Steve Neuhaus has been Orange County executive since 2014, after six years as Chester town supervisor. A Navy Reserve commander who has deployed overseas while in office, he won a fourth term in November 2025, and he now faces a county Legislature led by Democrats for the first time in about 60 years.
So who is Steve Neuhaus, what has he actually done, and why did a federal judge block one of his emergency orders? The record runs through a failed attempt to sell the county nursing home, orders against migrants sent from New York City, a lost lawsuit against the state’s election calendar law, and a tax rate he has cut year after year.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Republican (also on the Conservative line)
- Hometown
- Chester, N.Y.
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in official biographies reviewed
- Current Position
- Orange County Executive
- Background
- Former Chester town supervisor; commander, U.S. Navy Reserve; former president, NYS County Executives' Association
- In Office Since
- January 2014
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Neuhaus is a lifelong Orange County resident and the son of immigrants, according to his county biography. He graduated from Monroe-Woodbury High School, taking SUNY Orange courses as a senior, then earned a history and political science degree from Mount Saint Mary College and a master’s in public administration from Marist College.
He lives with his family in Chester and describes himself as an outdoorsman and beekeeper. After the Sept. 11 attacks he enlisted in the Army National Guard and later joined the Navy Reserve, according to the state’s military affairs division. He is now a commander and is studying at the U.S. Army War College.
Neuhaus in 2012, during his six years as Chester town supervisor. (Photo: Sheryl J. Thomas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
CHESTER AND THE ROAD TO GOSHEN, 2008 TO 2013
Neuhaus served six years as Chester town supervisor before running countywide, according to his county biography. PagPol could not find his town election results. In 2011 he deployed with the Navy to North Africa, according to Spectrum News.
In 2013, with County Executive Ed Diana retiring, Neuhaus ran for the open seat as the Republican nominee. On Nov. 5 he beat Democrat Roxanne Donnery 55 percent to 44 percent, according to the Chronicle. He took office on Jan. 1, 2014, the county’s sixth executive since the office was created in 1970.
THE NURSING HOME FIGHT, 2014 TO 2016
Neuhaus’s first big push was to transfer Valley View, the county nursing home, to a local development corporation for sale. In November 2014, 12 legislators voted for the transfer, short of the supermajority required, as nine Democrats and Republican Michael Anagnostakis opposed it, according to the Chronicle.
In March 2015 the Legislature declined to stop the partial demolition of architect Paul Rudolph’s 1971 Government Center in Goshen. New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman called the plan “vandalism,” according to ArchDaily. Preservationists who wanted the whole building kept intact lost that fight.
Attorney Michael Sussman sued over Valley View, and in August 2015 an appellate panel upheld a ruling that the sale needed a two-thirds vote, keeping the home in county hands. “The people have won; corruption has lost!” Anagnostakis said, according to the Chronicle. A Neuhaus spokesman said privatizing “a major financial burden on the County made sense.”
In 2016 the county paid a developer $1.2 million to exit a stalled sale of Camp LaGuardia, a former city shelter. That year Goshen residents sued to stop Legoland. The Orange County Industrial Development Agency, a separate public authority, approved a 20-year, $87 million payment in lieu of taxes deal for the $350 million park, according to Westfair.
The courtyard of the Orange County Government Center in Goshen, designed by Paul Rudolph and partly demolished and rebuilt under Neuhaus. (Photo: Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
SECOND AND THIRD TERMS, 2017 TO 2022
In September 2017 a state comptroller’s IDA audit found the projects it reviewed had created 2,009 of 3,660 promised jobs and that it had no rules to recover tax breaks. Neuhaus’s Democratic opponent, Patrick Davis, said, “When tax-related incentives are in play, we cannot accept corruption and lack of adequate oversight,” according to the Hudson Valley Press.
Davis also said of the nursing home fight, “This is like the arsonist who sets fire to a building and comes in and saves the family and takes credit for that.” Neuhaus replied by quoting Muhammad Ali: “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” He won that November with 59 percent, according to WAMC.
