Rhode Islanders paid their city and town employees more than $1.6 billion in 2006, a Providence Journal analysis of municipal employee records shows.

Add that to the nearly $1 billion paid to state employees that same year, and the total government payroll in Rhode Island — without including the cost of benefits — tops $2.6 billion.

And that figure does not include several groups of employees:

•Those who work for independent municipal agencies, such as ones that run libraries, fire departments and sewage-treatment systems,

•Those who work for quasi-independent state agencies, such as ones that run the state airport, the Central Landfill and the Rhode Island Convention Center,

•Those who work for independent contractors, such as ones that run school buses, special education facilities and town beaches,

•Those who work in Rhode Island for the federal government.

The Journal began looking at municipal employee pay late last summer, requesting information under the state’s Access to Public Records Act. The newspaper asked for name, job description and pay information from each of the 39 cities and towns and 36 municipal school districts. Pay information includes base pay, overtime and “other” pay, such as police details, coaching stipends and education bonuses.

The Journal found great variances in how municipal workers are paid and accounted for, making direct comparisons between communities nearly impossible. While some of this results from municipalities supplying different types of information in response to The Journal’s request, much of it results from communities simply being different. Some towns have beaches, others do not; some school districts operate their own bus fleets, others contract out; some have largely volunteer, part-time governments, others have large labor forces.

But the information gathered by the newspaper provides a compelling glimpse at what Rhode Islanders spend on government employees.

In all, the 75 agencies contacted by The Journal reported paying 46,458 employees in 2006. That ranges from high-salaried, full-time workers to those who work part-time or seasonally to those who worked only a few shifts that year. Combined with state employees, total government employment was 74,811. Rhode Island’s total work force was 480,589, as estimated by the state’s Department of Labor and Training. That means more than 15 percent of the Rhode Island work force was employed by the government — roughly one out of every six people.

The combined state and municipal payroll of $2.6 billion represents more than 14 percent of the work force’s total payroll of $19.4 billion, as estimated by the state.

Based on employees’ job titles and the department for which they work, The Journal divided them into eight broad categories of government function, including schools, public safety and social programs. Because some communities provided different levels of information, not all employees could be classified.

Here’s how municipal payrolls broke down into those categories.

Schools

Of the $1.6 billion municipal payroll, the lion’s share went to schools: $1.1 billion or 65.7 percent of the total. Schools were also the largest employers, with 28,987 workers or 62.4 percent of the total.

The communities spending the greatest proportion of their payrolls on schools were: North Smithfield, 83.7 percent; Burrillville, 80 percent; and Scituate, 79.8 percent.

Those spending the least — excluding those that are part of a regional district or that send their high school students to a neighboring town — were: New Shoreham, 49 percent; Newport, 49.5 percent, and Narragansett, 56.9 percent.

Public safety

Second place by each measure went to public safety, whose payroll was $357 million, or 21.2 percent of the total, on a work force of 6,341, or 13.6 percent of the total. Public safety represented 62 percent of the non-school payroll statewide. Public safety includes police, fire, rescue and emergency-management operations in communities that have them.

The communities spending the greatest proportion of their non-school payroll on public safety were: North Providence, 74.2 percent; Johnston, 73.9 percent, and Smithfield, 70.3 percent.

Those spending the least were: Exeter (which has no police or fire department), 4.9 percent; New Shoreham, 22.8 percent; and Jamestown, 36.9 percent.

Public services

The third highest in terms of payroll was public services, at $89 million or 5.3 percent of the total. Public services includes public works functions, such as road maintenance and trash pickup; municipal utilities, such as water and sewer; and maintenance services, such as custodians of public buildings and mechanics who repair public vehicles. Public services ranked fourth in terms of number of employees, with 2,552 or 5.5 percent of the total.

The communities spending the greatest proportion of their non-school payroll on public services were: Exeter, 37.6 percent; Westerly, 33.5 percent, and Bristol, 30.5 percent.

Those spending the least were: Little Compton, 8.3 percent; North Providence, 8.5 percent, and Cranston, 9.5 percent.

Social programs

The third highest in terms of number of employees was social programs, with 4,511 or 9.7 percent of the total. Social programs includes a wide array of services, including beaches, parks, recreation, library, senior centers and welfare programs. The seasonal nature of many of those jobs results in a high number of employees, but not a high payroll. Social programs ranked fifth in terms of payroll, with $44 million or 2.6 percent of the total.

The communities spending the greatest proportion of their non-school payroll on social programs were: New Shoreham, 20.7 percent; Coventry, 18.2 percent; and South Kingstown, 16.2 percent.

Those spending the least were: Foster, 0.4 percent; West Greenwich, 1.1 percent, and Westerly 3.4 percent — Portsmouth and Richmond had no employees who could be included in this category, based on the data they supplied.

The other categories are:

•Administration, which, at $54 million, accounted for 3.2 percent of the total payroll and 5.3 percent of the employees. This includes typical “city hall” functions, such as mayors and town administrators, town clerks, tax assessors and collectors and election officials.

•Regulatory, $20 million, 1.2 percent of the payroll and 1.5 percent of the employees. This includes planning and zoning, code enforcement inspectors and municipal courts.

•Legislative, $2 million, 0.1 percent of the payroll and 0.6 percent of the employees. This includes city and town councils and their support staffs.

•Other, $11 million, 0.7 percent of the payroll and 1.2 percent of the employees. This includes people who don’t fit in the other categories as well as people who could not be classified based on the information supplied by the city, town or school district.

The gross pay for individual employees for 2006 ranged from a $3.64 payment to a school bus monitor in Little Compton, to $190,742.26, for the school superintendent in Providence.

By municipality, the state’s largest city, not surprisingly, tops the list. Providence had a payroll of $336 million, 20 percent of the total, and 7,173 employees, 15 percent of the total.

The bottom of that list is hard to define. Strictly speaking, Exeter had the lowest payroll, at about $744,000. But Exeter does not have a police force and it does not have a school department — the Exeter-West Greenwich regional school district educates Exeter children.

Excluding towns that do not have school departments, New Shoreham had the lowest payroll, at $4.38 million.

Municipal

Payroll $1,683,045,814

Employees 46,458

State

Payroll $967,492,400

Employees 28,353WHAT PAYROLLS COST CITIES AND TOWNS

SOURCE: Payroll and employees provided by cities, towns and school districts; population numbers from 2006 U.S. Census estimates.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / BILL TROBERMAN 

pparker@projo.com