Wonder where Florida tax dollars are going?
OpenTheBooks reports that in Florida there are roughly 35,000 state and local government employees who are paid six-figure salaries funded by the taxpayer.
It argues that the “accelerating salary inflation trend within the state’s public sector should be addressed as a priority for taxpayers by elected officials.”
“Perhaps it’s time the state’s compensation practices are re-evaluated,” OpenTheBooks.com CEO & Founder Adam Andrzejewski told Watchdog.org. “Floridians must ask the hard questions about how their tax dollars are being managed and demand fiscal responsibility and transparency from local and state leaders.”
OpenTheBooks.com is a nonpartisan project of American Transparency, an Illinois-based public spending watchdog organization founded in 2011 by Andrzejewski and former Sen. Dr. Tom Coburn (R-OK). Coburn co-sponsored the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act with then-Sen. Barack Obama, which expanded public access to federal spending ledgers.
According to OpenTheBooks, Floridians paid salaries over $100,000 for 34,873 public sector employees. They also paid salaries for employees hovering close to $100,000, cost taxpayers $5.5 billion in 2017.
Below are the highlights. In 2017 there were:
- 717 small-town, city, and village employees who were paid more than $100,000 a year by local taxpayers, including at least 26 local administrators who made more than $180,000 a year. Their salaries are larger than all of the nation’s 50 governors’ salaries.
- 13,170 county employees earned $100,000 or more;
- 2,484 state employees earned more than $100,000;
- 3,195 teachers and school administrators earned at least $100,000, costing taxpayers nearly $400 million;
- 13,305 college and university employees earned more than $100,000, costing taxpayers $2.5 billion. The University of Florida paid six-figure salaries to 3,234 presidents, professors and coaches, more than any university in Florida.
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