Fred Larson

County Legislator Fred Larson has announced he is seeking reelection to continue his effort to bring more jobs and less taxes in Chautauqua County.

The District 12 Jamestown Legislator said, “My number one priority as a County Legislator is economic development and encouraging job creation. The news that Serta Mattress and approximately 100 more jobs are leaving the Jamestown area on top of the losses of 350 jobs at Truck Lite and 100 jobs at Jamestown Metal Manufacturing shows that the County’s economic development performance is inadequate.”

“Since 2010 employment in Chautauqua County has plummeted from 68,000 to 54,000 a drop of 14,000,” Larson pointed out. “I am running for reelection to continue my efforts to push Chautauqua County and its Industrial Development Agency to focus on assisting in job creation instead of subsidizing more solar farms that create no permanent jobs.”

Larson also will push for three specific County tax cuts in his next term.

“First, I will continue to fight to give back to our property taxpayers at least $2,000,000 of the County’s almost $40,000,000 slush fund (unappropriated fund balance),” Larson said. “Second, I will continue to fight to reduce the county’s sales tax of 8% to 7 3/4% to give consumers a break and to strengthen our retail sector and create more retailing jobs in Chautauqua County. Third, I will continue to fight to give more senior citizen homeowners the County’s partial real property tax exemption.”

Larson is a graduate of Jamestown High School, Princeton University and Yale Law School. In addition to 38 years of private practice of law, he served as our County Attorney from 1998-2005, and Jamestown City Court Judge from 2014-2021. Larson is a member of First Lutheran Church, a past President of the Jamestown Kiwanis Club and a Board member of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame for over 20 years.

Legislator Larson has been married for 44 years and has two children and three grandchildren.