Sue Serino is a former real estate broker from Hyde Park who became Dutchess County’s ninth county executive in January 2024, after eight years as a Republican state senator. She now governs alongside a county legislature that Democrats took over in November 2025, for the first time since 2009.
So who is Sue Serino, what has she actually done, and why has she clashed with the district attorney and the legislature? The record runs through Lyme disease laws in Albany, a narrow loss to Sen. Michelle Hinchey, a hotel tax increase, budget vetoes that were overridden, a stalled youth center, and a fight over license plate cameras.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Republican (also on the Conservative line)
- Hometown
- Hyde Park, N.Y.
- Date of Birth
- Not confirmed in official biographies reviewed
- Current Position
- Dutchess County Executive
- Background
- Real estate broker; Hyde Park Town Board; Dutchess County Legislature; state senator, 2015 to 2022
- In Office Since
- January 2024
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Serino started working at 15 to help support her family, waiting tables and later managing a local diner, according to her county biography. Her Senate biography says she grew up in Dutchess County. After her son was born, she became a single mother and started an in-home childcare business.
She has one son and has lived in Hyde Park for more than 20 years. The county biography says she lost a brother to suicide. “I never forget my days as a single mom, sitting at my kitchen table trying to figure out how to pay the bills,” she said in 2026. PagPol could not confirm her birthplace, date of birth, or education.
REAL ESTATE AND LOCAL OFFICE, 1996 TO 2014
Serino entered real estate in 1996, opening an office in the City of Poughkeepsie, and moved it to Hyde Park in 2003, according to her Senate biography. In 2010 she joined the Hyde Park Town Board, and in 2011 she won a seat in the Dutchess County Legislature, where she says she opposed tax and fee increases.
A March 2014 state comptroller audit addressed to that Legislature found the county had overstated its 2011 fund balance by $19.1 million and that its airport and bus funds lost $13.6 million over three years. That November Serino unseated Democratic Sen. Terry Gipson in the 41st Senate District, 51 percent to 46 percent in unofficial results.
Hyde Park Town Hall. Serino joined the Hyde Park Town Board in 2010, a year before winning a seat in the county Legislature. (Photo: Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
THE SENATE YEARS, 2015 TO 2022
In February 2015 City & State reported that a letter to constituents listed a Green Party line she never held. Her office called it “an unfortunate clerical error.” In July 2016 her Lyme disease awareness bill, S5803A, became Chapter 167 of 2016 after passing the Senate unanimously, and that November she beat Gipson again by about 12 points.
Her elder abuse education bill, S6923, became Chapter 455 of 2016. In 2017 she pushed term limits for legislative leaders. “You don’t need to look all that hard to know that absolute power corrupts absolutely in Albany,” she said, according to her Senate office.
The Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie, part of the Mid-Hudson district Serino represented in the state Senate from 2015 to 2022. (Photo: dtobias, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Her Lyme disease working group bill, S7170A, became Chapter 337 of 2018 in November, the month she beat Democrat Karen Smythe by a few hundred votes once absentees were counted, according to Patch. When Democrats took the Senate in 2019, she voted against the Reproductive Health Act, which passed 38 to 24, the state’s red flag gun law, and the climate law, according to the Senate record.
In November 2020 she beat Smythe in a rematch, and Smythe conceded. In December she became vice chair of the Senate Republican conference. Redistricting in 2022 put her in the same district as Democratic Sen. Michelle Hinchey, who won 74,373 to 66,735, according to certified 2022 results. “It’s just a very different situation with the redistricting, but I’m not a quitter,” Serino said.
THE RACE FOR COUNTY EXECUTIVE, 2023
In January 2023 Serino took a part-time job at the county Office for the Aging and announced a run for the seat Marc Molinaro had left for Congress, then held by his former deputy, William F.X. O’Neil. “It is about jobs and helping the economy. Helping our small businesses,” she told Mid Hudson News. Republicans backed her unanimously that February.
