A Schenectady County employee was the Capital Region’s highest-paid municipal government worker during the state’s 2019 fiscal year, according to the latest edition of “What They Make,” the Empire Center’s annual report summarizing total local government pay.

Lance M. Harvey, a child protective services caseworker in Schenectady County was paid $232,784 during the 12-month period ending March 31, the Empire Center analysis found. The region’s other highest-paid local employees included two county district attorneys.

Other data highlights for local government workers in the Capital Region, which includes Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington counties:

• The Town of Bethlehem’s 38 police officers pulled down the highest average pay for police departments in the region, taking home an average of $101,245.
• The highest-paid fire department in the Capital Region was Niskayuna’s Fire District, whose 16 employees were paid an average of $106,840.
• The highest-paid general employees in the region were the City of Watervliet’s 32 employees who collected $51,830 on average.

The names, employers, systems and pay of the top 10 highest-paid local government employees in the region are 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.

Click here to read the full report.

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.