State payroll drops slightly in 2012

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Records show Ohio’s state government payroll fell to less than $3 billion in 2012 — a 3 percent drop from the previous year.

A computer analysis by The Columbus Dispatch shows that most of the top-paid nonuniversity government employees were again professionals in the Ohio Department of Mental Health.

A psychiatrist at a state psychiatric hospital in Northfield, near Cleveland, made the most at more than $335,000 last year. He was the only state employee to top $300,000 annually.

Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Trudy Sharp said he agency’s medical expenses are high because it must maintain professional care 24 hours a day, seven days a week at all six psychiatric hospitals.