LAS VEGAS — Searchable salary data for over 128,000 Nevada government employees, for the 2013 calendar year, is now available at TransparentNevada.com, a website operated by the Nevada Policy Research Institute to make government spending transparent to taxpayers.
The 2013 data includes salary and compensation information from 91 jurisdictions, including over 20 new jurisdictions, and shows that 1,290 Nevada government employees made over $200,000 last year.
“Taxpayers will be shocked by the salary information available on TransparentNevada,” said NPRI President Andy Matthews. “In 2013, government compensation remained bloated. The North Las Vegas library director made $427,487.15. A deputy fire chief in Henderson made $500,560.95. The Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority President made $521,674.92.
“These are stunning figures coming from a city on the verge of insolvency, another city that’s pushing a tax increase and an airport authority with just 282 employees.
“It’s not just retirement payouts that are boosting compensation to sky-high levels. For instance, over 2,000 employees made more in 2013 than Gov. Brian Sandoval. Nevada’s public compensation structure, especially at the local level, cannot be sustained and is the major driver of the budget challenges Nevada governments face.”
Along with the searchable 2013 data, NPRI released “Lowlights Lists” of findings for both Southern and Northern Nevada. Items from the Southern Nevada list include:
- The average compensation of North Las Vegas’ 500 highest earners increased by $5,040.86 per employee for a total increase of $2.52 million.
- The number of Clark County School District employees taking home over $200,000 went from just two in 2012 to five in 2013.
- Even though the Clark County fire department’s OT spending fell by over $1.5 million, or $2,087 per employee, the average compensation for Clark County fire department employees increased by $2,555.
Lowlights from Northern Nevada include:
- Three Washoe County Sheriff Deputies made more in overtime than in base pay in 2013.
- Nine of Nevada’s highest paid 10 employees in 2013 were in Reno. This includes two UNR School of Medicine employees who each made over $1 million in 2013.
- Washoe County School District Superintendent was the highest paid superintendent in Nevada. Pedro Martinez made $358,190.52, while Pat Skorkowsky, the Clark County School District’s mid-year replacement for Dwight Jones, took home $327,312.94.
- The legislative counsel for the Legislative Counsel Bureau made $243,236.03, including $83,951.67 in overtime. In all, LCB employees took home over $3.9 million in overtime in 2013.
Matthews praised most government agencies, including Clark County and the City of Reno, for their friendly and timely responses to NPRI’s public records requests.
“While the vast majority of government agencies complied quickly and with courtesy, some government agencies continue to stall or have yet to fully comply with Nevada’s Public Records Act. Most noticeably, the State of Nevada refuses to provide names for 3,282 employees, including game wardens, correctional officers and agriculture enforcement officers. While the state’s staff has been very professional and helpful, you cannot pick and choose which parts of a public records request you want to comply with.”
Some of the new government agencies that are on the site include cities of Ely, Fernley, Winnemucca, Pahrump and Yerington, and dozens of special districts, including the Carson City Airport Authority, Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority and the Conservation District of Southern Nevada.
TransparentNevada, on the Web at http://TransparentNevada.com, launched in September 2008 and has served as a unique source of government-financing information for hundreds of thousands of citizens, journalists and elected officials. Earlier this year, TransparentNevada added pension data from the Nevada Public Employees’ Retirement System to the site at http://transparentnevada.com/nvpers/2014.
The site will be updated as other government entities provide salary information.
More information:
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