Jason Garnar is a former history teacher and county legislator who unseated a Republican incumbent in 2016 to become Broome County Executive. A Democrat working with a Republican legislature for his whole tenure, he became the county’s first three-term executive in 2025. He is not on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot, and his term runs through 2028.
So who is Jason Garnar, what has he done, and what do his critics say? The record runs through a falling tax rate and a rising budget, opioid settlement money, redistricting fights, a county jail run by the sheriff, a jump in motel shelter spending, and a deadly fire at a motel the county used.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Democratic
- Hometown
- Born in Binghamton; raised in Smithville Flats, N.Y.
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in official biographies reviewed
- Current Position
- Broome County Executive; President, New York State County Executives' Association
- Background
- History and government teacher; Broome County legislator
- In Office Since
- January 2017
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Garnar was born in Binghamton and raised in Smithville Flats, and as a toddler attended SUNY Broome’s daycare while his father, Douglas Garnar, taught there, according to a SUNY Broome profile. He graduated from Greene High School, studied at SUNY Broome, where he played baseball, and earned a history degree from Binghamton University in 1999.
“The most important thing that I learned at SUNY Broome was how to actually be a responsible and successful student,” he said in that profile, calling himself an average student in high school. He has three sons, Nolan, Miles, and Ben, according to his county biography. PagPol could not confirm his date of birth in an official source.
TEACHER AND LEGISLATOR, 1999 TO 2016
After college Garnar taught history and government. He lost his first run for the County Legislature in 2004 by a narrow margin, then won a seat and served eight or nine years, according to SUNY Broome and WSKG. In 2012 he represented District 3 and sat on the Personnel and Public Safety committees.
He resigned from the Legislature in 2015 after moving out of his district, according to WNBF. In March 2016 he launched a campaign for county executive with a YouTube video, citing the thousands of jobs the county had lost in recent years.
THE 2016 RACE
Garnar challenged Republican County Executive Debbie Preston, campaigning on the heroin crisis and local corruption, according to Spectrum News. Late in the race Preston acknowledged opening a Town of Conklin credit card in her name as supervisor, which she called an October surprise.
Downtown Binghamton, the Broome County seat, in April 2013. (Photo: Andreyk7, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
On Nov. 8, 2016, Garnar beat Preston 41,022 to 34,070 in the county’s election night report with 140 of 141 districts counted, even as Republicans kept the Legislature. “We’re going to need to work together and end this partisan bickering,” he told WSKG, adding, “We’ve lost two airlines.”
THE FIRST TERM, 2017 TO 2020
Garnar took office in January 2017. That February the county sued opioid makers including Purdue Pharma. His first budget, presented that September, totaled $374.7 million. “The 2018 budget proposes an increase in taxes of 1.84 percent,” he said, according to his budget address. “For 2018, I am presenting a realistic, solid budget with no gimmicks.”
In January 2019 he launched a student entrepreneurship grant program with Binghamton University students. In February 2020 former Republican legislator Karl Bernhardsen announced a challenge. “We’re losing jobs. We’re losing businesses. Our population is declining,” Bernhardsen said. That November he won a second term, leading with 61 percent on election night before absentees were counted, according to WSKG.
THE SECOND TERM, 2021 TO 2024
In January 2022 the Republican legislature adopted a new district map on party lines. That April WBNG reported the county would receive about $1.66 million in opioid settlement money that year. “These settlements can’t bring back the people that we lost, but they can bring back funding,” Garnar said, according to WBNG.
In December 2022 the Legislature voted 9 to 5 to raise the county executive’s salary to just over $108,000, with Democrats and Republicans among the no votes. In August 2023 the county settled a lawsuit by a transgender woman over her treatment in the county jail for $160,000 and policy changes, according to the NYCLU.
In January 2024, after a court rejected the prior map, Garnar signed a redrawn legislative map despite calls for a veto. Fair Maps for Broome said it may be “drawn to advantage the majority party in the County Legislature.” “This map addresses the changes ordered by the court,” Garnar said. That November he was reelected without opposition.
Winning vote share in the most recent contested county executive race, New York counties
GarnarOther Democratic county executivesRepublican county executives
Each county executive’s share of the vote in their most recent contested general election. Garnar ran unopposed in 2024, so his figure is his 2020 election night share before absentees were counted. Several figures are rounded from unofficial or partial counts. For another upstate county executive’s record, see PagPol’s profile of Anthony Picente. Sources: county boards of elections; WSKG; WAER; Ballotpedia.
THE THIRD TERM, 2025 TO 2026
Sworn in on Jan. 1, 2025, he became the county’s first three-term executive. “No good idea has a party label,” he said. A 2025 local law set his salary at $135,000 that year and $150,000 in 2026. That October the Legislature postponed its budget vote after residents protested the sheriff’s budget and its agreement with federal immigration authorities.
In November it passed the 2026 budget, which Garnar proposed at $489.4 million, cutting the full value tax rate to $5.08 per $1,000, with Democratic Legislator Mary Kaminsky voting no. In February 2026 Garnar defended the sheriff’s limited agreement with ICE. “There’s no deputies that go out and knock on doors or anything like that,” he told WBNG.
In May he announced a plan to end the use of motels as emergency shelters. County spending on motel shelter had grown from $500,000 in 2019 to $9.5 million in 2025, according to WBNG. “Hotels and motels were never intended to solve homelessness,” he said in a county release.
The Chenango River seen from the Court Street Bridge in Binghamton, near where it meets the Susquehanna. (Photo: Rye bread92, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
On June 22 a fire at the Knights Inn in Endwell killed six people, including three young children. County social services had placed homeless residents there and paid the motel $750,000, though it was cited in every inspection for about two and a half years, according to NY Focus. A man was charged with arson and manslaughter.
