Buckeye Institute posts database of OSU employees making over $250k
From Sunshine Review
5 January 2009
The Buckeye Institute's Center for Transparent and Accountable Government has posted an online database of all Ohio State University employees making $250,000 a year or more. The database can be searched in its entirety, or by one of four groups - administrative staff, sports staff, professors, and medical staff.[1]
In total, the Institute found 154 OSU employees making over 250,000 - 111 are medical staff, 24 are administrative, 13 professors, and 6 from sports programs.[2]
[edit] Increased Transparency
Buckeye Institute President David Hansen explained the project, "Ohio State's hiring of outgoing Democrat State Rep. Joyce Beatty to a loosely defined post reportedly earning $320,000 a year piqued our interest. We discovered this type of salary, while on the extreme high end in academia, is commonplace at Ohio State."
Transparency center director Mike Maurer added, "Ohio State pays 154 employees at least $250,000 a year, with university president E. Gordon Gee topping the list at $775,000 a year. Our goal is to increase taxpayer awareness of public expenditures, including salaries. Taxpayers want a complete picture of government funding and expenditures. The Buckeye Institute will collect and provide it online in an easily accessible format."[1]
[edit] Goal
While some critics have questioned the motives of the project, Hansen answered - “The issue isn’t whether these salaries are reasonable or unreasonable. The issue is whether the public have access to them to make their own judgment about whether they’re reasonable or unreasonable.“[2] Eventually they plan to have similar databases for all state government and public school employees.
