MHPC Analysis: Maine Housing Salaries up 30% Since 2005

The Maine Heritage Policy Center, the parent organization of this website, released the following information regarding Maine State Housing Authority payroll trends:

Data shows 30% increase in total payroll cost in just five years

Today, MaineOpenGov.org has been updated and expanded to show five years of salary and benefits data for employees of the Maine State Housing Authority (MSHA). The data from Maine Housing was provided in response to a Freedom of Access Act request made by The Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC). The data shows that in the past five calendar years (2005 – 2010) total payroll and benefits costs of Maine State Housing Authority employees grew by 30%, from $7,119,528 in 2005 to $9,370,550 in 2010. Current MSHA Executive Director, Dale McCormick, took over as head of MSHA in 2005.

Maine State Housing Authority Total Payroll Cost 2005 – 2010

“We’re excited to add another, brand new set of payroll data to MaineOpenGov.org,” said Sam Adolphsen, Director of Open Government at MHPC. “The Maine State Housing Authority handles a great deal of public money, and is responsible for providing critical services for our most vulnerable citizens. It’s vital that their operations are transparent, and that they are accountable to taxpayers for how they spend those public funds. This is particularly important at a time when 6,500 of our fellow Mainers find themselves on the waiting list for affordable housing.”

Other key findings from the MSHA payroll data include:

• Over the same time period (2005 – 2010) Maine State Housing Authority Payrolls have more than doubled the total payroll increases at the Maine Turnpike Authority, Maine State Government and the University of Maine System total payrolls

• The number of employees earning more than $100,000 in total compensation more than doubled, from 7 employees in 2005, to 17 in 2010.

• “Administration” Payroll costs increased by 61% from 2005 to 2010.

• Payroll for “Asset Management” has jumped from $1,303,123 in 2005 to $2,090,356 in 2010, up 60% in 5 years.

This updated data release comes at a time when MSHA is being questioned for the cost of public housing projects around the state. The original Freedom of Access Act request that MHPC made asked for much more data than is currently presented on MaineOpenGov.org. MSHA has said that they cannot provide individual salary data before 2005, and they have yet to release to MHPC their vendor payments spending information.

“This data is key to helping shed a light on the operations of the Maine State Housing Authority,” said Adolphsen. “While there are still many questions to be answered about the high cost of ‘affordable’ housing projects at MSHA, this data shows very clearly that cost containment hasn’t been a strength for MSHA, at least in the past half-decade. While the payrolls have been growing at MSHA, so has the waiting list of Maine folks trying to get into affordable housing – that just isn’t right.”

Click Here to view the MSHA Payroll Data application