After more than five years as chancellor of the State University of New York, Nancy Zimpher is on the verge of getting a substantial pay raise, according to interviews.

Zimpher’s annual base pay of $490,000, lagging behind that of the new City University of New York’s chancellor, could rise by a few hundred thousand dollars, according to people familiar with a confidential review of her compensation package.

The SUNY Board of Trustees may be outlining, and potentially voting on, an amended “contract” for Zimpher, 68, as soon as next week, according to Chairman H. Carl McCall.

Zimpher’s total pay is unclear. When she left the University of Cincinnati president’s post to take the SUNY job in June 2009, she accepted a deal that included the base salary of $490,000 plus a $90,000 per year housing allowance and deferred compensation of $55,400 a year. She also was provided a driver and car for official use and access to a SUNY apartment in New York City.

However, four years ago, after the Times Union reported she planned to give some of her top administrators $30,000 raises plus other stipends, legislators called her to a hearing to explain her proposed added spending. She decided to drop some of the stipends and forgo her own $90,000 housing allowance to pay for the raises.

Since then, the Empire Center for Policy Research, a fiscally conservative watchdog group, reported her total compensation in 2012 as $685,960 and in 2013 as $657,954. The sums likely include the deferred compensation and the return of her housing allowance, a spokesman said.

Her husband, Kenneth R. Howey, joined her when she moved from Ohio. He is employed as a senior fellow at SUNY’s Rockefeller Institute of Government with expertise in urban teacher education, school renewal, and P-16 partnerships. His base pay is $171,754, according to the Empire Center.

Her spokesman said SUNY discontinued renting an apartment for Zimpher’s official visits to New York City and that she pays for a studio there for her personal and professional use.

In an interview Thursday, McCall said the board of trustees is pleased with Zimpher’s performance and wants to retain her. He said the board has been examining her compensation in comparison to those of ” a number of peers” in other states and that the salary matter will be on the agenda for next Thursday’s board meeting. He said the plans for Zimpher will be publicly disclosed at the Thursday meeting.

Later in the interview, he sounded less certain about the agenda for the gathering.

He referred to an interest in arranging a contract renewal for Zimpher, although it is not clear the agreement she made with the board in 2009 had an expiration date.

It provided less money than James B. Milliken, 57, received when he assumed the post of CUNY chancellor in June at a rate of $670,000 per year plus a car (and a driver as needed) and a residence with rent of $18,000 a month.

He runs a system with 274,000 students. The SUNY system has 465,000 students.

McCall wouldn’t say which peers the board is using to judge a fair salary for Zimpher, however a source close to the university said Milliken’s compensation has set the bar. Milliken received almost $200,000 more than his predecessor in the CUNY post.

Other states pay their public higher education system chief sums in the mid-$300,000 range to more than $1 million, and some states are beefing up compensation. For instance, the Texas state university system hired a chancellor in August at $1.2 million, which exceeded his predecessor’s base pay of $750,000.

In Florida, a new chancellor took over this year at a salary of $355,000, plus a $55,000 housing and vehicle allowance, with the opportunity of a 7 percent incentive bonus each year.

© 2014 Albany Times Union