Colonie’s 106 town police officers were the highest-paid group of local government employees in the Capital Region last year, averaging $94,810, according to the Empire Center’s 2015 “What They Make” report.

The report uses pay data reported to the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015. The amounts listed in the report do not include fringe benefits such as health insurance or employer pension contributions, which can add 35 percent or more to the cost for taxpayers.

Users can search the 175,327 pay records of town, city, county and village employees on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. The Capital Region data also show:

• The next-highest paid groups of local government employees were Bethlehem town police officers at $92,909 and Guilderland town police officers at $91,898.
• Ballston Spa’s 20 general employees had the highest average pay among the region’s 38 villages at $44,310, nearly $6,000 more than the second-highest paid village employees in Hudson Falls.
• Watervliet’s 47 uniformed police and fire employees were the highest-paid uniformed city employees in the region, averaging $90,659.

The ten highest-paid local government employees in the Capital Region (Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington Counties) were:

The Empire Center is a non-partisan, non-profit independent think tank based in Albany. SeeThroughNY includes payroll and pension data for state and local government employees and retirees; detailed expenditure data for the state Legislature; comparative statistics on local government spending; a searchable database of state revenue and expenditures; and copies of all teacher union contracts and superintendent of schools contracts.