A Cayuga County employee was the highest-paid municipal government worker in Central New York 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.

Abbas Ispahani, a psychiatrist at the Cayuga County Community Mental Health Center, was paid $212,130 during the 12-month period ending March 31, the Empire Center analysis found.

Other data highlights for local government employees in the Central New York region, which includes Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties:

• • The highest-paid police department in Central New York was in the Village of Solvay where the 16 employees averaged $95,887 in pay.
  • The 362 employees at the City of Syracuse Fire Department led the Central New York region fire departments with an average pay of $87,220.
  • The highest average pay for general municipal employees in the region was the $53,302 paid to Onondaga County’s 3,764 employees.
  • Five of the ten highest-paid employees in Central New York were district attorneys.

The names, employers, system and pay of the 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.