July 02, 2009

Alarming salaries?

Taxpayers in a leafy Westchester County suburb pay three fire chiefs more than $635,000 a year--more than three times the annual salary of New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, who is paid $189,700.

Could that help explain high property taxes in the Town of Greenburgh? The three district chiefs, who serve only a portion of unincorporated Greenburgh, each earn more than the Greenburgh police chief who serves the entire town. His salary is $155,515.

In an editorial, "Sounding the alarm over salaries," the Journal News writes:

In 2008, the chief of the Greenview Fire District, which serves 8,000 residents, earned $204,321; the chief of the Hartsdale Fire District, which serves 19,000 residents; earned $207,026; and the chief of the Fairview Fire District, which serves 30,000 residents, earned $224,620. A Fairview deputy chief earned slightly more than all of them - $226,772.

To put the Greenburgh local salaries in perspective, consider the New York Fire Department, which has a billion-dollar budget and 16,000 firefighters, emergency medical technicians and other employees protecting more than 8 million residents. The FDNY is the largest municipal fire department in the nation. In 2008 alone, New York City firefighters responded to 28,862 structural fires and 17,192 other fires, such as car, brush or garbage fires. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, however, would do better financially if he were running one of unincorporated Greenburgh's three small departments.

Scoppetta's salary is $189,700.

Greenburgh is not alone. Residents of other communities have also have been treated to some surprising information about public-sector salaries, including the revelation in April that three of the top brass in the Clarkstown police department earned well over $300,000 in 2008, while 15 Clarkstown police officials each earned more than $200,000.

Posted by Lise Bang-Jensen

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