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10 Insanely Overpaid Government Bureaucrats

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10 Insanely Overpaid Public Employees

By BLAIRE BRIODY, The Fiscal Times

July 13, 2011

When it comes to government employees, there’s plenty of news about laid off social workers in Florida, furloughed forest rangers in Minnesota, and underpaid teachers everywhere else.

Yet even during these hard times, there are thousands of government employees who still earn great, big salaries – many of them hundreds of thousands more than the $400,000 Obama pulls down each year. In 2009, 347 Texas state employees earned more than the president; 53 of them made more than $600,000.

In New York, 35 employees were paid over $400k last year. Since 2005, the number of Federal employees earning $150,000 plus has jumped tenfold: going from 12,399 to 171,689. Much of the increase has been in medicine. Doctors at veterans hospitals and prisons averaged $179,500 in 2010, up from $111,000 in 2005.

See our slideshow here on 10 insanely overpaid government employees. We reported all their yearly earnings, which in addition to base salary, includes bonuses, overtime pay, and other pay. The “other pay” can be things like unused sick days--$594,976 worth of them for one California employee – something private sector employees could only dream of. Oh, and did we mention all of them are men?

Kevin Broadus
Basketball coach

Earnings: $1,200,000

Where:SUNY Binghamton, NY

Kevin Broadus, who had a five-year $1 million contract, was let go from his job as head coach for little-known SUNY Binghamton men’s basketball team in 2009 over an ethics scandal. He sued the school for discrimination, and received a $1.2 million buyout to drop the suit. Taxpayers got to pick up all the legal bills too. In June, Broadus was hired as an assistant coach at Georgetown, where he has worked previously.

C. Kern Wildenthal
Hospital Rainmaker

Earnings: $841,557

Where:University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Retiring from his position as head of the medical center at UT Southwestern in 2008, C. Kern Wildenthal now devotes most of his time and effort to “philanthropic pursuits” for the medical center as "assistant to the president for community affairs", according to a press release. With $841,557 earnings in 2010, the university must have been feeling philanthropic towards him, as well.

Francisco G. Cigarroa
Chancellor

Earnings: $813,892

Where:University of Texas System

Even with budget cuts, Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa hasn’t given up his fat salary. The total cost to employ Cigarroa in 2009 was $813,892, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Jeffrey W. Rohlfing
Prison Doctor

Earnings: $784,596

Where:High Desert State Prison, CA

Jeffrey W. Rohlfing works at an overcrowded, 4,000-plus inmate facility in the middle of the California desert. The $784,596 figure includes overtime, bonuses, and other compensation, in addition to salary, but it’s quite a jump from 2004 when Rohlfing earned a mere $132,854. The pay hike is especially surprising since Rohlfing was put on probation for five years in 1997 after being found guilty of unprofessional conduct and impairment due to mental illness.

Fong Lai
Prison Psychiatrist

Earnings: $737,057

Where:Stockton, California

Even in prison, shrinks rake it in. Of the $737,057 that Fong Lai received in 2010, $594,976 was for more than 2 1/2 years worth of unused sick time when he left the job in 2010. Still, in the last full year he worked, his base salary was $224,306 in addition to overtime pay of $72,308.

Steven Strongwater
CEO and vice president hospital affairs

Earnings: $721,043

Where:Stonybrook Hospital, NY

Running a university hospital makes Steven Strongwater the fourth-highest paid employee in the state, earning six times what a physician at the hospital makes. He was hired in 2006, after a long career as a hospital administrator.

Timothy Malan
Prison Dentist

Earnings: $621,971

Where:Avenal State Prison, CA

Filling inmates’ cavities can pay off. Timothy Malan earned $621,971 in 2009, although more than half of that was from accrued leave he received in one lump when he left the department. If he blows that in one fell swoop, he can always rely on his pension, which according to a prison spokesperson, is 42 percent of his highest year’s base salary, or about $140,429 per year for the rest of his life.

Matthew Goldstein
Chancellor

Earnings: $560,038

Where:City University of New York

As CUNY deals with $205 million in budget cuts, and Chancellor Matthew Goldstein proposes raising tuition on some 533,000 students in the system, he maintains earnings of $560,000.

Thomas Britton
Chief Investment Officer

Earnings: $480,000

Where:Teacher Retirement System, TX

A former hedge fund manager for Bridgewater Associates, Thomas Britton Harris IV, is used to living the good life, and maintains his Wall Street-level pay to manage the teachers’ public pension in Texas.

Scott Wallace
Executive Director

Earnings: $343,608

Where:Citizens Property Insurance Corp., FL (Florida’s public insurance provider)

As public insurance premiums rise for homeowners in Florida, so do executives’ earnings. Scott Wallace was paid a base wage of $343,608 in 2009, one of the highest-paid employees in the state. Even homeowners who choose to insure their property with a private insurer are helping fund Wallace’s wage, paying a 1.4 percent fee on their premiums to cover Citizens’ shortfalls after Hurricane Katrina.

 
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