It’s no secret the county budget is tight. Accounting for roughly 1 percent of the budget is the base salary of the top 25 highest-paid county employees.

Chautauqua County has a 2013 budget of roughly $230 million. According to numbers gathered from See Through NY, the total base pay for those 25 employees was $2,338,008 in 2013. The number is a 2.8 percent increase over the base pay for the 25 highest-paid county employees in 2012. It is an 8.4 percent increase from 2009.

Holding steady as the highest paid positions in Chautauqua County are a psychiatrist at No. 1 and the district attorney at the No. 2 spot, although the base salaries for those positions have fluctuated over the years.

The following are the 25 highest-paid positions in Chautauqua County for 2013, as well as the salary for the position, as collected from See Through NY:

Psychiatrist, $162,894

District attorney, $140,428

Physical therapy director for the Chautauqua County Home, $96.164

Director of Public Facilities, $95,353

Director of Health and Human Resources, $95,187

Assistant district attorney, $94,949

Assistant district attorney, $94,509

Sheriff’s Office sergeant, $93,657

Sheriff’s Office sergeant, $91,937

Director of Human Resources, $89,441

Administrator of the Chautauqua County Home, $88,880

Sheriff’s Office command pilot, $88,866

Director of Mental Hygiene, $88,791

Chautauqua County general employee, $87,709

Chautauqua County Department of Planning and Economic Development director, $87,506

Deputy Director of the Department of Public Facilities, $87,143

Director of child support enforcement for the Department of Social Services, $85,918

Chautauqua County executive, $85,000

Sheriff’s Office deputy, $84,824

Assistant District Attorney, $84,310

Chautauqua County sheriff, $83,820

Clinical Director for the Office of Mental Health, $83,611

Chautauqua County general employee, $82,884

Executive Director for the Office of Mental Health, $82,487

Director of the Chautauqua County Alcohol and Substance Abuse Clinic, $81,740

A phone call to the director of Human Resources regarding the titles of the two general employees was not immediately returned.

Comparatively, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties’ top 25 highest-paid positions also account for roughly 1 percent of their respective budgets. Cattaraugus County has a 2013 budget of roughly $218.5 million. Allegany County’s 2013 budget is roughly $114.8 million.

In Allegany County, the highest-paid employee is the district attorney, whose 2013 salary is $141,207 according to See Through NY. Making $108,754, and the No. 2 highest-paid employee in Allegany County is a certified registered nurse practitioner for the sheriff’s office.

Similarly, in Cattaraugus County, the highest-paid employee is the district attorney, whose salary is $143,133 for 2013, according to See Through NY. The second highest-paid county employee is a professional engineer who is in charge of engineering for the county’s highway division. The position is being paid $114,883 for 2013.

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