In a recent report by the Empire Center for Public Policy of the 20 highest paid county and municipal workers in New York, 15 of those workers were found to be from Long Island.
The report, which spans from April 1, 2012 to March, 21, 2013, does not include pension costs, health insurance or any fringe benefits, which the ECPP say “typically can add at least 35 or 40 percent to salary costs.”
The ECPP study also revealed that the highest paid county employee statewide was retired Suffolk Community College Executive Vice President George Gatta Jr., who was collecting nearly $360,000 before retiring in February.
The study also found that the five highest paying villages for county and municipal workers were all from Long Island: Amityville, Old Brookville, Kensington, Old Westbury, and Lloyd Harbor. From that, it is easy to see how 12 of the 20 highest paid county employees in the state are Nassau County police and fire department employees who happen to be earning between $259,000 and $307,000 annually, according to News 12 Long Island.
According to the ECPP, the highest salary reported for any group of local employees was the $175,818 average collected by 23 Village of Amityville police officers.
These statistics may be slightly skewed, says Nassau Executive Ed Mangano, who claims that overtime demands created by Hurricane Sandy affected the statistics for county police officers.
[Source: Empire Center for Public Policy, News 12 Long Island]