The Empire Center for Public Policy today released the 2014 edition of “What They Make,” an overview of local government payrolls (outside New York City) for the period of April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014.

The following table shows the five highest-paying employers in the Central New York region, which includes Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties, for general employees and police or firefighters:

The highest-paid local government employee in the region was Onondaga Community College Senior Vice President David W. Murphy, who was paid $195,462. The second highest-paid employee was Jason T. Stepkovitch, a psychiatrist who was paid $189,894 by Cortland County. The names, employers and pay of the 10 highest-paid employees in the region are listed below. 

The amounts listed in the report do not include fringe benefits such as health insurance or pension contributions, which can add more than 35 percent to the cost for taxpayers.

“The Empire Center produces this report because it is committed to protecting the right of taxpayers to know how their money is being spent,” said Executive Director Tim Hoefer. “Employee compensation is the single largest component of most municipal budgets. Pairing this pay data with the localized spending data in SeeThroughNY’s Benchmarking NY tool, taxpayers can get a real sense of how their local governments are spending their tax dollars.”

View other regional highlights here: Capital Region, Finger Lakes, Long Island, Mid-Hudson, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Southern Tier, Western New York and statewide.

The Empire Center is an independent, non-partisan, 501(c)3 think tank based in Albany. Each year, the Empire Center obtains and processes payroll information from public employers across the state. Click here to read the full report. The Benchmarking New York tool, as well as individual payroll records, are posted at the Empire Center’s transparency website SeeThroughNY.net.

Media Contact:

Ken Girardin
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518-434-3100