Payroll data for 67,050 state and local public authority employees in New York has been added to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center for Public Policy’s public spending transparency website.

The Center has used the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) to secure salary information dating back to 2008 from more than 1,100 of the state’s public authorities, which employ more than 150,000 people and spend more than $50 billion annually. Salary information is obtained from the state comptroller’s Public Authority Reporting Information System. 

Of the 150 most highly paid public authority employees in the latest payroll data, with compensation ranging from $1.375 million to $346,000, all worked for government-sponsored hospitals and health facilities, including the Nassau Health Care Corporation (46), New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (19), Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation (75) and the Westchester County Health Care Corporation (10).

The highest average compensation in the latest SeeThroughNY update was $143,946 reported for the Nassau County Interim Finance Board, which is a control board that took over the county’s finances three years ago. Other notable figures include:

• The 580 Dormitory Authority of the State of New York employees, who averaged annual compensation of $82,503;
• 21 employees at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation earned average annual compensation of more than $500,000;
• The Westchester County Health Care Corporation employees, who averaged annual compensation of $71,332, with almost a quarter of the staff receiving annual compensation of more than $100,000;
• Westchester County Health Care Corporation President & CEO Michael D. Israel, who earned $1.375 million;
• Nassau Health Care Corporation physician Chaur-Dong Hsu who earned $1.09 million;
• Central New York Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Frank Kobliski, who earned $177,956; and
• Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Executive Director Kimberley Minkel-Shepard, who earned $177,058.

SeeThroughNY allows the public to examine government expenditures on the Internet. It includes payroll and pension data for current and former state and local government employees, teacher and school superintendent employment contracts, state legislators’ office expenditures, pork barrel projects, and a benchmarking feature for comparing local government and school district spending. The site was launched July 31, 2008.