6A • PRESS & SUN-BULLETIN T H U R S D AY , J A N U A R Y 1 9 , 2 0 1 7

Schools, cities get more Pennsylvania prosecutor

wiggle room under tax cap
State’s new figure gets significant
hike for fiscal year beginning July 1
JOSEPH SPECTOR
JSPECTOR@PRESSCONNECTS.COM
ALBANY — Schools
and the state’s largest cit-
ies will have some more
flexibility when they go
to voters in May for bud-
get approval.
The property-tax cap
will be 1.26 percent for
the fiscal year that starts
July 1, significantly high-
er than it is in the current
year, Comptroller Thom-
as DiNapoli said Wednes-
day.
The new cap figure im-
pacts nearly 700 school
districts in New York and
10 cities, including Cor-
ning and the “big four” of
Buffalo, Rochester, Syra-
cuse and Yonkers —
which also have a July 1
start date.
In the current year,
schools had to grapple
with a 0.12 percent cap on
their tax levies — the low-
est since the cap was in-
stalled in 2011.
The cap is either 2 per-
cent or the rate of infla-
tion, whichever is lower.
So with low inflation in re-
cent years, the cap has
hovered below 2 percent.
drew Cuomo and the state
legislature to try to limit
the growth in the state’s
property taxes, which are
Cap challenges among the highest in the
remain nation.
The cap has worked:
Last month, the cap for Property taxes have
the state’s nearly 500 vil- grown by just over 2 per-
lages was set at 1.15 per- cent annually since it was
cent for 2017. installed, less than half
The Comptroller’s Of- the average growth over
fice sets the cap limit for the prior decade, Cuomo’s
schools and local govern- office said.
ments each year. The cap is particularly
“For the fourth con- influential on school tax-
secutive year, school and es, which make up about
municipal officials will 60 percent of a homeown-
need to plan around a tax er’s annual tax bill.
cap below 2 percent,” Di- Schools can override
Napoli said in a state- the cap, but it requires a
ment. supermajority — or 60
DiNapoli said the cap percent of voters — to do
will continue to prove so. That has proved chal-
challenging for some of lenging, with only a few
the state’s nearly 700 districts each year doing
school districts. so successfully.
“My audits have For local govern-
shown some school dis- ments, the cap can be
tricts will be able to rely overrode with a majority
on ample rainy-day funds of their governing board,
to offset the low growth in which for towns is a sim-
revenue,” he said, “but ple majority of their five-
others must examine member boards.
their budgets to deter- The cities that operate
mine where they can limit under a July 1 fiscal year
spending or cut costs in that would also have a 1.26
order to stay under the percent tax cap are Am-
cap.” sterdam, Auburn, Buffa-
lo, Corning, Long Beach,
Tax growth slows Rochester, Syracuse, Wa-
tertown, White Plains and
The tax cap was put Yonkers.
into place by Gov. An-
State aid fight
starts
Schools have clam-
ored for more state aid to
offset the limits on how
much revenue they can
raise through property
taxes.
Cuomo countered
Tuesday in his budget
presentation that school
aid has soared $6 billion
since he took office, in-
cluding 6.5 percent in the
current fiscal year.
Cuomo is proposing a
$1 billion increase in
school aid for the state’s
fiscal year, which starts
April 1.
Bob Lowry, deputy di-
rector of the Council of
School Superintendents,
said the cap and school
aid both need to be taken
into consideration when
districts are preparing
their budgets, saying Cu-
omo’s proposal offers a
“credible starting point
for negotiations.”
“But combined with
what schools could raise
locally within the tax cap,
that aid increase would
leave most well short of
the revenue they will
need to maintain current
services for students,”
Lowry said.
probing truck sporting
anti-MLK imagery
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - A
truck sporting images
and messages against
slain civil rights leader
Martin Luther King Jr.
has drawn the attention
of western Pennsylvania
authorities.
It was seen around
Johnstown on the King
holiday, featuring a sign
extolling King assassin
James Earl Ray, a Con-
federate flag, a dark
stuffed animal hanging
from a noose and a man-
nequin of a black man.
But the American Civ-
il Liberties Union says
the truck displays are
protected free speech.
“He has a right to say
those things,” the ACLU
said in a statement Tues-
day. “The First Amend-
ment gives you the right
to say things that are ob-
noxious and wrong, and
this is both.”
Still, Johnstown police
and the Cambria County
district attorney’s office
are investigating wheth-
er charges of ethnic in-
timidation might be filed
against the truck’s own-
er, who hasn’t been pub-
licly identified.
At least one picture of
the truck surfaced on
Facebook after it was
seen around Johnstown
on Monday.
A sign on the truck’s
tailgate said, “In Loving
Memory of James Earl
Ray.” A black manne-
quin’s head hung over the
tailgate on one side of the
truck, with the stuffed
animal hanging on the
other side.
“We’re actively work-
ing on this with the
Johnstown Police De-
partment … to determine
whether there is any-
thing more to this than
the photo,” First Assis-
tant District Attorney
Heath Long said.
Among other things,
investigators are trying
to determine whether
other incidents involving
the driver might have
crossed the line from
free speech to criminal
behavior.
Interim police Chief
Jeff Janciga called the
image “in poor taste any
time of the year” but
even more so on the King
holiday. But he reiterated
that hateful speech is of-
ten protected, noting a
Kansas church known
nationwide for picketing
the funerals of gays and
others it opposes.
“Look at the Westboro
Baptist Church and what
they do at funerals,” he
said.

