Overtime for Nassau, Suffolk workers surges to $74M above budget

Nassau and Suffolk once again spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars more on overtime than budgeted for county employees last year, with some staffers making three times their regular salaries in overtime alone, a Newsday analysis found. 

The findings continue a three-year pattern seen in Long Island’s county governments where budgeted overtime exceeds what county executives, who are charged with crafting budgets, planned to spend.

Despite the consistency, the Island's county executives or several county legislators did not explain to Newsday what the root cause of the issue is. Suffolk County's nonpartisan Budget Review Office referred questions to the county executive's office.

Payroll data in 2025, for instance, showed Nassau and Suffolk each doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in overtime on top of about  $900 million in salaries, surpassing their budgets by $47.3 million and $26.3 million, respectively. In 2024, Nassau saw record overtime spending, exceeding its budget by $68.7 million, up from $49.1 million in 2023. Suffolk’s overtime went past its budget by $22.9 million in 2024, and $11.8 million in 2023.

Taken together, the two county governments over three years spent a combined $856 million in overtime, about $226 million more than expected to be spent — an increase of nearly 36%.

The practice raises questions from researchers about why county spending plans don’t reflect actual spending. Several experts told Newsday that letting overtime surpass projections is easier than raising taxes, hiring more people or angering unions in an election year.

By underbudgeting for expenses, you can effectively run a deficit and deal with the consequences later. ... It’s not corrupt, but it is bad governance.

— David Schleicher,  Yale Law School professor specializing in local government finance

The result? Officials are sometimes pushed to take on debt or borrow from reserve funds to pay for daily operations. They say it's cheaper to pay people overtime than hire more employees. 

Among Newsday’s findings:

• Suffolk County Deputy Sheriff John Schultz, who joined the department in 1998, earned the highest overtime payout in county history at $309,139, according to Newsday records. His total salary for 2025 was $450,835.
• Long Island’s police and correction departments spent the most on overtime, but other agencies such as public works also dished out considerable sums.
• In Nassau, spokesman Chris Boyle said the county went $36 million over budget on overtime, but Nassau’s financial oversight group put the number at $47 million.
• More than 80% of Nassau’s $134 million in overtime spending went to employees in the police, correction and probation departments. Nassau’s more than 3,000 police and correction officers made an average of $22,181 in overtime last year.
• Outside law enforcement, among the top paid employees in Nassau were Vincent Cimmino, a greenskeeper in the Parks Department who took home $179,956 in overtime last year on top of his $102,587 base pay; Richard Cardozo, a golf course manager in the Parks Department, who made $85,555 in overtime and $111,221 in base pay; and Michael Agostinacchio, another groundskeeper, who was paid $121,000 in base pay and made more than $119,000 in overtime. Cimmino and Agostinacchio are two of Nassau’s 12 full-time greenskeepers. The other 10 made an average of $11,500 in overtime.
• Robert Waring, the former acting commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department, was the top paid Suffolk employee, earning a total of $727,087. Waring, who spent 39 years in the department, received $524,808 in termination pay on top of a $152,460 salary and $7,826 in overtime.
• Officially, Suffolk’s budget records show the county went 4% over budget on overtime. But the county actually overspent by 20% when factoring in so-called special holiday pay for police officers and grant money that funds overtime, according to the Suffolk County Budget Review Office. Special holiday pay refers to time and a half officers receive for working a paid holiday.
• The top eight overtime earners in Suffolk were all deputy sheriffs who earned between $227,255 and $309,139 in overtime. The top four earned more than double their base salary in overtime and earned total salaries that outpaced the county executive’s pay of $249,685.

"There are certain titles in civil service that require specific job skills, and therefore there are only a few people who can do the work. Our experience is that it is cheaper to pay overtime than to hire additional employees," Boyle, a spokesman for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, wrote in a statement to Newsday.

But Anthony Basile, a professor at Hofstra University specializing in forensic accounting, didn’t buy it.

Double-digit splurging on overtime is a sign that counties are not crafting their annual budgets based on spending patterns from the previous year, he said, adding, they’re "budgeting wrong."

"It becomes a vicious cycle. They don’t hire enough people. And when they don’t have enough people ... they need to ask the people who are there for overtime," Basile said. When people make lots of overtime year after year, they grow to expect it, he added.

Blakeman — who as the county’s top administrator crafts the budget — said in a statement the county makes "budgetary adjustments which gave Nassau County taxpayers their fourth budget surplus in a row," meaning the county’s revenue last year exceeded its expenses. 

Newsday sent Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine's press office specific questions related to the salaries and payroll over several weeks and did not get a response.

Suffolk Legis. Steven Flotteron (R-Brightwaters), chairman of the Budget & Finance Committee, said in an interview that overtime is often unpredictable for police and departments like public works when responding to storms. During the budgeting process, department heads submit line-by-line requests, which includes overtime, he said. He said lawmakers can challenge departments if the numbers look "way off."

