The Croton Dems have a penchant for making false and misleading statements in their campaign material and they’ve started off the 2016 campaign with a real howler. They attribute it to a “typographical error,” but even the embarrassing correction ad they ran in this week’s Gazette makes a false and misleading claim. Here are the facts:

The October 6 issue of the Gazette included an insert listing the alleged accomplishments of Brian Pugh, Ann Gallelli and the Croton Democrats. The insert included the following claim: “Enabling your Tax Freeze checks by meeting the Tax Cap (and better) for past 3 years.” This statement is false because the all-Croton Dem Village Board passed a budget for 2014-2015 which exceeded the tax cap.

To make matters worse, their correction ad in this week’s Gazette contains another false and misleading statement. They say “We inadvertently missed a typographical error, in which it was stated that the Village had met the tax cap for the past “3 years” instead of “2 years,” which is correct.”

This is false and misleading because while it is correct that the Village has met the tax cap for the past 2 years, in the insert they claimed that THEY—Brian Pugh, Ann Gallelli and the Croton Democrats—had enabled “your Tax Freeze checks by meeting the Tax Cap.” The fact is that this year the Dems are in the minority and can’t claim that THEY passed the 2016-2017 tax cap-compliant budget.

The true tax cap compliance record of Brian Pugh, Ann Gallelli and the Croton Dems over the past three years would put them at 1-1, with one budget passed by the meeting the tax cap, and one exceeding it.

You may also find these two rulings by the Westchester Fair Campaign Committee to be of interest.