From January to June 2019 Neuhaus deployed to Iraq with a special operations task force. In November 2021 he won a third term unopposed, according to News 12, and in spring 2022 he deployed to Europe with the Navy’s 6th Fleet during the Ukraine crisis.
THE MIGRANT ORDERS, 2023 TO 2024
On May 8, 2023, after New York City said it would send asylum seekers to Newburgh hotels, Neuhaus declared a state of emergency and ordered hotels not to house them. “I am opposed to these asylum seekers being sent to our communities,” he said, according to News 12.
On June 6, 2023, U.S. District Judge Nelson Román blocked the Orange and Rockland orders, finding that “the desire to exclude migrants and asylum-seekers into the community was a motivating factor.” NYCLU attorney Amy Belsher said “the Constitution does not allow you to build walls around your county limits,” according to Gothamist.
The Newburgh-Beacon Bridge over the Hudson River. New York City’s 2023 plan to house asylum seekers in Newburgh hotels set off Neuhaus’s emergency orders. (Photo: Coasterlover1994, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
The county rewrote its orders. In April 2024 Neuhaus and the county also sued to block the state law moving most county elections to even years. In July 2024 the court dismissed the NYCLU suit, finding the amended orders were not discriminatory. “My fundamental role as county executive is to protect our residents,” Neuhaus said, according to the Chronicle.
COURTS AND A FOURTH TERM, 2024 TO 2026
In December 2024 the Legislature passed his $987.8 million 2025 budget 19 to 0. In October 2025 the state’s top court upheld the even-year law in a case consolidated with his, ending his challenge, according to City & State.
That fall Sussman, the lawyer who had beaten him on Valley View, ran against him. “We are overtaxing people,” Sussman said, pointing to a county surplus, and called him a “career politician,” according to News 12. Neuhaus fired back that Sussman should “stick to defending rapists and murderers.”
On Nov. 4, 2025, Neuhaus won 39,429 to 28,613, or 57.9 percent, in unofficial results, according to the Pike County Courier. “We would not be up here without everybody supporting us,” he told News 12. Under the even-year law, the term is three years, and he next faces voters in 2028.
In December 2025 the Legislature passed his $1.05 billion 2026 budget 20 to 0, the sixth straight unanimous vote on his budgets. It cut the tax rate to $2.013 per $1,000, down from $2.142, which the county called the lowest since the 1960s. “The County’s 2026 budget once again shows steadfast stewardship of taxpayer dollars,” he said.
2026 county budgets in the Hudson Valley
Orange CountyOther Hudson Valley counties
Total 2026 county budgets in billions of dollars. Rockland and Dutchess figures are from proposed budgets. Sources: county budget documents and announcements.
The politics shifted a month later. On Jan. 6, 2026, Democrat Laurie Tautel was elected Legislature chair 11 to 10 with the vote of independent Michael Amo, giving Democrats control of the chamber. “The proof will be in the pudding on how everyone works and governs,” Neuhaus said, as quoted by Mid Hudson News.
THE COUNTY AND THE PARTY MATH
Orange County has 91,174 enrolled Democrats and 75,383 Republicans out of 251,095 voters, according to 2026 state Board of Elections figures in PagPol’s Data Spine. Yet Republicans win countywide. Donald Trump carried Orange with about 54 percent in 2024, and Neuhaus also runs on the Conservative line.
The 21-member Legislature now splits roughly evenly, with Democrats in charge through their alliance with Amo. State Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat, called it Democratic control “for the first time in the nearly 60-year history of the chamber.” The Legislature has passed Neuhaus’s budgets unanimously for six straight years.
Winning margin in the most recent county executive race, large New York counties
NeuhausDemocratic county executivesRepublican county executives
Margin in percentage points between the winner and the runner-up in each county’s most recent county executive election. Neuhaus beat Michael Sussman 39,429 to 28,613 in unofficial 2025 returns. Orange, Westchester, Onondaga, Suffolk, and Nassau figures are from unofficial or partial counts. Sources: Pike County Courier; WAER; Monroe County Board of Elections; Ballotpedia; City & State; Nassau and Westchester unofficial Board of Elections results.
