Top NY state bureaucrats earn nearly $128,000/year

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Almost 5,000 bureaucrats who work for New York public authorities earned an average of $127,915 in 2009, according to the first report by an agency created to safeguard the public interest.

The new findings could give more ammunition to fiscal monitors who say the cash-starved state cannot afford the public authorities' underperforming and bloated bureaucracies.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, often criticized for an over-abundance of administrators, had the highest number of workers -- 3,026 -- who earned at least $100,000 a year, said the Independent Authorities Budget Office's report.

Partly mirroring compensation in the private sector, the highest paid individual, with a yearly salary of $580,000, worked for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation.

The Buffalo-based research institute paid 324 individuals an average of $204,805 a year.

By comparison, biotechnology research and development workers at private companies in New York City earned an average of $244,170, according to 2008 data from the city Economic Development Corporation.

New York City is known for its high-cost of living and salaries, and this segment of the biotech industry was only bested by Wall Street's securities sector, which paid the average worker $386,825, according to the city's data.

Seeking to quell outrage over Wall Street's taxpayer bailout and high pay, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has stressed that the sector's median pay is only about $70,000 to $80,000.

New York state's public authorities traditionally were run with considerable independence and little oversight though they sign billions of dollars of contracts each year and control public assets, from the power grid to the Erie Canal.

A 2009 state law created the Independent Authorities Budget Office to "make public authorities more accountable and transparent and to act in the public interest," by requiring these agencies to disclose detailed information about their operations and finances, the new report said.

At 14 authorities, at least 20 percent of the employees earned more than $100,000 a year. The Nassau County Interim Finance Authority ranked first on this list, paying three of its five employees an average of $163,072, the report said.

It was followed by the Long Island Power Authority; it paid almost 51 percent of its 102 workers an average of $154,645.

Though 90 percent of the state authorities met the new reporting requirements, local public authorities, especially urban renewal and community development agencies, fell short, as only 59 percent or less complied, the report said.

(Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Andrew Hay)