HARTFORD – The Yankee Institute announces that it has updated its CTSunlight.org website by adding 2009 payroll data for all state employees. The data shows that 1,293 state employees earned more than Gov. Jodi Rell’s salary of $150,000 last year. This is up from 1,137 state employers who were paid more than the governor in 2008.
A total of 180 state employees were paid more than $250,000. Fourteen were paid more than $500,000, all of them associated with UConn or the UConn Health Center. Four of these are associated with UConn athletics. Of the top 100 highest paid state employees were connected to the state’s higher education system or the Health Center. The top eleven:
- Calhoun, James A | UConn $1,674,439.93 Men’s basketball coach
- Auriemma, Geno | UConn $1,500,00.00 Women’s basketball coach
- Edsall, Randy D | UConn $1,448,274.93 Football coach
- Laurencin, Cato T | UConn HthCtr $919,551.45 Dean, UConn School of Medicine
- Whalen, James D | UConn HthCtr $875,629.71 Assoc Prof, Dermatology & Surgery
- Onyiuke, Hilary | UConn HthCtr $825,971.13 Chief, Division of Neurosurgery
- Nulsen, John C | UConn HthCtr $796,807.75 Lead physician, Cntr for Advanced Reproductive Services
- Hogan, Michael J | UConn $627,801.24 President
- Makkar, Hanspaul | UConn HthCtr $592,201.08 Assistant Professor of Dermatology
- Deckers, Peter J | UConn HthCtr $574,315.48 Executive VP, former Dean
- Hathaway, Jeffrey | UConn $562,856.32 Athletic Director
According to the Census Bureau, the median household income in Connecticut in 2008 was $65,976. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Connecticut’s unemployment rate in April was 9.0 percent.
“Connecticut has lost tens of thousands of private sector jobs in this recession, but for tens of thousands of state employees, government employment has offered job security and financial comfort unknown to most private sector workers,” said Fergus Cullen, Executive Director of the Yankee Institute.
The Yankee Institute is working to expand the CTSunlight website yet further to include salary information for all municipal and school district employees statewide, and expects to start making this data for some towns available to the public on the website in the coming weeks. The site now discloses salary information for all state employees for 2007, 2008, and 2009. The data is searchable and downloadable. The site also includes pension and vendor payment information.
“We believe that sunlight and disclosure about where tax dollars go puts downward pressure on spending, which in turn keeps taxes down,” Cullen said.
