Online database outs state salaries

An Ohio non-partisan research organization released an online database of state employees' salaries the same week Gov. Ted Strickland proposed reducing all state workers' salaries.

The Buckeye Institute's Center for Transparent and Accountable Government unveiled an online database to search the salaries of state employees Feb. 2.

Although the database is new, state employees' salaries were already open to the public, but they're sometimes difficult to find, Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said.

This information is available

but sometimes the government moves slowly and doesn't get it out to people quickly he said.

Users can search the salaries of more than 60,000 state employees by name, hourly wage or yearly income, Hansen said, adding the database will be updated each year.

In fiscal year 2010, Ohio will have an estimated 60,480 employees on payroll, which will cost $4.5 billion, despite Gov. Strickland's proposed pay cuts, Hansen said.

The Strickland administration proposed up to six percent pay cuts depending on what state employees earn - those employees who make the least money would be cut the most.

Those cuts would apply to union and non-union workers as well as Gov. Strickland and his cabinet.

As of now, 1,375 state employees make more than $100,000 per year and Gov. Strickland earns more than $130,000 each year, according to the database.

Athens County Court of Common Pleas Judges Michael Ward and Alan Goldsberry earn $106,849.86 from the state each year, according to the database.

The Institute collected state employees' salaries from the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, the same agency that releases salaries by request to the public, Hansen said.

This (database) should improve Ohioans' access to information he said. People should be aware how much employees earn from their tax dollars.

Although the database should help the public search for these salaries, Hansen said it really should be the government's job.

The government needs to work for their people in providing easy access to open records

he said.