Protesters camped outside the county office building for 24 days. In July Garnar accused Vestal Supervisor Maria Sexton of a “cruel, irrational and reckless effort” to clear county-placed residents from a Vestal motel. In August the sheriff ended the ICE agreement under a new state law, and in September Garnar proposed what he called an eighth straight rate cut for 2027.
THE COUNTY AND THE PARTY MATH
Broome County has 43,398 enrolled Democrats and 42,562 Republicans, according to 2026 state figures in PagPol’s Data Spine, a gap of fewer than 1,000 active voters. Republicans hold 10 of the Legislature’s 15 seats, a veto-proof majority, and all 15 seats are on the ballot this November, according to WBNG.
Garnar has worked with a Republican legislature since 2017 and describes the relationship as one of “mutual respect.” PagPol found no reported vetoes in his tenure, and he calls his budgets bipartisan. For other county executives’ records, see PagPol’s profiles of Ryan McMahon and Daniel McCoy.
LEADERSHIP ROLES
As county executive, Garnar proposes the budget, appoints department heads, and oversees county services, including the Department of Social Services, which handles emergency housing. The elected sheriff, Republican Fred Akshar, runs the county jail, though the county funds it and is self-insured against lawsuits.
Since January 2025 Garnar has also served as president of the New York State County Executives’ Association. “Counties are on the frontlines of delivering services and responding to the needs of our residents,” he said when elected. The association represents the state’s elected county executives in dealings with Albany.
WHY HE RAN AND WHAT HE BELIEVES
Garnar ran in 2016 on jobs, the heroin epidemic, and restoring integrity to the office. “People are really looking for somebody who’s going to work on those issues and roll up their sleeves,” he said that year. He frames his tenure around bipartisanship, roads, housing, and lower tax rates.
“We can make child care more affordable. We can help people stay in their homes. We keep taxes and fees down,” he said of his 2027 budget, according to Spectrum News. He has warned that “federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will shift major costs from Washington to states and counties.”
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
His committee, Friends of Jason Garnar, reported about $494,600 in receipts in its 2023 through 2026 filings, including $127,612 in 2023, $159,310 in 2024, $91,715 in 2025, and $115,974 in 2026 through July, according to state Board of Elections data on data.ny.gov. PagPol could not find his cash on hand. County races receive no public matching funds.
His largest itemized donors in those filings include Kradro Realty DSS LLC at $17,000 across two name spellings, Spark JC LLC, the developer of the Oakdale Mall redevelopment that received a county development agency tax break in 2021, at $14,700, and Broome Bituminous Products at $14,050. PagPol found no wrongdoing connected to any of those donations.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
The Knights Inn fire is the sharpest criticism of his tenure. “Not only was this a tragedy, it was predictable, and we believe an avoidable tragedy,” activist Masai Andrews said, according to Pipe Dream. Garnar has defended motel placements: “I would rather somebody be in a motel than be on the street somewhere,” he said, according to Pipe Dream.
In July, of the encampment, he said, “Especially after what happened at the Knights Inn, it’s an awful, awful thing,” while adding that “playing music for three weeks, that’s not getting everything done.” Sexton answered his attack: “Jason Garnar’s denial of the problems and refusal to assist with corrections is unacceptable,” according to Spectrum News.
A June 29 town inspection of the Vestal motel, where the county had placed about 75 people, found children sleeping on floors and in closets and no smoke or carbon monoxide detectors. Advocates have also criticized jail deaths and the growing sheriff’s budget. PagPol found no ethics complaints or criminal matters involving Garnar.
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Garnar says the county property tax rate has fallen more than 24 percent since 2018. County budget documents show the full value rate fell from $7.61 in 2018 to $5.08 in 2026, about 33 percent, while the taxable value rate fell about 12 percent and the levy itself rose about 4 percent, to $76.85 million.
Change in county property tax levy, 2021 to 2025, upstate counties
Broome CountyOther counties, increaseDecrease
Percent change in each county’s total property tax levy between fiscal years 2021 and 2025. Broome’s levy rose from about $72.6 million to $75.2 million while its tax rate fell. Bar length shows the size of the change; red bars are decreases. Source: New York State property tax levy data, compiled in PagPol’s Data Spine.
His claim that hotels “were never intended to solve homelessness” came after motel spending rose nearly twentyfold on his watch. PagPol could not verify his claim of 10,000 new jobs in five years. The county’s state fiscal stress score rose from 6.3 in 2024 to 15.8 in 2025, still undesignated and far better than the significant stress rating the county had when he took office.
An aerial view of Greater Binghamton Airport, the county-owned airport in Broome County. (Image: U.S. Geological Survey, via Wikimedia Commons)
STATE COMPTROLLER AUDITS IN THE COUNTY
A September 2026 comptroller court funds audit of Broome County’s court and trust funds found the county’s budget director, who also serves as treasurer, did not establish adequate procedures to track the money, and that reconciliations with the county clerk and Surrogate’s Court were not timely.
A 2025 audit found the Town of Windsor poorly managed a highway garage project, with bid specifications possibly altered on $1.2 million in contracts. A January 2026 audit found the treasurer of the Ouaquaga Fire Company paid 172 claims totaling $185,900 before approval.
LOOKING AHEAD
Garnar is not on the ballot this November, but all 15 Legislature seats are, along with the sheriff’s race. He has not announced plans beyond his term. “So, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, or anything in between, we’re all neighbors first,” he said. For more, visit PagPol’s Broome County page or subscribe to the Broome County newsletter.
