Newspaper analysis: NY Trooper pay 2nd most in US

POUGHKEEPSIE — They risk their lives every day in the service of New York's citizens. But state troopers ubiquitous in their blue and gold cruisers on New York's interstate highways — are also well paid for the job, averaging $112,537 for all ranks in 2010, a Poughkeepsie Journal study of state payroll records shows. When civilian employees are included in the analysis, the average pay for the agency drops to $98,500, still the highest in the executive branch, eclipsing state legislators by 20 percent and state university professors by 10 percent. As a group, only Supreme Court and New York City judges, with an average of $140,000, made more than state police officers. The six-figure average includes sergeants, majors and all other ranking officers and officials above the starting salary; the state's 2,700 front-line troopers themselves earned an average $101,574. Nationally, New York's force is the second-highest earning, according to 2009 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, behind New Jersey but ahead of California, Alaska and Delaware. Pay is a sensitive issue — two state police contracts expired last March 31 — as demonstrated by the hot-potato response to salary questions. In a statement, Thomas H. Mungeer, president of the 3,400-member NYS Troopers PBA, said, "(T)he job of a New York State trooper is one of the most dangerous law enforcement jobs in the United States. (They) should be compensated accordingly." Since 2003, 11 troopers have died in the line of duty: Three in shootings, six in automobile crashes, and one each from electrocution and a heart attack after a struggle with a suspect.