{"id":378826,"date":"2026-10-21T20:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/378826\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T20:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:32:13","slug":"what-they-make-2026-central-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/378826\/","title":{"rendered":"What They Make 2026: Central New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Syracuse police officers held all ten of the highest-paid local government positions in Central New York during fiscal year 2025-26, according to payroll data submitted to the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS)<\/a>. John Tassini was the highest paid, at $282,861.<\/p>\n

Statewide, the 179,222 employees of New York\u2019s counties, cities, towns and villages outside New York City were paid a total of $12.0 billion in fiscal year 2025-26, at an average of $67,037, according to the Empire Center\u2019s annual What They Make 2026<\/a> report. Central New York\u2019s 13,158 employees averaged $56,842, fifth among the state\u2019s nine regions outside New York City.<\/p>\n

From the full report<\/p>\n

What They Make 2026<\/p>\n

Pay at all 1,517 counties, cities, towns and villages outside New York City, the highest-paid employees statewide, police and correction officer pay, and more.<\/p>\n

Read the full report \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Local governments in Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties paid a total of $748 million. A total of 12.5 percent of their employees were paid $100,000 or more, compared with about one in five statewide, and four were paid more than Governor Hochul\u2019s $250,000 salary.<\/p>\n

Among the findings:<\/p>\n

Mark Rusin, who became Syracuse\u2019s police chief in January 2026, was paid $253,352. The city\u2019s 1,845 employees averaged $73,641, and its 748 police and fire employees averaged $110,490.
\nOnondaga County\u2019s 3,491 employees averaged $64,154, the highest of any county in the region.
\nAuburn had the highest city average in the region, at $76,957, ahead of Syracuse and 12th among the state\u2019s 61 cities.
\nThe Town of Camillus\u2019 police and fire employees averaged $117,975, the highest in the region, followed by Syracuse ($110,490), Auburn ($103,486) and the Town of Manlius ($101,431). Camillus also had the highest average pay of any town in the region, at $62,702.
\nThe City of Oswego\u2019s payroll came to $1,330 per resident, the second-highest of any city in the state. Among counties, Cortland spent the most per resident on local payrolls, at $1,113, counting the county and all of its cities, towns and villages.
\nLocal government payrolls came to $953 per resident in Central New York, compared with $1,054 statewide.<\/p>\n

Ten Highest-Paid Local Government Employees \u2013 Central New York<\/p>\n

Name
\nEmployer
\nClassification
\nPay<\/p>\n

Tassini, John S
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$282,861<\/p>\n

Metz, David M
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$255,388<\/p>\n

Rusin, Mark M
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$253,352<\/p>\n

Fougnier, Brian M
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$251,127<\/p>\n

Coleman, William J
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$247,719<\/p>\n

Harkness, John C
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$244,721<\/p>\n

Shulsky, Julie L
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$241,227<\/p>\n

Ripley, Robert N
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$231,302<\/p>\n

Blake, Thomas
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$231,094<\/p>\n

Wolfe, Robert A
\nCity of Syracuse
\nPolice\/Fire
\n$228,441<\/p>\n

The amounts listed do not include fringe benefits such as health insurance and employer pension contributions. A Village of Skaneateles employee reported at $350,000, far above the prior year’s pay in records matching his name and hire date, is excluded from these figures; NYSLRS referred questions about the figure to the employer.<\/p>\n

Payroll records for every Central New York county, city, town, village and special district can be searched at the Empire Center’s transparency website, SeeThroughNY.net<\/a>. The full statewide report, What They Make 2026<\/a>, includes searchable pay figures for every local government outside New York City.<\/p>\n

The Empire Center is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in Albany.<\/p>\n

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\nStatewide, the\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Syracuse police officers held all ten of the highest-paid local government positions in Central New York during fiscal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,116863,116864,120521,38464],"class_list":["post-378826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-ny-public-payroll-watch","tag-seethroughny","tag-taxes-and-spending","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}