Byrne faces opposition for second term
Kevin Byrne’s second campaign for Putnam County executive is tougher than the first.
The former state Assembly member ran unopposed for his first 4-year term in 2022. This year, the Republican faces two challengers. Brett Yarris, a special education teacher, is running on the Democratic and Working Families lines. Tatiana Brahimi, an activist who has railed at school board meetings and on Facebook against critical race theory, undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ books in schools, will carry the Conservative Party line.
Losing the Conservative endorsement he got in 2022 could prove costly for Byrne. In the last election, the ballot line accounted for 681 of his 5,075 votes, or 13 percent. This year he also faces a Democratic opponent in an election where the party’s voters are expected to swarm the polls, driven by antipathy toward President Donald Trump and his policies, and a desire to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler, whose district includes all of Putnam County.
After the Conservatives declined to endorse him, and wanting a second mention on the ballot, Byrne angered the Libertarian Party of Putnam & Westchester by collecting enough signatures to take its line. A mailer distributed by the chapter explains that Yarris is its candidate.
On Sept. 30, each candidate took part in a debate hosted by The Putnam County Press & Times at the Mahopac Public Library. Kathy Meany, president of the League of Women Voters of Northwest Westchester County, moderated the 78-minute discussion; a transcription created by The Current is posted here.
Below are two key issues discussed. Other topics included economic development, union contracts, farms and open spaces, management experience, mental health services, emergency services and renewable energy.
Taxes and spending
Putnam ended 2024 with $191 million in surplus, including $84.7 million assigned to specific purposes and $78.3 million in unrestricted reserves.
Brahimi and Yarris, who is seeking to become Putnam’s first Democratic executive since 1986, criticized the sizable savings, accusing the county of hoarding. “We need to take some of that money and actually invest it back into the people,” said Yarris.
Byrne has reduced the county’s tax rate each year and shaved $1 million from the tax levy for 2026. He has proposed a much larger levy cut, $6.5 million, for 2027 and said he wants to make permanent a temporary exemption from the county’s 4 percent sales tax that applies to clothing and shoes costing less than $110.
He asked legislators to use surplus funds to increase the annual revenue shared with the county’s six towns and three villages from $2.3 million to $6.5 million. “What you can do is spend it responsibly, provide tax relief, plan for future tax cuts, which we have done,” Byrne said.
Brahimi said she would cut Putnam’s sales tax and return reserve funds to taxpayers. “There’s no reason that government should have so much money stashed away,” she said. “This is over-taxation, and it deserves to be going back to those who worked hard for it.”
Some residents, according to Yarris, find Putnam unaffordable, even though the county has the third-highest annual median income in the state ($126,257) as of 2024, according to federal data. During the debate, he cited United Way data that estimates that about a third of Putnam households earn less than the cost of living.
Yarris said his platform, the Putnam Possible Project, is based on cutting taxes and “investing in economic engines that will bring down the cost of living.” One of those engines, he said, would be a community college. The idea has been discussed before: In the 1980s, a business group, the Putnam Alliance, concluded it would be costly to build and maintain. Putnam budgets about $4 million annually for residents to attend two-year schools in other counties.
Byrne said Putnam already has “great partnerships” with neighboring community colleges in Dutchess and Westchester counties. According to Yarris, however, “counties in New York that have a community college see about $8 to $10 back into the pockets of taxpayers and the local economies for every dollar invested.”
Immigration
A state law enacted in May bars police agencies from entering into agreements to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is at the forefront of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Yarris noted that the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office was not one of the 12 agencies that had to end agreements with ICE. Based on conversations with Sheriff’s Office officials, he said, “They don’t intend to change that policy.”
According to Byrne, Putnam “will continue to share information and support federal law enforcement, including ICE.” Brahimi said she is married to a “legal immigrant” and would “roll out the red carpet” for the agency.
“I will stand by their side, hold their hand and give them everything that they desire and need to ensure that every illegal in Putnam County is deported,” she said.
