It looks like we finally have a gubernatorial candidate who understands the need for real public pension reform. The Republican in the race, John Faso, has come out in support of giving municipalities the option of enrolling future hires in a 401(k)-style defined-contribution pension plan. All three major candidates have unveiled competing tax plans, but Mr. Faso exceeds both Democrats, Eliot Spitzer and Thomas Suozzi, in demonstrating a grasp of one of the most serious fiscal problems facing the state.

State and local public employee pension programs are already starting to drain the life-force from all levels of government in New York. The defined-benefit plans are overly generous by any stretch, giving many workers the option of retiring on a full pension as early as age 55 and requiring employees to make, at best, minimal contributions toward their own pensions.

The pensions are also constitutionally protected, meaning that it’s impossible to change the pension benefit for anyone currently employed by the state and that taxpayers will have to keep writing the checks even if the state pension investment funds can’t cover pay-outs or the state goes bankrupt. Meantime, the taxpayer-funded employer contributions into the system are expected to fall somewhere in the ballpark of $7.5 billion for the 2006 fiscal year.

Into this fray steps Mr. Faso. In April, he proposed tax relief focused on reducing school property taxes. Although he offered some good suggestions, such as capping the rate of increase of school taxes and repealing union-friendly laws that drive up costs, other parts of his plan, such as expansion of the tax-shifting School Tax Relief, or STAR, program, were underwhelming. His talk on pensions more than makes up for any shortcoming.

As part of his broader proposal to reduce unfunded mandates on local taxpayers, he would give municipalities the option of enrolling future hires — not current workers, who are untouchable — in defined-contribution pension plans like 401(k)s. Such a reform would take taxpayers off the hook for an uncertain actuarial future, whereas under the current system ordinary New Yorkers never know if or when a bear market or increasing life expectancies might suddenly increase their tax bills.

Defined-contribution plans would give incentives for lifetime government employees to work longer. The reform also would reduce the current system’s effective penalty on workers who don’t want to spend their entire careers working for the government. Right now, those workers don’t garner any pension benefit for their time. Under a defined-contribution plan, they would be able to walk away with the deposits made to their retirement accounts while they were on the government payroll.

Mr. Faso’s plan is miles ahead of Mr. Spitzer’s because Mr. Spitzer hasn’t offered one. Pensions were conspicuously absent from Mr. Spitzer’s tax relief proposal when he finally bothered to offer one in June. Mr. Suozzi did venture into pensions with his $5 billion taxpayer relief package. At the time, it was encouraging just to hear a candidate using the “p” word, but Mr. Faso leaves Mr. Suozzi in the dust. Mr. Suozzi would merely create a new tier in the defined-benefit program — essentially, a new set of benefits and contributions that would apply to future hires. The state has been down that road three times before, however, and no matter how austere a new tier has been in the beginning, over time unions and the lawmakers who cater to them have succeeded in making the benefits more generous. Mr. Faso’s proposal holds out the promise of ending that cycle.