A town police chief in Rockland County was New York State’s highest paid municipal employee outside New York City during the state’s 2019 fiscal year, according to the latest edition of “What They Make,” the Empire Center’s annual report summarizing total local government pay.

Brad R. Weidel, chief of the Ramapo Police Department, pulled down $403,650 during the 12-month period ending March 31, the Empire Center analysis found.

Broken down on a regional basis, “What They Make” provides the average pay and employee count for counties, cities, towns, villages and fire districts, with separate averages and totals for uniformed police and fire employees. The data used to generate the report, including individual salaries, can be accessed at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website.

Other data highlights for local government workers:

• Forty-three of the 50 highest-paid local employees were police officers, including 35 on Long Island. Six of the 10 highest-paid employees were police officers.
• The top-paying local government was the Village of Kings Point. Serving an affluent community on Long Island’s north shore, the village’s 19 police officers were paid an average of $254,581, and its 17 non-uniformed employees were paid an average of $93,604.
• The town of Harrison’s 34 firefighters earned an average of $182,885, the highest pay of any local fire department employees outside New York City.
• Thirty-eight employees collected pay over $200,000 by working for two local government employers, up from 30 the previous year. Twenty-five of the 38 were Suffolk County employees (up from 20 last year) who also were paid by a village police department.

Click here to read the full report.

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.