Taxpayers could save more than $2 million a year if it weren’t for a group of breakaway Democrats who need their own support staff in the state Senate, critics say.

The Independent Democratic Conference, who vote with Republicans, pay some 40 staffers about $2.2 million a year, Senate payroll records show.

“The bottom line is that money is going to a conference that doesn’t need to exist,” one critic told The Post.

If the group simply called themselves Republicans, those staffers would not be needed and taxpayers would reap the savings, the source said.

“The ‘C’ in IDC must stand for cash,” said Doug Kellogg, of the government reform group Reclaim New York.

Members of the IDC and GOP insist the money comes from the Senate’s overall budget and would be added to one of the two other parties’ spending pots if the IDC didn’t spend it.