She reported raising more than $250,000 that July, a record for a Dutchess county executive candidate’s July filing, according to the Hudson Valley Press. Her Democratic opponent, Marist professor and Navy veteran Tommy Zurhellen, said she “has accepted thousands” from corporate lobbyists and the ultra-wealthy.
On Nov. 7, 2023, Serino beat Zurhellen 35,743 to 29,596 in election night results, running ahead of the Republican candidate for district attorney, who lost. “It’s a humbling feeling, and I just can’t wait to get to work,” she told WAMC. Weeks later the Legislature raised the county executive’s salary about 18 percent, to about $185,000.
Winning vote share in the most recent county executive race, New York counties
SerinoDemocratic county executivesOther Republican county executives
Each county executive’s share of the vote in their most recent general election. Serino’s figure is from election night results, 35,743 to 29,596. She reported raising more than $100,000 in her first six weeks and more than $250,000 by the July 2023 filing. Several figures are rounded from unofficial or partial counts. Sources: county boards of elections; WAER; Pike County Courier; Ballotpedia.
THE FIRST YEARS, 2024 TO 2025
Serino took office in January 2024. In April the county, its Legislature, and Serino sued the state to block the law moving most county elections to even years. In June the Senate passed Sen. Rob Rolison’s bill letting Dutchess raise its hotel and short-term rental tax from 4 percent to 5 percent, 41 to 18, and it became Chapter 523 of 2024 that November.
Her first budget, adopted 23 to 2 in December 2024, cut the property tax rate to $2.17 per $1,000 and put $2 million into emergency medical services. In June 2025 Comptroller Dan Aymar-Blair said a planned Poughkeepsie youth center had stalled. “We have nothing to show for it,” he told News 12.
Dutchess County property tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value
Earlier budgets2026 budget
County property tax rate set in each year’s adopted budget. The rate fell each year, but the proposed levy rose from about $100.9 million for 2025 to about $106 million for 2026. Source: Dutchess County budget documents.
In August 2025 Mid Hudson News reported a pay-to-play allegation over a consulting contract, capped at $75,000, for a firm owned by Barbara Citarella, who had given more than $4,100 to Serino’s campaigns. “The county followed its established procurement policy,” a county spokeswoman said, according to Mid Hudson News. No formal complaint was reported.
In October 2025 the state’s top court upheld the even-year law 7 to 0. Serino cut the youth center to a $26.1 million building with no pool and proposed a $651.4 million 2026 budget that lowered the tax rate to $2.10 but would have ended the sales tax exemption on clothing under $110. Democratic leader Yvette Valdés Smith said the change “will disproportionately hurt working families.”
A DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATURE, 2025 TO 2026
On Nov. 4, 2025, Democrats won 15 of the Legislature’s 25 seats. In December the outgoing Republican majority adopted a $653.6 million budget, 15 to 9, and added five prosecutor positions. Serino vetoed three, saying, “I have vetoed the amendments that used one-time revenue to pay for ongoing, recurring costs,” according to the county’s veto announcement.
District Attorney Anthony Parisi, a Democrat, said the vetoes “weaken our ability to prosecute violent crime.” The Legislature overrode them on Dec. 17. In January 2026 Valdés Smith became chair, leading the Legislature’s first Democratic majority since 2009. In March Serino reached a four-year contract with the county’s largest union, with raises of 3.25 percent a year.
The City of Poughkeepsie, the Dutchess County seat, seen from the Poughkeepsie Bridge. (Photo: Juliancolton, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
In September 2026 the district attorney and sheriff switched off 65 license plate cameras after residents objected. The Legislature unanimously voted to cover the remaining cameras, but Serino did not sign the resolution, citing liability. “Rather than sign the resolution, the County Executive chose to delay it,” said Democratic Legislator Chris Drago, according to the Millerton News.
