W. Brooke Harris is an Alfred Republican who has represented District V on the Allegany County Board of Legislators since 2018 and has served as its chairman since January 2023. He leads a 15-member board with no Democrats, and he is not on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot after winning a new term last fall.
So who is Brooke Harris, what has he done, and what do his critics say? The record runs through years as a budget committee chairman, a unanimous vote for chairman at age 44, a court fight with an ousted legislator, a vote to allow a tax cap override, and four straight years at the head of the board.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Republican
- Hometown
- Alfred, N.Y.
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in sources reviewed (age 44 in January 2023)
- Current Position
- Chairman, Allegany County Board of Legislators; District V Legislator
- Background
- Former Budget and Ways and Means committee chairman; past president, Inter-County Association of Western New York
- In Office Since
- 2018 (legislator); January 2023 (chairman)
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Harris, whose full ballot name is William Brooke Harris, is a lifelong Allegany County native and a well-known conservative Republican, according to the Wellsville Sun. His parents, Mary and George, stood beside him when he took the oath as chairman in January 2023. He lists a post office box in Alfred as his address.
PagPol could not confirm his date or place of birth, his schooling, his occupation outside government, or whether he is married or has children. PagPol found no record of military service. The Wellsville Sun reported that he was 44 years old when he became chairman and called him one of the youngest legislators to take on the role.
An aerial view of the Village of Alfred, home to Alfred University and Alfred State College, where Harris lists his address. (Photo: Martin Klingensmith, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
LEGISLATOR AND VICE CHAIRMAN, 2017 TO 2022
Harris was first elected to the three-seat District V in November 2017, and the Wellsville Sun described him as in his second term when he became chairman. The district covers Alfred, Allen, Almond, Birdsall, Burns, Grove and Granger, plus the villages of Alfred, Almond and Canaseraga.
In November 2021 he won a second term with 1,018 votes, behind Curran’s 1,092 and Burdick’s 1,019, and well ahead of challengers L. Kesse with 412 and D. Gordon with 200, according to the official results. That December the Republican caucus recommended him as vice chairman under incoming chairman Phil Stockin.
During those years Harris chaired the Budget and the Ways and Means committees and served as president of the Inter-County Association of Western New York. In 2022 he led a resolution moving $500,000 from the county’s fund balance to directly offset property taxes, according to the Wellsville Sun.
A barn with a locally made clay tile roof in the Town of Alfred, part of the farm country in Harris’s District V. (Photo: WereItNotSoSimple, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
In August 2022 the National Association of Counties named him vice chair of its Agriculture and Food Safety Subcommittee. “As families across New York State and the nation grapple with increasing costs of food, it’s more critical than ever to have a strong voice at the national level advocating on behalf of our farmers,” he said, according to the Wellsville Sun.
After the Nov. 23, 2022 board meeting, the Republican leadership caucus chose Harris as its candidate for chairman. “I am honored to receive the support of my fellow Republicans, and very thankful that legislators Demick and Havey have been tapped to assume leadership roles,” he said in a statement, according to the Wellsville Sun.
THE FIRST CHAIRMANSHIP, 2023 TO 2024
On Jan. 3, 2023, Stockin himself moved to make Harris the 12th chairman of the legislature, and the board approved it by a unanimous voice vote. “Thank you for the privilege of serving as your Chairperson,” Harris told colleagues. He praised Stockin, who had served one year after longtime chairman Curt Crandall, as “Strong, level-headed, and of the utmost integrity.”
A month later the board passed a resolution opposing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to keep enhanced federal Medicaid money from counties. “In the last five years, this is probably the single most fiscally damaging executive budget item for our county taxpayers,” Harris said, estimating a local cost of $1.2 to $1.5 million a year, according to the Wellsville Sun.
In September 2023 he proposed a new deputy post in the County Administrator’s office. “From my vantage point, Carissa needs some more help in her office,” he said, according to the Wellsville Sun, citing studies on EMS, sewers and trails. PagPol could not find whether the position was created.
On Jan. 2, 2024, Harris was sworn in for a second year as chairman, with Kevin “Fred” Demick again vice chairman and Steven Havey majority leader. The board had no minority leader because all 15 members were Republicans, the newspaper reported. In July 2024 he became vice chair of a national rural development subcommittee.
THE CYR VACANCY, 2025
On Jan. 1, 2025, District III Legislator Adam Cyr, elected in 2021, changed his address from Wirt to Andover, outside his district. The next day the board reelected Harris chairman 13 to 0, with Cyr and James Rumfelt absent, according to the meeting minutes.
