The complete 2019 New York state government payroll is now posted on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.
The updated database includes the names, titles, base pay rates and total pay of more than 307,000 individuals who worked in the state’s executive, legislative or judicial branches at any point during calendar year 2019. Taxpayers can search state government payrolls dating back to 2008 on the SeeThroughNY.net website.
During 2019, the data show:
- The highest-paid employee on the state payroll for the second consecutive year was Dr. Gary Green, a Clinical Associate Professor of Health Science at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse. His pay totaled $753,842.
- A total of 2,661 state employees, including 1,756 executive branch workers, were paid more than Governor Andrew Cuomo’s newly increased $200,000 salary.
- Included in the 100 highest-paid state employees are four SUNY coaches. At SUNY Buffalo, football coach Lance Leipold was paid $663,500 (#6) and basketball coach Nathaniel Oats was paid $442,105 (#61). At SUNY Stony Brook, football coach Charles Priore was paid $465,462 (#46) and athletic director Shawn Heilbron was paid $425,714 (#84).
- All but two of the 100 highest-paid state government employees worked for either the State University of New York (SUNY) or the City University of New York (CUNY).
- Four of the top 100 earners received six-figure raises. They were Lance Liepold, football coach at SUNY Buffalo, whose base pay was boosted $203,162 to $474,300; Gary Bie, payroll vice president at Stony Brook Hospital, whose base pay was increased $131,561 to $647,718; Carol Gomes, payroll assistant vice president of hospital affairs at Stony Brook Hospital, whose base pay was raised $120,838 to $636,638; and Brian Magee, assistant professor at Downstate Medical Center Clinical, whose base pay was boosted $108,930 to $199,757.
Not reflected in the data are costs of pensions, health insurance for employees and retirees, and other benefits.
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.
You may also like
New Report Says Businesses Should Ask: What Would Micron Get?
With chip-maker Micron Technology set to pull down the largest taxpayer subsidy in New York state history, a new report from the Empire Center looks at the other types of special treatment the company is receiving, and challenges other New York businesses to ask the question: what would Micron get? Read More
Which Retired NYPD Cops Are Collecting $600K?
Two New York Police Department retirees each collected total retirement benefits of more than $600,000 last year—a new record high for the NYPD, according to data posted on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.
However, unlike the pension systems covering all other public employees in New York State, the New York City Police Pension Fund refuses to identify its top two pensioners, or any of its 53,215 NYPD retirees receiving benefit payments that totaled $3.3 billion last year. Read More
Hammond Warns Against ‘Unsustainable’ Medicaid Spending
Albany, NY — Governor Hochul's budget would allow Medicaid spending to continue spiraling at double-digit rates despite a growing economy and the threat of deep cuts in federal aid, warns Bill Hammond, Empire Center senior fellow for he Read More
Most New Yorkers Aren’t Getting Money’s Worth From Taxes: Poll
New Yorkers by a margin of more than two-to-one said they aren’t getting their money’s worth from taxes they pay in the state, according to recent polling by the Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany. Read More
Empire Center Sues Health Department for Records on CDPAP and Medicaid
The Empire Center filed a pair of lawsuits this week charging the state Health Department with improperly withholding public records in violation of the Freedom of Information Law. Read More
Report Finds Evidence of Growing Over-Enrollment in New York’s Medicaid Program and Essential Plan
A new analysis of New York’s Medicaid program reveals a ballooning disparity between its rising enrollment and the state’s declining poverty rates. As many as 3 million New Yorkers appear to be receiving state-sponsored health coverage from Medicaid or the Essential Plan despite having incomes above the eligibility limits, according to the just-published report from the Empire Center. Read More
NYSED Releases Months-Late Student Scores
The New York State Education Department has released data showing outcomes from New York’s 2024 state assessment tests, taken by students in grades 3 to 8 last spring. This is the third year in a row that state education officials have failed to release the data until well into the next school year. Read More
SUNY Researchers Explore Easier Way To Operate
The payroll of The Research Foundation for The State University of New York grew more than twice as quickly as SUNY’s own payroll over the past five years, according to new data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More