WHY HE RAN AND WHAT HE BELIEVES
Neuhaus runs on taxes, open space, and emergency management. “We’ve lowered the county tax rate nine years in a row and preserved thousands of acres of open space,” he told Radio Catskill in 2025. “I believe we have much more work to do.” He cites the Jennings Creek wildfire and Highland Falls flooding as tests of his administration.
He stresses local control. “I will continue to grow the economy to keep property taxes low,” he told the Pike County Courier. “I have lived here all my life, and I believe deeply in this amazing community.” He now wants Camp LaGuardia, where housing plans failed, to become a park.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
From 2007 through 2020 his committee, Friends of Steve Neuhaus, took in about $1.49 million, including about $596,000 from individuals, $344,000 from corporations, and $526,000 from political committees, unions, and other sources, according to OpenGovNY. It spent about $1.24 million over that period.
PagPol could not retrieve his or Sussman’s 2025 filings from the state Board of Elections, and found no news reports of their totals. County races receive no public matching funds. Corporate money made up about 23 percent of Neuhaus’s monetary receipts through 2020.
Neuhaus campaign contributions by source, 2007 to 2020
Individual donorsPolitical committees, unions, and otherCorporations
Contributions to Friends of Steve Neuhaus from 2007 through 2020, by source. PagPol could not retrieve filings after 2020. Source: state Board of Elections data compiled by OpenGovNY.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
Neuhaus’s critics have focused on the nursing home, the migrant orders, and the county’s money. Sussman argued in 2025 that the county’s surplus shows taxes are too high. By Neuhaus’s own figures, the fund balance grew from $21.1 million in 2013 to about $206.7 million in 2022. “He’s lied about the numbers,” Sussman said, according to News 12.
On Camp LaGuardia, Sussman said, “We don’t need another park. We need places for our children to live.” The county has spent about $10 million on the site since buying it in 2007, according to the Times Herald-Record. PagPol found no ethics complaints or investigations of Neuhaus personally.
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Neuhaus’s tax claim holds on the rate, which fell from $2.304 per $1,000 in 2024 to $2.013 in 2026. The levy is a different measure. State data in PagPol’s Data Spine show it fell from about $135.9 million in 2021 to about $122.3 million in 2025, though the 2026 budget projected about $122.5 million in property taxes.
He calls himself a defender of local control, but he lost the election calendar suit, and a federal judge blocked his first migrant orders before the rewritten ones survived. For another county executive’s record, see PagPol’s profile of Daniel McCoy.
Change in county property tax levy, 2021 to 2025, Hudson Valley counties
Orange County (decrease)Other counties, decreaseIncrease
Percent change in each county’s total property tax levy between fiscal years 2021 and 2025. Bar length shows the size of the change; color shows whether the levy fell or rose. Orange cut its levy more than any other county shown. Source: New York State property tax levy data, compiled in PagPol’s Data Spine.
STATE COMPTROLLER AUDITS IN THE COUNTY
A 2014 comptroller social services audit of the county department, covering 2012 and 2013, before Neuhaus took office, found $562,864 at risk because contractors missed performance targets, that only 24 of 42 required provider reports were received, and discrepancies in 58 of 227 invoices worth $2.2 million. The county disputed the findings.
An October 2020 Greenville audit found the Town of Greenville’s tax collector did not turn over about $5.4 million in collections and $9,719 in penalties as required, and kept incomplete records. The county’s own outside auditor, PKF O’Connor Davies, gave its 2023 financial statements a clean opinion.
LOOKING AHEAD
Neuhaus is not on the ballot this November, and his shortened term runs through 2028. He will spend the next two years working with a Democratic-led Legislature. For more, visit PagPol’s Orange County page or subscribe to the Orange County newsletter.
