UPDATED: Dec. 6 at 12:21 a.m.

Syracuse community members on Tuesday evening urged outgoing Mayor Stephanie Miner to run against Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., during a town hall discussion on contentious GOP tax reform efforts.

Katko voted to pass a House of Representatives tax bill that would significantly lower the corporate tax rate and eliminate certain tax deductions that could cost Syracuse residents thousands of dollars, some officials said.

About 150 concerned residents and local politicians packed the city’s Common Council Chambers on Tuesday, denouncing the tax bills and what some called Katko’s unwillingness to discuss the potential impacts of tax reform. A crowd of people waited outside the room, with no space left inside. City officials announced the event would be streamed on Facebook Live to accommodate the crowd.

“Our founding fathers had a bold idea about our democratic values, and that idea was based on the fact that each one of us in a democracy has to take ownership of it,” Miner said.

Miner, who is term-limited, said people have allowed others to take responsibility of democracy for too long. She encouraged residents to continue speaking out against policies they disagree with.

During the event, multiple people yelled that Miner should run against Katko, including one man who wore a “Run Stephanie! Run!” T-shirt. Miner, earlier this fall, initially said she had ruled out a run for Congress. She had long considered the possibility of challenging Katko, who was first elected to office in 2015 and, in early November, was elected as a co-chair of the moderate Tuesday Group caucus.

Miner, though, announced she would be taking a position at New York University in the spring as a visiting professor. But after Katko voted for the House tax plan, Syracuse.com reported Miner may have changed her mind. She alluded to possibly running, according to Syracuse.com.

No speakers at the town hall on Tuesday expressed support for Katko. Several held signs that read “#shameonkatko” and “Where’s Katko?” with an image of Katko’s face imposed over the Waldo character from the children’s book, “Where’s Waldo?”

Hieu Nguyen | Staff Photographer

Dana Balter, a Syracuse University professor who is running against Katko in 2018 midterm elections, said 55 percent of the congressman’s constituents have not expressed support for the tax plan. But he went ahead and voted for it anyway, she said.

“I don’t feel that Mr. Katko has represented my interests or the interests of this community,” Balter said.

Peter McCarthy of the CNY Solidarity Coalition, a social justice group based in Syracuse, called Katko a “radical, right-wing fanatic,” during the forum.

Dozens of community members and some local politicians voiced their frustrations with congressional Republicans, specifically Katko.

A history teacher from the Jamesville-Dewitt Central School District said she was angry about a proposed cut to a tax deduction that allows teachers to deduct up to $250 for school supplies they purchase to help students.

“It’s like they’re trying to be the villain in an 80s movie,” Common Councilor-elect Joe Driscoll said of the GOP.

Other speakers denounced Katko for supporting the House bill, saying the plan would ensure billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, only benefit wealthy Americans and exacerbate poverty in Syracuse.

A number of participants called the tax plan a “tax scam,” a term popularized by Democrats in the last week. One man alluded to the French Revolution, calling the GOP’s tax plan a step toward a battle of the “haves” and the “have nots.”

Hieu Nguyen | Staff Photographer

Jack Wilson, president of Syracuse University’s Graduate Student Organization, spoke about the elimination of Section 117(d) of the tax code. That section does not count tuition remission — waivers universities grant to graduate student employees to help pay tuition — as taxable income.

Eliminating the section would cost graduate students thousands of dollars, Wilson said. Graduate students could be forced to pay an upward of $30,000 in additional taxes annually on money they never technically received, he said.

Several other prominent local officials attended the forum: New York state Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter; Onondaga County Legislator Peggy Chase; Common Councilor Susan Boyle; President-Elect Helen Hudson and At- Large Councilor Steven Thompson; Syracuse City School District Commissioner Katie Sojewicz and Town of DeWitt Board Member Kerin Rigney.

Hudson addressed the crowd near the end of the town hall. Hudson texted Katko before the House vote on the tax bill, she said, urging him to vote against the plan. She called him “out of touch” with the 24th Congressional District.

“All of this is being done to keep poor people poor,” Hudson said. “Because the 1 percent, they don’t value you and they don’t value me. They value your vote at the ballot, they value coming in and telling you what they think you want to hear. But if they have their way we, as a country, we’re headed in the wrong direction.”

This post has been updated with additional reporting.

Published on December 5, 2017 at 8:39 pm

Contact Kennedy: krose100@syr.edu | @KennedyRose001