Photos provided courtesy of the campaigns.
As voters in Dutchess County prepare for the upcoming election, they face a choice between two candidates vying for the comptroller’s office — each offering distinct visions for the future of county finances. The comptroller serves as the county’s financial watchdog, responsible for overseeing financial operations, conducting audits and ensuring that taxpayer money is managed efficiently. The position comes with a salary of $119,330.
Gregg Pulver, whose campaign frequently highlights his agricultural roots, earned an agribusiness degree from SUNY Cobleskill and worked on his family’s farm in Pine Plains. He later transitioned to public service, spending over two decades in government, including six years on the Pine Plains School Board, 12 years as Pine Plains town supervisor and 10 years in the Dutchess County Legislature — six of those as chairman. Pulver is now seeking to retain the comptroller seat he was appointed to in December 2023.
“A couple of years ago, if you had asked me whether we need the comptroller’s office, I might have had a different answer,” Pulver told the Herald in a recent interview. “But having been in this seat now for almost a year, I see the value of this. We may not necessarily be policy makers, but I think we can give information to the public to give them a significant view of county government.”
After losing his re-election bid for the Legislature in November 2023, Pulver was appointed by then-county executive William F.X. O’Neil, a Republican, who had himself been appointed after Marc Molinaro vacated the seat after being elected to represent New York’s 18th Congressional District. Pulver’s appointment followed the resignation of Robin Lois, who left to take a state role as deputy comptroller for local government and school accountability.
Pulver’s challenger, Democrat Dan Aymar-Blair, who manages special education operations for the New York City Department of Education, has served on the Beacon City Council since 2019. A sixth-generation New Yorker, Aymar-Blair comes from a family with deep roots in the state, tracing back to before the Civil War. His family came from Quebec to work in the mills in Cohoes, and his father was one of the last to captain a commercial ship on the Erie Canal.
In his bid for comptroller, Aymar-Blair draws on extensive experience in both the private and public sectors of finance. “I have the experience to do the job. I’ve spent my entire career working in finance, working in numbers,” Aymar-Blair said in a recent interview with the Herald. “I have 20 years of experience managing government budgets and everything that comes along with it.”
After earning a degree in political science from George Washington University, he worked at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley before transitioning to public finance and serving as the Senior Executive Director of Operations for the New York City Department of Education. One of his concerns is the county’s dependency on sales tax revenues, which he sees as a vulnerability in economic downturns. “If we’re over-reliant on sales taxes — which shrink first when you move into an economic downturn — what’s the plan for the county budget if we’re moving into a bad patch?” he asked.
The Beacon councilmember is positioning himself as a candidate for accountability. “I’m running for Dutchess County comptroller because our budget exceeds $600 million, and when I go around the county, not many folks can tell me what they’re getting for that,” he said. “We need a better conversation about our spending priorities and levels.”
Aymar-Blair also said he is committed to public engagement and transparency. “For me, as comptroller, it won’t be enough to just do an audit and post a report on social media,” he said. “I’m absolutely committed to taking the findings of my office out to the people.” His plan includes attending county events and fostering open conversations with residents about the budget.
Pulver, who has held the comptroller’s office for nine months, leans on his record of public service and tenure in various county roles. “I think I am the most qualified person to be comptroller in Dutchess County right now,” Pulver told the Herald. He emphasized the county’s fiscal health, highlighting Dutchess County’s AA+ bond rating. “Our year-end financial audit…compares us to several other peer counties, and we are certainly at the top of the heap,” Pulver said, stressing that the county’s financial standing is strong.
Pulver too prides himself on making financial information accessible to the public. “We are taking a lot of boring — for lack of a better term — statistical information and making it an interesting read,” he said, pointing to the county’s website and the publication of the Popular Annual Financial Report.
A point of contention in the race is the county’s $25 million investment in Dutchess Stadium. Aymar-Blair has been critical of that support: “To see millions of dollars spent on a minor league baseball stadium — that’s twice the entire tax levy of the city of Beacon — gives me pause.”
Pulver, however, who was chairman of the Legislature at the time funding for the project was appropriated, views the ballpark in Wappingers Falls as an asset. “Dutchess Stadium is something that we consider a jewel in Dutchess County,” he said, adding, “There’s a plan to look at the stadium to see what financial benefits and detriments [exist]. I have no problem looking at that.”
Aymar-Blair said his independence from past county decisions make him uniquely suited to serve as a financial watchdog. “I have no ties to any of the policies that have been passed in the last ten years. I can look at it entirely objectively,” he said. “I have no political ties to the county executive or other members of the executive branch. I did not have a hand in crafting any of the legislation. And, I’m not a part of an old boy’s club — I’m just a guy that really cares about Dutchess County’s budget, coming in from the outside and doing my best to take a look at things and making sure that they add up.”
Pulver, on the other hand, has said that his decade-long tenure in the Legislature provides him with a deep understanding of county government. “My experience in working with county budgets and town budgets, and knowing the players and knowing how the county works, I think gives me a huge advantage over anybody in this office,” he said.