A handful of prominent local politicians rallied beneath Syracuse’s AXA Towers on Monday in cold, misting rain to protest a visit by Linda McMahon, one of President Donald Trump’s cabinet members.

McMahon, administrator of the Small Business Administration, met with Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., at the city’s Technology Garden, a downtown complex, to promote the GOP’s new tax plan, a set of reforms criticized by Democrats and liberal groups for disproportionately benefiting wealthy Americans.

Mayoral candidates Ben Walsh, Juanita Perez Williams and Howie Hawkins attended the protest, standing on a set of steps leading up to the tech center only a day before voters head to the polls in Syracuse’s general election.

Republican candidate Laura Lavine did not attend the rally. Katko previously said he supports Lavine, CNYCentral reported.

Most protesters were members of the CNY Solidarity Coalition, a local organization that has staged multiple demonstrations since Trump’s election last year. Jonah Minkoff-Zern, campaign co-director for a national government accountability group called Public Citizen, helped coordinate the protest Monday.

At-large Common Councilor Helen Hudson and state Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter, D-Syracuse, also spoke to crowd members, who clutched umbrellas and signs reading “Not One Penny In Tax Cuts For The Rich & Corporations,” chanting “we are the 99 percent.”

“You tell (Katko), you keep calling, you stand up. You say, ‘I simply can’t afford this,’” Hunter said, shouting into a microphone, pointing at the Technology Garden.

Katko has expressed concern about the Republican tax plan. According to Syracuse.com, he plans to gather a panel of local experts to examine the documents. GOP leaders hope to pass the tax legislation before Thanksgiving.

The plan would cut the corporate tax rate significantly, reducing it by 3 percentage points per year from 2018 to 2022, among other things. An analysis by the Tax Policy Center found that Trump’s plan would reduce federal revenue by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years. And, in the decade after that, total revenue would fall by $3.4 trillion.

McMahon, administrator of the Small Business Administration, spoke to Katko and Tenney in a small tech garden theatre just outside the downtown office of Syracuse University’s Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Women’s Business Center. WISE has received funding from the Small Business Administration.

The administrator also traveled to New Jersey over the weekend to lobby for the plan.

Perez Williams, in a speech, said while growing up poor she benefited from government initiatives including food stamps, the Head Start program and child nutrition programs.

“We’ve got to stop the targeting of Americans,” Perez Williams said. “This tax scam is just another way to marginalize people and help the 1 percenters.”

Walsh, meanwhile, standing on the tech garden’s steps, gestured at the nearby Hotel Syracuse. Left vacant after years of bankruptcy court proceedings and sales, the iconic building was reopened by developer Ed Riley last year.

That renovation project, in total, received millions of dollars in tax breaks, incentives and federal historic tax credits. Walsh said he’s concerned that Trump’s tax plan might completely eliminate the federal Historic Tax Credit program.

“I hear you loud and clear,” Walsh said. “I will speak truth to power, in my position, whether it’s as mayor or whatever other position.”

Hawkins criticized Trump for sending McMahon to Syracuse.

McMahon, who donated $7 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign, was a controversial cabinet appointee. She’s a former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and married to billionaire Vincent McMahon, a friend of Trump’s.

“Let’s be clear about one thing. Donald Trump doesn’t care about us,” Hawkins said. “I got an appointment with Social Security and Medicare because I turn 65 next month … I’ve been paying in for 51 years of working to that system. And now I’m worried I won’t get what I was promised.”

Published on November 6, 2017 at 2:08 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek