Rockland County - Ramapo police chief's salary is $321,719

ALBANY — Here’s a get- rich-quick scheme: land a job as a cop in the suburbs.

New York’s 20 highest-paid local-government employees — mostly police officers and brass — outside the Big Apple all brought home at least $245,000 last year, according to a report.

Police Chief Peter Brower, of the Rockland County town of Ramapo, topped the list at $321,719, the conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy found.

Brower said his pay for the April 1, 2011-March 31, 2012 period included a lump sum of about $70,000 for retroactive raises between December 2009, when his previous contract expired, and December 2011, when his new contract was finalized.   But the 42-year veteran of the 125-officer department acknowledged that, without the lump-sum payment, he still makes about $250,000 a year.

Brower’s salary tops New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who earned $205,180 to oversee more than 35,000 cops in the nation’s largest police force.

The report comes as runaway labor, pension and education costs combined with shrinking property-tax bases have pushed cities across the state into fiscal distress — with Yonkers potentially heading toward bankruptcy and Nassau County under a state financial control board.

Gov. Cuomo yesterday warned that local spending can’t keep climbing at the current rate.

“The cost of our public-employee workforce is basically unsustainable. That’s what pension reform was all about, that’s what the property-tax cap was all about,” Cuomo said in response to the report.

“So one of two things has to happen: we have to have a dramatic turnaround in the economy, where the economy begins going great guns right away and tax revenue comes flooding in, or you have to get the costs under control.”

But Empire Center director Tim Hoefer said “the answer” lies in Cuomo’s hands through repeal of a state law known as the “Triborough Amendment” that gives public employees automatic pay raises even in the event of contract impasses.

Cuomo’s office had no comment yesterday, but the governor has called repeal of the Triborough a “political nonstarter” in a state Legislature heavily reliant on union-campaign contributions.

Police departments were by far the highest paid local-government employees.

The numbers reported by municipalities to the New York State and Local Retirement Systems include salaries, overtime, and pay for unused sick and vacation time.

But they don’t include pension contributions, health insurance and other fringe benefits — which the Empire Center noted can add up to 40 percent on top of salaries.

Hoefer said municipalities typically lay off the least senior, lowest-paid employees, boosting the average wage for the remaining, higher-paid workers.   


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