That day Harris said “2024 was one of the busiest years we’ve had in recent memory,” and warned, “With big ideas and big changes come big expenses.” On Feb. 6 the board said state law and a 1993 local law made the seat vacant. “It’s disappointing that Legislator Cyr is unable to complete his full term on the Board,” Harris said, according to the Wellsville Sun.
Belmont Village Hall in Belmont, the Allegany County seat, where the Board of Legislators meets. (Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Cyr, who said the move was temporary because of home renovations, sued Harris and County Attorney Allison Carrow. On March 5 Niagara County Judge Frank Caruso dismissed the case. “We’re thankful that the Court confirmed the County’s clear determination that Mr. Cyr vacated his seat,” Harris said, according to the Wellsville Sun.
FLOODS, TAXES AND THE 2026 BUDGET, 2025
On June 6, as flooding closed roads, Harris declared a state of emergency, ordered a travel ban in Cuba and West Almond and issued a travel advisory for Almond, Friendship, New Hudson and Rushford, according to the Wellsville Sun. The emergency was lifted the next morning. On June 24 Cyr, running for county treasurer, lost the Republican primary to Deputy Treasurer Jenna Kelley, who took over 70 percent.
On Oct. 20 former Assistant District Attorney Amanda Newton sued in state Supreme Court, alleging unequal pay under state and federal law. She named five officials, including Harris, all in their official capacity, according to the Wellsville Sun. The claims are allegations, and PagPol found no ruling.
On Nov. 4, 2025, Harris won a new term without a listed opponent, finishing third in the district with 757 votes behind Burdick’s 826 and Curran’s 810, according to the county’s district results. Eight days later the board took up a local law allowing it to exceed the state’s 2 percent tax cap.
Residents spoke against the law at the Nov. 12 hearing. Harris said the county was poor and state and federal aid uncertain. “We have an obligation to the people in this county that really need our help,” he said, according to the Wellsville Sun. It passed 10 to 4, with Bessette, Curran, LaForge and Ricketts-Swales opposed.
On Dec. 17 the board unanimously adopted a $160 million budget for 2026 that raised the levy 1.83 percent, or $570,502, to $31,693,426 but cut the rate 4.45 percent to $12.2056 per $1,000, the lowest since 2004. “I hope this enacted budget demonstrates the Board’s continued commitment to lowering property taxes,” Harris said, according to WLEA.
Change in county property tax levy, 2021 to 2025
Allegany CountyNearby counties, increaseDecrease
Allegany’s levy grew less than its western neighbors’ from 2021 to 2025. Source: PagPol Data Spine, from state comptroller county property tax levy data.
A FOURTH YEAR AS CHAIRMAN, 2026
On Jan. 2, 2026, with all 15 members present, the board returned Harris to the chair for a fourth straight year by voice vote on a motion by Burdick, seconded by Stockin, according to the meeting minutes. Demick again became vice chairman. Harris named new committee leaders, including former Sheriff Rick Whitney as vice chairman of Public Safety, according to the Wellsville Sun.
On March 25 the board voted 13 to 0 against bills allowing solar and wind projects on state reforestation land. “Allegany county residents are fed up,” Harris said. “It’s simply bad legislation drummed up by a couple of self-described environmentalists that I wouldn’t trust to oversee the well-being of a house plant, let alone the State’s 800,000 forest acres.” He called it “insanity,” according to the Wellsville Sun.
He declared another flood emergency on March 31. In June Rep. Nick Langworthy announced $1.25 million in federal money for water upgrades in Belmont. Harris said it joins $4.24 million in other grants for water and sewer work from Friendship to Belmont, according to the Wellsville Sun. In July three state lawmakers thanked him at the county fair.
THE COUNTY AND THE PARTY MATH
Allegany County had 14,010 active enrolled Republicans and 5,076 Democrats among 26,905 active voters in February 2026, according to state enrollment figures in PagPol’s Data Spine. Another 6,147 voters belonged to no party. The only Democrat on the county’s 2025 legislative ballot, Sarah Trumpp in District II, finished fourth with 354 votes.
2025 general election votes, Allegany County legislators in Districts I, IV and V
Brooke HarrisOther legislators
Certified November 2025 results. None of the nine faced a Democratic opponent. Source: Allegany County Board of Elections.
Among the nine legislators from Districts I, IV and V whose 2025 totals PagPol compared, Harris ranked last, with 757 votes, according to the county’s certified results. District I’s Jennifer Ricketts-Swales led the group with 967. All nine ran without a Democratic opponent. For other county board leaders, see PagPol’s profiles of Mike Hill, Niagara County’s legislature chair, and other leaders across the state.
