The updated database includes the names, titles, base pay rates and total pay of more than 289,000 individuals who worked in the state’s executive, legislative or judicial branches at any point during calendar year 2020. Taxpayers can search state government payrolls dating back to 2008 on the SeeThroughNY.net website.
The highest-paid employee on the state payroll was Dr. RobertCorona, Jr., the CEO of SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. His pay totaled $787,288.
A total of 1,263 state employees, including 1,228 executive branch workers, were paid more than Governor Andrew Cuomo’s $225,000 salary.
Included in the 100 highest-paid state employees are three SUNY coaches. At SUNY Buffalo, football coach Lance Leipold was paid $686,845 (#4) and basketball coach JamesWhitesell was paid $409,540 (#95). At SUNY Stony Brook, football coach Charles Priore was paid $424,180 (#80).
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 Dr. Lawrence Chin, Dean, College of Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, whose base pay was boosted $373,388 to $600,000; Carolyn Santora, promoted to assistant vice president of hospital affairs at Stony Brook Hospital, whose base pay was increased $216,297 to $432,125; Patricia Winston, vice president at Downstate Medical Center, whose base pay was raised $122,802 to $402,198; and Fotis Sotiropoulos, promoted to vice president of academic affairs at SUNY Stony Brook, whose base pay boosted $108,298 to $391,711.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The Board of Directors of the Empire Center for Public Policy today announced the appointment of Zilvinas Silenas as President and CEO.
Zilvinas (also goes by “Z”) will succeed Tim Hoefer, who joined the Empire Center in 2008 and has led the organi Read More