‘Truth machine’ reveals Bay State’s $7B payroll
Pay raises negotiated by the Patrick administration drove up the state’s payroll last year to nearly $7 billion, according to the state comptroller’s office.
The number of workers pulling down six-figure pay also jumped — to about 15,000 employees — with the University of Massachusetts system once again leading the way.
Michael Collins, chancellor and senior vice president of health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, was the state’s highest paid worker, taking home $1.04 million in 2017, according to the latest payroll data.
All of the top 10 earners hail from the UMass system — with President Martin T. Meehan pulling down $614,381 last year.
State Comptroller Thomas G. Shack III told the Herald his office is still cleaning up the data, with some “outliers” reported incorrectly to his office. He also said the MBTA’s payroll — now finally under the state system — has only partial results for the year.
“We want to account for every dollar the commonwealth spends of taxpayer money,” Shack said. “I call this our truth machine.”
Shack said he welcomes “all eyes” on the state’s open payroll database to help spot any errors or potential abuse.
“We have seven years of transactions. That’s $60 billion-a-year endeavor and 95,000 state employees,” he said. “Taxpayers are our stockholders.”
Shack said the contracts approved at the end of former Gov. Deval Patrick’s tenure called for hikes of 9 percent to 11 percent over a three-year period.
He said salaries should be heading in the other direction in the coming years as a “huge” number of retirements kick in. He said 40 percent of the state’s workforce will be eligible in the coming five to 10 years.
Former State Police Col. Richard McKeon, who retired at the height of the Troopergate scandal, was the highest paid non-UMass state employee — pulling down $386,829.
Gov. Charlie Baker made $151,800 — he did not take the pay raise.