He pointed to several bond rating upgrades the county has received as evidence of the county's responsible long-term budgeting.

It always becomes an issue, but we’re trying to keep hiring at pace with the services that are needed through all the departments.

— Suffolk Presiding Officer Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holbrook)

Newsday made several attempts to reach Cimmino, Cardozo and Agostinacchio. Those attempts to ask what sparked the high overtime numbers were not successful.

Kris Kalender, president of Nassau’s largest labor union, CSEA Local 830, which represents the three men, said the exorbitant overtime comes down to staffing issues.

"These overtime numbers didn’t happen by accident. For years, the union, our members, and even department heads have warned about vacancies, staffing shortages, and the need to fill critical positions," Kalender wrote in a statement. "Our members are left carrying the workload while hiring and promotions move at a pace that simply doesn’t match operational reality ... The result is predictable: Fewer employees doing the same amount of work and increasing reliance on overtime to keep services running."

The Nassau County Police Benevolent Association endorsed Blakeman for county executive last November. CSEA did not make an endorsement in the race. The Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association endorsed Romaine in 2023, as did the Suffolk Association of Municipal Employees, the county's largest municipal union. 

'Bad governance'

The cycle of overspending is par for the course for politicians, said David Schleicher, a professor at Yale Law School specializing in local government finance.

"Balancing your budget requires either raising your taxes or cutting what you promised," he said. "By underbudgeting for expenses, you can effectively run a deficit and deal with the consequences later. ... It’s not corrupt, but it is bad governance."

Abdullah Ar Rafee, a data manager at the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank, said while an increase in overtime during COVID-19 — which included emergency response shifts, sick employees and the George Floyd protests — made sense, the practice has become irresponsible.

Now, "they should be doing a better job of hiring more full-time workers rather than raising overtime year over year," Ar Rafee said.

Counties can pay for overtime in two ways, he said — by raising property taxes, which gets pushback from voters, or by borrowing money. Generally, "they have to pay their employees no matter what. ... When push comes to shove, they have to take on debt," he said.

Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holbrook), Suffolk's presiding officer, said overtime "is always a concern" for lawmakers during the budgeting process. He said addressing overtime is best done through contract negotiations, while acknowledging "every department is different."

He said while legislators strive to work with department heads to keep overtime within reason, "sometimes you can’t."

"It always becomes an issue, but we’re trying to keep hiring at pace with the services that are needed through all the departments," he said.

Nassau’s top overtime earners

A police horse caretaker, a golf course manager and a mechanic. These Nassau employees were among the top overtime earners who brought home tens of thousands of dollars more last year.

The county’s top overtime earner was Richard Hamilton, a mechanic in the Correction Department who made $199,814 in overtime, exceeding his base pay of $111,221. Jose Hernandez, a police medic pulled in $180,205 in overtime on top of his $120,621 salary, according to the analysis.

Jessica Domashevich, a police hostler — whose job is to feed and care for police horses — made almost $99,000 in overtime, bringing her total pay to nearly $206,000. Patricia Oswald, another hostler, made nearly $70,000 in overtime.

Two museum attendants, who also fall under the Parks Department, made tens of thousands in overtime pay. A cashier in the county’s Traffic & Parking Violations Agency made more than $17,000 in overtime.

In the Social Services department, nearly 150 social welfare examiners — who determine eligibility for food stamps, medical and cash assistance — brought home as much as $80,000 in overtime, with some of them almost doubling their base salaries, which average $61,000.

Newsday could not reach Hamilton, Hernandez, Domashevich or Oswald for comment asking what caused them to work beyond their regular hours.

‘Monstrous overtime hours’

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office had the largest year-to-year increase in payroll among county departments, an increase officials said was driven by new hires to fill vacancies. The department payroll increased by $21 million, from $185.19 million in 2024 to $206.2 million in 2025.

Overtime spending at the agency in 2025 totaled $59.16 million.

Tom Bivona, president of the Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs PBA, said staffing issues and additional workload have contributed to high overtime. The county budgeted for 30 additional positions last year to address the shortage. Those deputy sheriffs were hired in August and graduated in March so their impact on overtime won’t be seen until around June, he said.

He said overtime shifts for deputy sheriffs do not go by seniority. Instead, the sheriffs who have worked the fewest number of overtime hours are asked first.

"These people who have these monstrous overtime hours and pay are literally the last people that can be asked to work on our job," he said.

The union’s contract expired at the end of 2024 and negotiations continue for a new deal. Bivona said the county is seeking to address "in some fashion" concerns about deputy sheriffs taking on too many hours as part of negotiations.

The Suffolk County Police Department spent $78.9 million on overtime.

