Patrick Linger has chaired the 14-member Greene County Legislature through a state of emergency, a health scare that sidelined him for months, and a public fight over the county’s new poet laureate program.
A Republican representing New Baltimore’s District 1, Linger has built a reputation among colleagues on both sides of the aisle as an even-tempered consensus-builder, even as Greene County politics have grown more contentious.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Republican
- Hometown
- New Baltimore, N.Y.
- Current Position
- Chairman, Greene County Legislature; Legislator, District 1
- Background
- Emergency Medical Services worker
- In Legislature Since
- 2019
- Chairman Since
- By early 2021, reelected annually since
BACKGROUND
Little has been publicly reported about Linger’s life before politics beyond his day job. Multiple news accounts describe him as an EMS worker, a detail that has repeatedly shaped his voice on county emergency-services policy.
He represents District 1, covering the town of New Baltimore in Greene County’s northeastern corner along the Hudson River. Like most legislators here, he holds the seat as a part-time role alongside his regular job.
JOINING THE LEGISLATURE
Linger was first elected to represent District 1 and took his seat in January 2019. His colleagues elevated him to chair the 14-member body early in that first term, an unusually fast rise for a freshman legislator.
A news account from March 2021 already refers to him as “Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger,” as he publicly thanked two longtime colleagues, Bill Lawrence and Larry Gardner, ahead of their retirements from the board.
Fellow Legislator Greg Davis later credited Linger’s cross-party touch: “He works just as well with the Democrats as the Republicans,” Davis said. “You can always reach out and talk to him.”
Linger ran unopposed for reelection to the Legislature in November 2021. At the board’s January 2022 organizational meeting, colleagues reappointed him chairman through 2024, a post that carries an extra $8,400 a year.
A HEALTH CRISIS AND A RETURN
Only weeks into that new term, Linger was sidelined by a serious medical emergency. He underwent two surgeries, and a blood thinner prescribed afterward triggered a severe allergic reaction that complicated his recovery.
He later described the ordeal to the Daily Gazette in blunt terms: “That coagulated my blood, which gave me a stroke. So I had a heck of a couple of months.”
He missed nearly three months of in-person Legislature business, appearing by Zoom once, while Vice Chairman Matt Luvera and Minority Leader Harry Lennon ran day-to-day business. Linger returned in person in April 2022 and said he did not plan to miss further meetings.
CONTINUED LEADERSHIP
Linger won another term in November 2024 and was reelected chairman at the board’s January 2025 organizational meeting, when all 14 legislators were sworn in or seated for the new term.
That same month, at the board’s final 2024 session, Linger read commendations for two departing colleagues, Linda Overbaugh and Edward Bloomer. As of spring 2026, Linger continued to chair the Legislature, and Greene County’s own government directory still lists him in the role.
GREENE COUNTY LEGISLATURE, BY PARTY
PRIORITIES AS CHAIRMAN
As an EMS worker himself, Linger has been closely involved in one of the county’s thorniest debates: a years-long plan to consolidate financially distressed volunteer rescue squads across Greene County.
When the plan hit a roadblock, with town supervisors demanding a formal floor vote, Linger said he was disappointed some legislators seemed to be “plotting how to come out against it rather than trying to find a viable solution.”
He has also sparred publicly over the underlying policy, disagreeing sharply with a fellow EMS leader’s newspaper op-ed on the subject: “Matt’s entitled to his own opinion, however wrong it may be.”
Linger has also overseen an expansion of property-tax exemptions for volunteer first responders, the county’s support for its ThinkDIFFERENTLY initiative, and a new SUNY partnership placing college interns across county government offices.
Under Linger, the Legislature has held the line on property taxes through several tight budget cycles. Its $112.6 million 2021 budget kept the tax levy flat at $27.4 million even as legislators anticipated a 20 percent cut in state aid, and nine of the county’s 14 towns saw lower property tax rates that year. “Our legislators and county leaders have done an excellent job holding the line on expenses and continuing to provide essential services during a quite challenging time,” Linger said at the time.
Linger has credited the county’s conservative approach to estimating sales-tax revenue, its largest funding source, with keeping Greene County solvent through the pandemic without layoffs or service cuts. The fiscal record helped earn the county a bond-rating upgrade to Aa2 from Moody’s Investors Service, which cited strong reserves and disciplined budgeting.
Linger also guided the Legislature’s roughly $9.15 million share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, directing $2.2 million of it toward a “last mile” broadband buildout that reached about 1,400 addresses along 112 miles of previously unserved roads in the mountaintop towns of Catskill, Durham, Windham, Ashland and Prattsville. The project built on more than $18 million in earlier state broadband grants the county had secured.
When one contractor on that project, Charter Communications, ended up not needing its full ARPA allocation ahead of a federal deadline to commit the funds by the end of 2024, Linger chose to redirect the leftover money to another eligible county project rather than return it to Washington. “It was an easy choice,” he told the Schoharie News.
In May 2023, amid New York City’s push to relocate migrants upstate, Linger declared a state of emergency. He also criticized state utility mandates, saying of a Central Hudson rate increase that such commissions have “no public oversight and run rampant over residents.”
A generic ambulance — PagPol could not source a specific photo of a Greene County rescue squad vehicle.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
The Poet Laureate Controversy
Linger’s steady image was tested in spring 2026 by a fight over Greene County’s brand-new poet laureate program, created jointly with the CREATE Council on the Arts. The Legislature had named Durham poet Esther Cohen to the post that January.
In March, Legislator Michael Lanuto raised concerns in committee about posts on Cohen’s Facebook page, including one suggesting people would celebrate President Trump’s eventual death. The posts had been shared, not written, by Cohen herself.
Linger investigated and sent CREATE a letter rescinding Cohen’s appointment, writing that “the allegations are reasonably true.” Ahead of the Legislature’s unanimous vote, he said plainly that promoting violence was not something the board could support.
Fellow Republican Legislator Patty Handel went further, saying Cohen’s “values, morals, ideals don’t really fit” the county’s image. Cohen apologized for any offense, called herself a lifelong pacifist, and said she does not believe her free-speech rights were violated.
CREATE’s executive director, Stella Yoon, said the group would not name a new poet laureate until the program could be relaunched “in the coming year.” Linger said he still hoped to see the position continue once clearer guidelines were in place.
LOOKING AHEAD
Linger has not announced plans to step down from his seat or the chairmanship, and his current term runs through 2027. Greene County’s ongoing fights over emergency-services and utility costs will likely keep testing his consensus-driven style.
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