk of actually weakeningits pension funding in the future, as well as socking it to themunicipalities.

Cuomo's plan would make it possible for the Empire State'scities to lock down the contribution rates that they pay toemployees to 12 percent for a 25-year period.

As part of the scheme, the state's comptroller has also beengiven the option of raising that by 2 percent in five years and upto 4 percent after 10 years - and if market conditions remainterrible, he could hold the fixed rates longer than 25 years.

The idea is contingent on the long-term savings the state hopesto reap having recently raised its retirement age by a year for allnew employees.

"We've had all sorts of financial experts go through this, andthey think it's a sound, prudent option," Cuomo told reporters."This is a financing plan to get you from today to tomorrow."

It's a controversial move, but as the state seeks to prevent thekind of ugliness seen in Illinois - where no one has been able tocome to any consensus on even the smallest of tweaks to adisastrously underfunded public pension system - it's a step thatCuomo says he's had to take.

New York's local government pension costs, excluding the bigcity itself, were just $190 million in 2002; a decade later,they're cresting $2.2 billion.

Given the nightmarish shape that many public pension systemsacross the U.S. have found themselves in with low returns and yearsof accidentally forgetting to actually fund their pension coffers -I guess they had other priorities, as we all do - Cuomo's planmight not be the worst idea ever.

And considering that the state is already on pretty solidfinancial ground, with its pension funds the fourth-best funded inthe country, the experiment may pay off.

Then again, like everyone else in the country, it does seem likeanother instance of borrowing money you don't have to pay forthings you can't afford, in the hopes of magically being able topay it all back some day on the horizon. Just on a macro scale.