Oneida County paid its 1,825 employees an average of $41,795, more than the other five counties in the region, 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 Mohawk Valley data also show:

• Utica’s 275 uniformed police and fire employees had the highest pay among the region’s uniformed employees, averaging $71,560.
• Nicholas F. Laino, president of Herkimer County Community College, was the highest paid local government employee. Laino was paid $181,341.
• New Hartford’s 25 police officers were paid an average of $68,086, the most of any town police department in the region.

The ten highest-paid local government employees in the Mohawk Valley (Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida and Schoharie 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.