"There’s a lot going on and you need police coverage and the contract says that you got to pay them overtime and holiday pay and things like that," Piccirillo said. "If they’re working on those days and they’re not home with their families, that’s what they get paid."

Excessive overtime can pose risks in law enforcement, U.S. Department of Justice research has shown, with fatigue a contributing factor to officer-involved shootings and vehicle crashes with police cars. Bivona said historically it hasn’t been a concern for deputy sheriffs but now “it’s at that point where there’s an argument to be made” to examine the issue more closely.

In the last three years combined, overtime helped push his pay to $1.26 million. Schultz and four other top overtime earners declined to comment.

Five of the top 20 overtime earners in Suffolk for 2025 were correction officers in the sheriff’s office earning between $176,782 and $217,301 in addition to base pay. Louis Viscusi, president of the Suffolk County Correction Officers Association, said the numbers of correction officers climbed from 869 to just over 900 after the union reached a new contract with the county last year. That figure includes 35 officers who will graduate in June.

He estimated getting to full staffing will take about two years.

Overtime for correction officers is assigned by seniority. But forced overtime — when there are no volunteers for a shift — goes to junior officers, he said.

"I can’t wait until we can get proper staffing so my people can stop getting forced for overtime 16 hours and missing out on events with their family," he said.

Most overtime is when an officer picks up an additional eight-hour shift, he said.

Ken Girardin, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, said police leadership, county executives and lawmakers should be examining overtime closely.

He said the question is whether there are "basic overtime controls" in place, which person in the command chain is notified when an employee works beyond a certain threshold in a week and who is looking at "why there are deviations from their expected levels of overtime and what those causes were."

"The combination of the overtime rules and the pension system creates an incentive for people to work beyond what would otherwise be considered normal or acceptable," he said.

An additional class of 60 correction officers is scheduled to graduate in January. A full complement of officers would be 982, so the department is still short, he said.

Both union presidents said they would prefer to see less overtime. Viscusi said he’s seen a generational shift in younger officers who prefer a better work-life balance rather than picking up as much overtime as available.

Girardin said any overtime policy done by seniority is "essentially requiring the most expensive people to get offered overtime first."

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office’s payroll increased by $6.9 million, with an additional 62 employees in the year-to-year comparison. Jed Painter, general counsel for the office, said grant offsets through state and federal programs help balance those increases.

"We are very good at grants," he said. "A lot of the growth you’re going to see in the budget, it looks like we’re going up but the offset has gone up incredibly as well."

The district attorney’s office has been steadily adding staff in recent years, with about 76% toward civil service professionals, according to a 2025 annual report.

The district attorney’s office has added paralegals, analysts, expediters and crime victim advocates. Several grants allowed the office to add crime victim advocates last year, according to the annual report.

‘Struggling to keep up’

Why are governments spending so much on overtime?

A report on Suffolk’s 2026 operating budget said increasing overtime is a function of "a high rate of employee turnover, increasing workload, and negotiated pay increases," repeating verbatim the description used in several prior year reports on overtime.

"The County historically underbudgets overtime," the report said, a practice that predates the current administration based on earlier budget reports.

The county’s cost for its workforce is "projected to grow significantly," according to the report, due to the number of employees increasing, settled contracts with police unions and rising costs of health insurance benefits.

Suffolk remains in contract negotiations with its largest municipal union, AME. The union’s contract expired at the end of 2024.

Terry Maccarrone, the union president, attended several county legislature committee meetings in recent months to bring attention to recruitment and retention problems driven by stagnant salaries. Several county department heads also cited low salaries as reasons for recruitment and retention problems during meetings last fall with lawmakers.

A report on Suffolk’s 2026 operating budget said that increasing overtime is a function of "a high rate of employee turnover, increasing workload, and negotiated pay increases," repeating verbatim the description used in several prior year reports on overtime.

Maccarrone cited sewage treatment plant workers and CDL drivers as examples of municipal workers who are trained by the county and leave for other municipalities that can pay more.

"We have become the training grounds for other municipalities," he said.

Andrew Berry, who works a civilian law enforcement job as a probation assistant, submitted testimony to the legislature saying employees in the county "that are responsible for maintaining vital services and infrastructure" have been "forgotten for too long." His employment began in 2010 and he earned $68,045 last year, including $151 in overtime.

Nicolas Meyers, a public health inspector hired in 2017, and Kevin Mathers, an associate civil engineer hired in 2005, both spoke at committee meetings to push for higher wages.

Meyers earned $70,902 base salary last year plus $21,126 in overtime while Mathers earned $136,062 and no overtime, according to payroll records.

Mathers said he purchased a "modest foreclosure" home in 2015 and is "struggling to keep up."

Mathers told lawmakers, "My cost of living has far outpaced my salary."