Fun with Numbers- MaineOpenGov.org

There is a new website - www.maineopengov.org.  

According to the website, they "are giving Mainers a new, clear look into how our state and local tax dollars are spent... down to the agency, person, and penny.  This site is sponsored by The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization promoting free enterprise, limited government and individual liberty."

Hopefully, the Maine Policy Center is being straight up with numbers.  Their success will depend on that.

The way the site works, with the click of a button you can search payrolls, pensions, and payments to businesses and individuals.  Once you have identified your area of interest you can search by year, salary, name and several other interesting ways.  There is even a way to leave a comment on any piece of data that you find to be worth commenting on.

Where to begin.....the Legislature, of course!

Of the 241 people listed in the Legislature, more than 40 make over $70,000 dollars a year. Unfortunately, the Legislature chose not to provide the cost of the benefits-which are public records. I would encourage readers to call their Legislators and demand that those figures be released.  It should be noted that the Executive Branch did provide that benefit information.

You can also search the University System. If you were to look at the payroll for 2007, you would find that Joe Westphal, who served as chancellor at the University of Maine System, a position he resigned from as of June 30, 2006 - was the highest paid staff person in 2007 at $208,382 and when you add the benefits it comes in at $291,735. 

Maybe it's just me, but how does a guy resign in 2006, become a faculty member in 2007 and still get to be the highest paid guy at the UMAINE System -making more than the Chancellor that replaced him for the year. Also of note, there are more than 130 folks in the University System who are making over $100,000 per year PLUS benefits, which run at least 40% of the salary.

The possibilities are endless!  I did a quick search of everyone in the executive branch who was reimbursed for in-state auto mileage in the year 2007.  Did you know that the state paid more than 6.5 million dollars for mileage reimbursement?  More than 20 employees collected over $10,000 in reimbursements.  I don't know, but I think the folks making more than 10K a year in mileage reimbursements should probably be given a state car!

Interested in overtime costs?  I did a quick search in the Department of Public Safety for 2007.  More than 40 people were paid over $10,000 dollars in overtime.  The department spent over 2 million in overtime payments.

I'm hoping that the cleverer among you will take the time to sift through the data and send me an update on your findings at politickerme@aol.com

Oh yeah, one more thing -- the state spent over $18,000 for typewriter repairs in 2007.