CONTACT: Lise Bang-Jensen

(518) 434-3100

A searchable online database including salaries of 255,959 teachers and administrators employed by New York State’s public schools and colleges during the 2007-08 school year was posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the government transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy.

“SeeThroughNY.net now features the most comprehensive information on teacher and administrator salaries ever made available to New York State taxpayers,” said Lise Bang-Jensen, the Empire Center’s senior policy analyst. “This is crucial information for New Yorkers to consider as we approach school budget and board votes next Tuesday.”

The newly added database consists of names and 2007-08 gross pay amounts, including added stipends, for all members of the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System, which administers pension benefits for public-sector educators outside New York City. The City’s public school employees are included in the fiscal 2008 city payroll that was posted on the SeeThroughNY.net website in January.

Users of the SeeThroughNY.net site can search or sort the newly added school payroll database by name, school district and salary level. Search results can be downloaded in the form of a spreadsheet or comma-delimited database file. Current salaries for teachers can be estimated by multiplying the 2007-08 figures by 1.056, reflecting the average 5.6 percent salary increase reported in the annual teacher contract survey by the New York State School Boards Association.

In addition to school district information, SeeThroughNY.net includes the complete payrolls of New York’s state government and of 19 state public authorities. Also posted at the site are searchable databases of teachers’ union and superintendent contracts for 733 school districts; legislative pork barrel items; operations spending by both houses of the state Legislature; and comparative financial benchmarks for counties, cities, towns and village governments.

With today’s school employee additions, SeeThroughNY.net’s payroll databases now include the names and salaries of more than a million public employees in New York State. Since launching in July 2008, SeeThroughNY.net has attracted more than 950,000 unique visitors who have downloaded nearly 4 million pages of information.

The Albany-based Empire Center is non-partisan, independent think tank.