THE COUNTY AND THE PARTY MATH
Dutchess has 74,714 enrolled Democrats and 56,019 Republicans out of 204,858 voters, according to 2026 state figures in PagPol’s Data Spine. Kamala Harris carried it 79,994 to 71,778 in 2024, according to the county Board of Elections, yet Republicans have held the county executive post since 1991.
Democrats’ 15 seats fall short of the 17 needed to override her vetoes on their own. Democrats also hold the district attorney and comptroller offices, while Republican Kirk Imperati is sheriff. Serino is not on the ballot this year; under the even-year law, the next county executive race in 2027 is for a three-year term.
2026 county budgets in the Hudson Valley
Dutchess CountyOther Hudson Valley counties
Total adopted 2026 county budgets in billions of dollars. Dutchess adopted a $653.6 million budget in December 2025, slightly above Serino’s $651.4 million proposal. Sources: county budget documents and announcements.
WHY SHE RAN AND WHAT SHE BELIEVES
Serino ran on affordability, public safety, and continuing Molinaro’s work. “I know what a special place Dutchess County is, and we need a leader who will continue to put the residents first,” she said in 2023, according to NY1. She calls herself a fiscal conservative.
Her priorities as county executive include public safety, mental health, small business, childcare, food insecurity, and housing. Her Housing Trust Fund has awarded $12.3 million for about 370 homes, and her supplemental ambulance service answered about 3,000 calls by early 2026, according to her State of the County address.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Serino raised more than $100,000 in the first six weeks of her 2023 campaign and more than $250,000 by July, according to the Hudson Valley Press. PagPol could not retrieve her full 2023 totals or her current cash on hand from the state Board of Elections. County races receive no public matching funds.
Zurhellen’s campaign cited a gap in money when it conceded, saying he had “neither the name recognition nor finances” of Serino. PagPol could not find his totals. Citarella, whose firm later received a county consulting contract, is the only individual donor named in coverage PagPol reviewed.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
Beyond the consulting contract and the vetoes, the youth center has drawn the most criticism. “Another broken promise to the City of Poughkeepsie,” said Mayor Yvonne Flowers, a Democrat. About $4.5 million had been spent on demolition and design before the project was cut back. Serino said it was stalled but not dead.
As a senator, she sought to impound absentee ballots before the 2020 count, a petition later dismissed as moot. In 2022 Hinchey said of their records, “We had both taken the same votes over the last two years, right? It’s not hypothetical.” PagPol found no ethics findings against Serino.
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Serino’s tax claim holds on the property tax rate, which fell each year she has been in office. But she raised the hotel tax from 4 to 5 percent and proposed ending the clothing tax break, which Democrats called a hidden tax increase, and her proposed levy rose from about $100.9 million for 2025 to about $106 million for 2026.
She campaigns on public safety, yet she vetoed prosecutor positions and resisted covering license plate cameras. The county ended 2024 with a $31.6 million surplus and $104 million in unassigned reserves. For other county executives’ records, see PagPol’s profiles of Ryan McMahon and Daniel McCoy.
STATE COMPTROLLER AUDITS IN THE COUNTY
An August 2024 comptroller contract monitoring audit found county departments approved about $4.5 million in claims without required progress reports and that one contract ran $215,395 over its agreed amount. The audit covered 2021 and 2022, before Serino took office, and county officials agreed with it.
In September 2026 the comptroller designated no county as fiscally stressed, but listed the City of Poughkeepsie in moderate stress and the Town of La Grange as susceptible to stress, according to a fiscal stress release. Several Dutchess towns, including Hyde Park, did not file reports in time to be scored.
The Hudson River at the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site in Hyde Park, Serino’s hometown. (Photo: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
LOOKING AHEAD
Serino is not on the ballot this November and has not announced whether she will seek the three-year term on the ballot in 2027. She will spend the coming year negotiating with a Democratic Legislature. For more, visit PagPol’s Dutchess County page or subscribe to the Dutchess County newsletter.
