Oneida County has the highest average government salary, $39,795, of its Mohawk Valley counterparts. That was just one of the facts unveiled by the Empire Center for Public Policy Friday as information was released on the names and salaries for all of the county, city, town and village government employees in New York state in 2008-09.
The records, which were gleaned from the state pension system, appear on the Web site www.seethroughny.net.
“Obviously, New Yorkers are hungry for information about how their state and local governments work and are financed,” said Lise Bang-Jensen, senior policy analyst for the Empire Center.
County Executive Anthony Picente said the numbers were skewed because the counties to which Oneida was compared – Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Montgomery and Schoharie – are all much smaller.
“There’s a distinct difference in what we provide in terms of the number of department’s, size of each department and what we’re required to oversee,” Picente said.
The comparisons run by the Empire Center came up with some other items of local interest:
Utica has the fifth-highest average salary for general employees at $35,257 among nearby cities, but its firefighters and police rank at the top in terms of average salary with $61,661…
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