Data compiled for the fiscal year ending in March of this year shows that 2,931 retirees from state and local government positions in New York are earning more than $100,000 in annual pensions.

That is according to the Empire Center for Public Policy, a non-partisan, non-profit, think tank based in Albany, New York.

For the 2015 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2015, the pensions for the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) increased from FY2014, with 2,700 pensions exceeding $100,000.  Ten retiree pensions exceeded $200,000.

According to the report, "(t)he majority of the largest annual pensions, 1,777, are owed to members of the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS)...The largest pension paid by the system, for the sixth consecutive year, went to George M. Philip, the former executive director of the state Teachers’ Retirement System and former president of SUNY Albany. Philip’s pension benefit in fiscal 2015 was $261,649."

According to the Empire Center, there are 394,020 retirees in the system. Total pension amounts equal $9.7 billion.  That is up from $9.3 billion in the 2014 fiscal year.

According to the study, the top ten pensions are as follows:

  1.  Philip M. George (NYS Teachers Retirement System)                             $261,649
  2.  Milton H. Pachter (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)             $250,874
  3.  Ivan M. Lisnitzer (SUNY  Health Science Center at Brooklyn)                 $245,497
  4.  Aaron P. Blanco (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)               $233,065
  5.  Edward A. Stolzenberg (Westchester Health Care Corp.)                        $223,223
  6.  Francis J. Lombardi (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)         $214,165
  7.  Peter Noonan (Town of Clarkstown)                                                          $206,399
  8.  Youcef M. Rustum (Roswell Park Cancer Institute)                                  $203,714
  9.  Josephine P. Delarosa (Nassau Health Care Corp.)                                 $201,695
  10.  Vinette C. Greenland (Nassau Health Care Corp.)                                    $201,678

With some exceptions from within the SUNY system, Broome County, The New York Power Authority, the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, and the Central New York Psychiatric Center, most of those making more than $140,000 annually in retirement are largely from New York's Capital Region or from the Hudson Valley and points downstate.

 


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