The push by New York’s public-employee unions to slap taxpayers with over $100 billion in new pension debt may finally be colliding with reality.

Speaking at a budget-focused press conference in Albany Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged that granting even part of labor’s demands — for full pensions at age 55, lower employee contributions and bigger benefits — would be “a big hit” for taxpayers.

The changes being demanded behind closed doors would, Hochul said, add $1.5 billion per year to state and local taxpayer costs.

Instead, she said, she’s negotiating “much more scaled-down” changes to the rules about what public employees — including teachers, whose unions have been the primary driver of this year’s push — pay into, and get from, the pension system.

The governor, like most Albany pols, has been exceedingly deferential to the state’s public-employee unions.

She’s declined to challenge their bogus claims that New York City’s underfunded pension systems are in good shape, or their narrative…