LOCAL BRIEFS
Suspect holds up
Kwik Fill, police say
Binghamton police are
looking for a suspect in
the Jan. 11 armed robbery
of a Kwik Fill gas station.
The suspect, wearing a
dark-colored hoodie and
orange face covering,
walked into the store at 23
Floral Ave. and demanded
money from the cashier,
according to police.
A security video from
the Kwik Fill depicts the
suspect brandishing what
appears to be a handgun.
He was also carrying a
New York Giants bag.
No injuries were re-
ported in the holdup, and
the suspect fled in an un-
known direction after the
incident. Further descrip-
tive details of the suspect
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Anyone with informa-
tion about the robbery is
asked to contact the Bing-
hamton Police Depart-
ment at 607-772-7080, and
refer to case No. 17-1706.
Woman arrested at
gas station
A Whitney Point wom-
an is accused of drunken
driving, which state po-
lice say resulted in her ar-
rest at a Town of Triangle
gas station.
Heidi L. Cronin, 42,
was arrested around 4:30
p.m. Saturday after troop-
ers responded to a 911 call
reporting an intoxicated
woman at the Speedway
gas station on Route 8, ac-
cording to troopers.
She drove into the
28 Years Experience
parking lot and stopped,
troopers said, then start-
ed flailing her arms and
kicking at troopers trying
to handcuff her. Her blood
alcohol content at the time
of the incident was 0.18
percent, according to
troopers.
Cronin was charged
with misdemeanor counts
of aggravated driving
while intoxicated and re-
sisting arrest, along with
other traffic tickets. She
was sent to the Broome
County jail and scheduled
to appear in Triangle
Town Court at a later date.
Man chokes EMT in
ambulance,
troopers say
An emergency medical
technician was choked
and injured by his ambu-
lance patient while en
route to a Cortland hospi-
tal, according to state po-
lice.
The incident unfolded
around 1 a.m. Sunday
while a Town of Moravia
EMT was helping trans-
port 48-year-old Christo-
pher Davis, a Moravia
resident who received a
head injury that evening
while at a bar, troopers
choked the EMT, injuring
his throat, according to
troopers.
The EMT was treated
at Cortland Regional
Medical Center, where
troopers also responded
and arrested the combat-
ive patient several hours
later upon release from
the hospital.
Davis was charged
with a felony count of sec-
ond-degree assault and a
misdemeanor count of
criminal obstruction of
breathing or blood circu-
lation. He was sent to the
Cortland County jail with
bail set at $2,500 cash or
$5,000 bond, to await fur-
ther court proceedings.
Oxford man facing
meth charges
An Oxford man is ac-
cused of making metham-
phetamine, then selling it
around Chenango County.
The Chenango County
Sheriff's Office arrested
24-year-old Travis L. De-
Muth on Thursday, after
an investigation into the
alleged drug-dealing. De-
Muth has been charged
with a felony count of
third-degree criminal
sale of a controlled sub-
stance, and the sheriff's
gators were aided by state
parole officials in making
Thursday's arrest. Ac-
cording to state records,
DeMuth was paroled
from state prison in Octo-
ber after a burglary con-
viction in Chenango Coun-
ty.
The Oxford and Nor-
wich police departments
also assisted the sheriff's
office during the investi-
gation.
DeMuth is held in the
Chenango County jail
with bail set at $30,000
cash, while awaiting fur-
ther court proceedings.
Legislature to
consider Garnar
appointments
Thursday
The Broome County
Legislature will vote on
Jason Garnar's depart-
ment head appointments
Thursday at 5 p.m., poten-
tially drawing an official
close to a hiring process
that began mid-Novem-
ber.
The legislature will
vote on the appointments
of 12 department heads —
not including Deputy
County Executive Kevin
McManus — six of them
new appointments.
Almost all of the de-
ing Director Sara Liu, who
begins next week.
Voice policy
thoughts to your
lawmakers
Thursday
State and local policy-
makers will gather Thurs-
day at a SUNY Broome
"Public Voice" event to
hear citizens' thoughts on
issues facing the South-
ern Tier.
The event, organized
by former SUNY Broome
history professor — and
the county executive's fa-
ther — Doug Garnar, asks
attendants to share their
top state and county legis-
lative priorities. Broome
County Executive Jason
Garnar, State Sen. Fred
Akshar, State Assembly-
woman Donna Lupardo
and State Assemblyman
Clifford Crouch will all at-
tend, but the policymak-
ers will only be allowed to
listen to audience mem-
bers, and will not be al-
lowed to engage in discus-
sion during the event.
The event will take
place from 6:30 to 8:30
p.m. Thursday in room
201 of the Decker Health
Sciences Building. At-
tendees are encouraged
to come with a list of pol-

727-0102
said. office says more arrests partment heads have al- icy priorities, but are also
Call or Text Me 607
NY-0000790493

During the ambulance are anticipated in connec- ready moved into their of- welcome to just listen.
ride, Davis allegedly be- tion with the case. fices, with the exception
scundy@RealtyUSA.com 607 754-2600 came combative and Sheriff's office investi- of Employment and Train-

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