| Pete Harckham was elected to the New York State Senate in November 2018, and re-elected in 2020 and 2022-the culmination so far of a distinguished career in public service. Currently, he is chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.
Through his two full terms in office, Harckham has become one of the most productive members of the New York State Senate. He worked to make the 2% Property Tax Cap permanent; delivered record aid to education; and addressed the opioid crisis by doubling minimum treatment times and reducing barriers to life saving treatment.
Well-regarded as a champion of the environment, Harckham helped pass the toughest climate protection legislation in the nation, and also introduced legislation, later enacted, requiring all new passenger car and truck sales to be zero emission by 2035 and allowing municipalities to build solar canopies and jumpstart community renewable energy projects. Earlier this year, Governor Kathy Hochul placed Harckham's landmark wetlands legislation protecting Class C streams statewide, which will safeguard fragile drinking water resources, into her proposed 2023 State Budget.
Additionally, Harckham has been a leading voice to hold the utilities accountable in the wake of failed responses to natural disasters and has been there for residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. To date, he has held 13 food drives to fight hunger, assisted thousands of residents with unemployment claims and delivered PPE to first responders and municipalities throughout the 40th Senate District.
In 2015, Harckham was appointed Assistant Director of the Office of Community Renewal, responsible for the rollout and implementation of a special allotment of $4.3M in CDBG funding for Westchester municipalities. Afterwards, he served for two years as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge project.
From 2008 to 2015 Harckham served on the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL), where he was a leading voice for protecting the environment, maintaining vital services and investing in our families. He was the BOL's Majority Leader from 2010 through 2013.
Before being elected to the BOL, Harckham served as board president of A-HOME, a not-for-profit housing corporation that builds affordable housing in northern Westchester and worked as a communications professional on Madison Avenue for major advertising agencies. He also helmed his own communications and marketing firm, and founded K&E Farms, a small horse farm in Katonah, NY, where he donated conservation easements from the farm to the Westchester Land Trust. Both his prior residence and farm were converted to solar power.
In addition to his professional work, Harckham served on the President's Council for the Northern Westchester Hospital, was a board member for the United Way of Westchester and Putnam, the Junior League of Northern Westchester Community Advisory Council and the Livable Communities Council.
Pete is a lifelong resident of the Hudson Valley, having grown up in Rockland County. He moved to Katonah in Westchester in 1991 and now lives in South Salem. He has two adult daughters, Emma and Kate, who both attended the Katonah-Lewisboro public schools. |