If you work for the state and noticed that your Web browser was a bit slow Thursday afternoon (July 31, 2008), there’s probably a good reason: A think tank that frequently criticizes state spending has posted the salaries of all 263,000 state workers online.

The Empire Center’s SeeThroughNY site (http://www.seethroughny.net/) also posted teacher and superintendent contracts for all but a handful of New York’s 733 school districts, plus state contracts, pork-barrel items and the Legislature’s operating expenses.

“This has never been online before,” said Empire Center Director Edmund J. McMahon. The site drew 1,000 visitors in the first hour it was up and received 6,000 page views, or requests to look at a given Web page.

Note: This site is included in our Sites Of Interest section in the left sidebar. The site was experiencing technical problems due to extremely heavy traffic volume.