The Empire Center today released the newest edition of What They Make, its annual examination of local government payrolls.

Using data from the New York State and Local Retirement System, the report includes the number and average pay of county, village, city and town government employees during the fiscal year ending March 31.

What They Make lets taxpayers see how their local governments’ payrolls stack up,” said Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center. “Big differences exist, even between neighboring communities, and taxpayers have a right to ask their elected officials why.”

The report lists the 50 highest-paid local government employees in New York (page 5) and the 10 highest-paid employees in each region (pages 6 and 7). The 175,262 records, totaling $9.5 billion in pay, that were analyzed for the report are searchable at SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website.

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies to make New York a better place to live, work and do business.

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