The state’s payroll ballooned to $8 billion-plus last year, with two UMass bosses pocketing $1 million-plus in what fiscal watchdogs say is an “unsustainable” trend.
Newly released state payroll records for 2019 also show 16,599 employees in the University of Massachusetts system and throughout state government pulled down $100,000 or more — a 20% jump from the previous year driven in part by overtime work.
“This is unsustainable, especially if the state hits a recession,” Paul Craney, spokesman for MassFiscal Alliance, said of the nearly 11% jump in payroll. “Why are so many people getting paid more than the governor? There are a lot of other things that could be served that are not.”
Gov. Charlie Baker, far from the top earner in the government, pulled down $184,234 last year. He didn’t clock any overtime.
But, according to a Herald analysis of the 2019 payroll posted by the state Comptroller’s Office, a lot of others did earn massive overtime.
State troopers, corrections officers, nurses and civil engineers all pushed their pay higher with overtime shifts, records show. A total of 46 state employees earned $100,000 or move in OT.
That includes a part-time nurse in the UMass system who clocked $152,000 in overtime and a base salary of about $80,000, records show.
Other overtime earners included a prison guard paid $162,700 in overtime, records show. His base pay last year was $92,877.
State Police continued to rack up extra hours. A sergeant is listed as pulling down $307,862 with $161,566 coming in overtime.
Overtime at the agency has been under tremendous scrutiny as both the Attorney General’s Office and U.S. Attorney’s Office are in the midst of probes, with 46 troopers already indicted and some having pleaded guilty.
The big earners, once again, are at the UMass Medical Center in Worcester, with the chancellor and deputy chancellor paid more than $1 million each.
The UMass pay, said the Pioneer Institute’s Greg Sullivan, is a budget buster.
“You can break the state payroll down into two groups: the UMass administration and the rest of the state government,” said Sullivan, a former state inspector general. “UMass is nirvana for public employees.”
Sullivan said the state Legislature should press Marty Meehan, president of the UMass system who earned $682,270 last year, to explain why he needs more cash to run the university system while paying such high salaries.
“UMass is always talking about being in a funding crisis, but the Legislature should see first where the money goes,” he added. “People in the UMass system are paid much more than other state officials doing the same jobs.”
The highest paid state employee not in the UMass system goes to the chief medical examiner — paid $395,757 last year — and eight others are also in the $300,000-a-year range — or just a few thousand dollars shy of that mark.
Pay bumps also pushed top judges to $190,087 a year in 2019. They did not clock any overtime.
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Massachusetts public payroll jumps, 16,000-plus earn $100,000 or more - Boston Herald
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