At least 1,800 government workers in New York each got paid more than $179,000 last year, and business owners should know how their local officials compare to that group.
That’s the message from Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based think tank. The fiscally conservative center issued a report today on all government salaries in the state — excluding New York City. The $179,000 was picked because it represents Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s salary.
Government salaries are the biggest element in many municipality’s budget, and Hoefer said that influences property taxes that sway decisions on where businesses open and where people buy houses.
“Are we paying more than the town next door, or paying less,” he asked rhetorically during an interview. “That’s important information if you have competition in the town next door and they’re paying a lower tax rate.”
There are major differences between wages in some communities. For example, the average salary for police and firefighters in the Albany area is about $90,000. Westchester County, which has a higher cost of living in general, paid its police an average salary of nearly $185,000, the report shows.
Here are some other tidbits from the report:
Forty-seven of the state’s 50 highest-paid local employees, all of whom took home more than $250,000 in fiscal year 2013-14, were employees of a police department or sheriff’s office.
The highest-paid local government employee was a Suffolk County jail warden who was paid $414,527. A total of nine local government employees were paid more than $300,000.
© 2014 Albany Business Review
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