During American Education Week, area residents learned an important lesson regarding high property taxes.

This week, the Empire Center for Public Policy released thousands of payroll records for school districts on its www.seethrough-ny.net web site. For most regions – including Western New York – the cost of paying teacher salaries continues to increase despite declining enrollments, populations and industry.

And while the survey found the average teacher pay in Western New York to be in the $45,000 range, many of our districts have a number of teachers and administrators earning more than $70,000 annually.

Two weeks ago, the space took issue with the city of Dunkirk ignoring the “elephant in the budget,” which is the total payroll of its work force.

Overall, the total compensation of Dunkirk workers is more than $12 million and its average salary tops $61,000.

Schools are more open about salaries and benefits in the budget preparation. They tell residents during the annual process that between 70 percent and 80 percent of its budget is the cost of personnel

We still have not heard that in the city of Dunkirk as council members chisel away at the leftover crumbs while raising taxes and water rates.

In the schools, we broke down three components through the www.seethroughny.net site – the number of teachers in each district earning more than $70,000; what percentage of district staff that makes up and total compensation for the district staff…..

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