The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Data: More than 120 employees in State Capitol make more than $100,000 a year
HARTFORD — Twenty nine of 428 employees in the State Capitol, from workers in the House and Senate caucuses to nonpartisan support staff, make more than $150,000 a year, according to new salary data released to CT Insider under the state Freedom of Information Act.
The payroll list is topped by Vincent Mauro Jr., the longtime chief of staff for the majority Senate Democrats who makes $209,000.
While political appointees like Mauro, the powerful chairman of the New Haven Democratic Town Committee, dominate the top salaries, veteran nonpartisan analysts and administrators are also among the highest-paid, including James Tamburro, executive director of the Office of Legislative Management, which runs
operations in the Capitol building, the adjacent Legislative Office Building
and the Old State House located a mile away in the heart of
downtown.
Tamburro makes $194,667, according to the
legislative salary data requested last month.
“Each year has brought its own challenges and I have enjoyed working through all of them,” said Mauro, a caucus employee since 1996. “I started here at 22-years-old making $23,000 a year. This experience has truly been an honor.” Mauro, the top aide to Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff of Norwalk, heads a staff that supports the 24-12 Democratic majority.
Two other staffers in the Senate Democratic caucus, Joel Rudikoff and Courtney Cullinan, make $206,000 and $202,000 respectively. Franklin Perry, the chief of staff for the House Democratic majority, and Richard Baltimore, chief legal counsel for House Democrats, are each paid $193,000, according to the data. Two top aides in the minority Senate Republican office, John Healy and Jason Welch, are paid $190,000 and $187,512, respectively.