The mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, has been campaigning with former officials from President Barack Obama’s administration to champion green tax policies.
Earlier this month, Paige Cognetti, the congressional candidate for Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, was seen alongside Jon Carson, a former Obama administration official involved in the federal Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort.
Carson served as chief of staff to the White House Council on Environmental Quality from 2009 to 2010, when the administration was implementing its Chesapeake Bay restoration strategy—commonly described by the Environmental Protection Agency as a regional “pollution diet” designed to reduce nutrient and sediment levels across multiple states.
Carson is associated with what Scranton residents call the “rain tax,” a city-imposed fee on homeowners as a penalty for using fertilizers, which run off into streams when it rains. Opponents of the fee say it is ineffective, hurts homeowners, and should not be pushed at the national level.
In an interview with the Daily Signal, Dwayne McDavitt, a resident of Scranton and retired law enforcement officer, said that Cognetti’s actions as mayor are exactly the type of thing Washington, D.C., needs less of.
“We should not be sending more people to Washington who champion this agenda. On paper, the tax is supposed to be for a storm water fee,” McDavitt told the Daily Signal. “But this tax only applies to homeowners in Cognetti’s town. They told us this fee was to clean the Chesapeake Bay and prevent certain wildlife from dying, but they’re actually thriving.”
McDavitt added that the tax is ineffective because fertilizer use is the same as before.
“This is an excuse for the government to raise more money,” he said.
“Since the tax was enacted, housing prices in Scranton shot up, and the government had to seize those that went into foreclosure. The government pays for the housing,” McDavitt said. “She [Cognetti] would rather force people to be dependent on government rather than on themselves.”
Cognetti’s campaign appearances with Carson come as stormwater policy remains a contentious issue in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Critics argue that the federal policies developed during the Obama era contributed to mandates that ultimately resulted in higher costs, including stormwater fees on homeowners and businesses.
McDavitt said Cognetti’s associations reveal her political leanings.
“She’s campaigning with them because that’s the only way she thinks she can get elected—by campaigning with the people that ran the Biden administration. She’s a far-Left Biden supporter,” he said.
Cognetti’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.
