Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente assailed New York state’s new even-year election law during his State of the County address on Tuesday, framing it as a hostile takeover of local government control.

“Albany wants to control our policies on everything. How we deal with issues, how we use our own land, how we build housing and where we put it, where renewable energy can go and to whom it will serve, what services we provide and how we provide them. And now they want to control our local elections,” Picente said in prepared remarks provided to Spectrum News 1.

Picente then referenced the even-year election law, which Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law in 2023 and will move many local elections to line up with state and federal elections in even-numbered years. Republicans, led by Picente and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, have been in a legal battle against it ever since, arguing that it conflicts individual county charters. Twenty New York counties are chartered, meaning they have locally drafted and approved laws outlining the structure and authority of county government, and there have been three separate amendments in the state Constitution allowing for and protecting counties' abilities to govern through charters.

“We immediately went to court to defend our right, as outlined in our charter, to set our own elections and we won. Of course, that didn’t stop the state from pursuing their agenda of seizing control over local governments,” Picente said Tuesday.

A judge last fall ruled the law as unconstitutional, but an appeals court reversed that decision earlier this month. The state's highest court — the state Court of Appeals — has agreed to take up the case with oral arguments scheduled for September.

Picente also recently led a county-rights battle against the state regarding Gov. Kathy Hochul’s temporary executive order that barred correction officers who were fired for striking earlier this year from being hired by local municipalities unless they went through a specific program, calling it a "gross overreach and abuse." A state Supreme Court judge placed a temporary injunction on that order, allowing the county to hire former prison workers, though Hochul's order lapsed after 30 days.

“Meanwhile, while they try to dictate to us, they cannot even pass a budget on time,” Picente said. “County government plays the most vital role in our communities and needs to be safe-guarded at all costs. That is why we continue to fight against these outrageous, illegal decisions whose sole purpose is to take control from where Thomas Jefferson always thought it should be — local government— and put it in the hands of one-party rule in Albany.”

Picente urged his constituents to get involved in the issue.

“Talk to your state representatives, write letters and emails and call the governor’s office. Tell them to rethink this plan, and if they don’t, go to the ballot box and show them why they should’ve listened to the people they represent,” Picente said. “It is our right to make these choices and others as a local government. And I believe we have chosen well.”