LEADERSHIP ROLES
As chairman, Harris appoints every legislator to the board’s committees, a power the Wellsville Sun has called perhaps the greatest that comes with the job. He also acts as the county’s chief executive in emergencies under state Executive Law, which is why his name appears on the county’s flood declarations in 2025 and 2026.
Before becoming chairman he led the Budget and Ways and Means committees. Nationally he has served as a vice chair of two National Association of Counties subcommittees. For a similar board leader to the east, see PagPol’s profile of Kevin Geraghty, chairman in Warren County.
WHY HE RAN AND WHAT HE BELIEVES
PagPol could not find a statement explaining why Harris first ran in 2017. The Wellsville Sun has described him as a fiscal conservative. “In small counties like ours, we have to go the extra mile to make sure our voices are heard in state government,” he said in August 2023 while praising two colleagues named to state association committees, according to WLEA.
His public statements stress state cost shifts, volunteer EMS and fire funding, economic development, and farmland. “It’s not the State’s money,” he said of the Medicaid funds in 2023. In 2025 he defended aid programs, asking what government is for if not to feed people, provide health care and keep the public safe.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
PagPol found no campaign committee for Harris in state Board of Elections data, and his 2025 race listed no opponent. County races receive no public matching funds. The county’s money story is its budget, which Harris has presided over since 2023 and which grew by $6.35 million for 2026.
County Administrator Carissa Knapp attributed the increase largely to personnel costs, including health insurance, retirement and contract raises, according to the Wellsville Sun. In December the board also considered $37 million in bonds toward a $45 million public works facility in Friendship. The board had already approved $8 million in bonds for the project in 2024, according to the Wellsville Sun.
Outside money has also flowed in for infrastructure. The county’s 2026 grant awards include $3 million in state Pro-Housing money, $1.25 million in federal project funding, a $740,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant and a $500,000 state infrastructure grant. Together those four awards total about $5.49 million, a sum close to the $6.35 million growth in the 2026 budget.
The Wellsville Municipal Building. Wellsville is the county’s largest village and home to the Wellsville Sun, which has covered Harris’s tenure. (Photo: Doug Kerr, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
Cyr has been Harris’s sharpest critic. “Harris hired outside counsel at the expense of taxpayers to try to remove me and now he will continue to do so,” Cyr said, according to the Wellsville Sun. His complaint called the removal political retribution. Harris said pending litigation made further comment inappropriate.
Following the ruling, Cyr said Harris and others opposed him for seeking money for volunteer EMTs and voting against a sales tax increase. After WLEA described Cyr’s move as accidental, Harris asked the station to add his view: “It is my belief that the action was intentional and permanent,” according to WLEA. The judge ruled the law was “very clear.”
The tax cap law drew its own critics. “That cap was meant to protect us. Now, when it becomes inconvenient, the Board is ready to set it aside,” columnist Clay Hulin wrote, according to the Wellsville Sun. Former Chairman Stockin backed the measure, saying many local governments pass such laws routinely.
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Harris says the board is committed to lowering property taxes. The 2026 tax rate fell to its lowest level since 2004, but the levy still rose $570,502, and the board approved a law allowing it to exceed the cap. At the hearing Harris stressed that state and federal aid were uncertain, and the Wellsville Sun summarized his case as treating the power to raise taxes as insurance.
In his 2025 address Harris said the board’s job was to keep operating “with as little burden to taxpayers as possible.” The county’s state fiscal stress score is zero, the best rating, and its total fund balance was $63.8 million, more than half of yearly spending, according to the comptroller’s fiscal stress report.
STATE COMPTROLLER AUDITS IN THE COUNTY
A November 2025 Richburg Wirt audit by the comptroller found the fire district had no investment or procurement policy or code of ethics, could not show that $36,611 in reserve transfers had been approved by resolution, and bought a $28,000 utility vehicle without bidding. A January 2026 audit found the Caneadea Fire District treasurer’s records were incomplete.
In July 2026 the comptroller found the Village of Richburg had not audited its clerk-treasurer’s records for 2023 and had not filed annual reports for 2019 through 2023. None of the audits involved county government, and the county itself received no fiscal stress designation, with a score of zero.
LOOKING AHEAD
Harris is not on the ballot this November, having begun a new legislative term in January 2026. The board’s next decisions include the 2027 budget, whether to use its tax cap authority, and the public works facility. It will choose its 2027 chairman in January. For more, visit PagPol’s Allegany County page or subscribe to the Allegany County newsletter.
