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Video: Buffalo TV station airs lengthy piece on salary paid to GCEDC CEO Steve Hyde

By Howard B. Owens
Here's WGRZ's report on the compensation paid to Steve Hyde, CEO of GCEDC.
Bob Harker

Thank you HO for providing this important video. If this wasn't NY State, I bet a state investigation of both GCEDC and the county legislature would have brought this fraud to an end.

I do, however put a lot of the blame for this sad situation on the voting public.that allows these people to remain in office.

Run, Phil, run!!!

May 14, 2013, 5:48am Permalink
Mark Potwora

Mr.Cook benefited from the GCEDC over the years so why would he say anything negative about the job Mr.Hyde is doing..I did find interesting about the companies that never lived up to the jobs they promised to create..Shouldn't that nullified their tax abatement's...COR is one of them...

May 14, 2013, 9:34am Permalink
bud prevost

I like how Scott Brown recommends I talk to my legislator, except mine sits on the very same board. How convenient.
Everything that was brought up in this piece is exactly what we all have been saying for the last few years. Kudos to WGRZ for laying it out in an understandable fashion.

May 14, 2013, 10:14am Permalink
Lincoln DeCoursey

The median private company CEO compensation is about $363k. This average is excluding the large, publicly-traded corporations whose CEOs make millions per year.

I get it that public sector workers are generally expected to work for somewhat less due to better job security and benefits (although I suspect that CEOs enjoy excellent benefits in all sectors), and because public service isn't about getting rich, but a figure of $200k is significantly less than the average and is probably reasonable.

Companies compete to attract executive talent and compensation is a major factor.

May 15, 2013, 5:31pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

A fairer comparison of CEO salaries would be comparing private companies with annual budgets under $1,000,000 (GCEDC $957,000) and staff size under 10 (GCEDC 8 ). The 363K median wouldn't hold up. Industry wide, CEO compensation averages 3.37% of the organizations budget, that would put GCEDC CEO salary at under $30,000. That's not realistic, but it is an apples for apples comparison. I'm not sure how many private companies CEO's compensation make up 25% of their budgets. For what it's worth, I am not anti-Hyde, just want to see that when comparisons are made, they are reasonable.

May 15, 2013, 6:34pm Permalink

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