Maggie Brooks
Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks has earned a reputation as a dedicated and respected leader since being sworn in as Monroe County’s fifth County Executive on January 1, 2004. She is the first woman to lead the County of Monroe since its establishment in 1821, garnering a decisive 65 percent of the vote in her first election. Well-known for her fiscally responsible leadership and commitment to best serving the interests of local taxpayers, she was re-elected to a second term in 2007 by a resounding 74 percent of the vote — the largest margin of victory by a candidate for Monroe County Executive in history
As County Executive, Maggie is the chief executive officer for Monroe County, a chartered county government with an annual operating budget of $932 Million, a workforce of nearly 4,500 employees, and a population of 744,000. Maggie oversees a broad range of governmental operations which affect the safety, health, and general wellbeing of the local community and its residents.
Upon taking office as County Executive in 2004, Maggie made putting taxpayers first her Administration’s overall top priority. Due to her long-standing commitment to fiscal-responsibility, Maggie’s first three Monroe County Budgets all held the line on overall spending and kept the property tax rate flat. Her fourth budget lifted the burden of Medicaid from the shoulders of County property taxpayers and maintained quality of life services, while actually reducing the property tax rate. The 2009 Monroe County budget maintained the previous year’s property tax rate cut, even in the face of a deepening national economic downturn. Maggie’s 2010 and 2011 budgets also froze the property tax rate and held discretionary spending below the rate of inflation, all while responsibly-funding quality of life services.
As a result of Maggie’s efforts to protect taxpayers, Monroe County is one of only four of New York State’s 62 constituent counties that have not raised their property tax rates since 2004. Of its comparable peer counties, Monroe County is the only to have not raised its property tax rate over the time Maggie has served as County Executive.
Another of Maggie’s top priorities has been strengthening the local economy through job creation. Under her leadership, Monroe County has assisted nearly 1,000 local businesses to set up shop or expand their operations locally. Those projects have resulted in $2.8 Billion in new investment, the creation of nearly 15,000 local jobs and the retention of almost 65,000 jobs in Monroe County. Together, that amounts to approximately 80,000 local jobs, equating to roughly one in every five jobs held in Monroe County in 2011.
Maggie has made “thinking green” a priority in her Administration and continues to work to ensure that our community has a greener and more sustainable future. Maggie’s sustainability strategy has included: launching Green Fleet, a promise that all county fleet vehicles would utilize alternative fuels or hybrid technologies by the end of 2012; the establishment of a state-of-the-art green energy bio-fuel power plant at the Mill Seat Landfill; and a green building design requirement for all newly-constructed county facilities, which is tailored to comply with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED) standards.
Maggie is currently President of both the New York State Association of County Executives and the County Executives of America organizations.
Maggie resides in the Town of Webster with her husband Robert Wiesner and is the mother to two daughters, Julia and Jensen. She is a graduate of Ithaca College.
For more information about Maggie's campaign, please visit her website: www.maggiebrooks.com
