Metro

1,252 state workers earn more than Gov. Cuomo

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo’s their boss, but 1,252 underlings on the state payroll made more than he did last year.

That’s a nearly 26 percent increase over 2010, when 996 state workers got paid more than then-Gov. David Paterson.

And while the governor’s $179,000-a-year salary (Cuomo voluntarily takes 5 percent less than he is entitled to by law) is nothing to sneeze at, the state’s top paid employee pulled in more than four times the chief executive’s pay in 2011.

SUNY honcho Alain Kaloyeros was paid $792,583 in state salary, according to seethroughny.org, a Web site created by the conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy that posts state salaries annually.

In addition, Kaloyeros, senior vice president and chief executive officer at the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, gets a percentage of the grants he wins and was paid an extra $507,000 in 2010 based on $250 million in mostly private money, according to college spokesman Stephen Janack, who did not have 2011 numbers.

Behind Kaloyeros, credited as the brains behind publicly subsidized private efforts to make New York a hotbed for computer-chip development, are state hospital bigwigs at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and state-run hospitals in Stony Brook and Syracuse.

Dr. Antonio Alfonso, chairman of Downstate’s Department of Surgery, raked in $775,985 as the state’s second highest-paid employee.

City University of New York Chancellor Matthew Goldstein finished sixth, at $558,524.

And 10th place finisher Dr. Harry L. Zinn, also at Downstate Medical Center, cracked the half-million mark with $525,729.

Among agencies directly under the governor’s control, the State Police led the salary pack with an eye-popping $102,677 average payday.

The Empire Center won’t comment on its findings, saying numerous factors account for different employees’ salaries.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto noted that virtually all of those pulling in more than the governor “are at authorities and agencies the governor doesn’t control,” including SUNY.