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Booth for Mayor

Booth for Mayor of Elmira, New York

Campaign yard sign: Vote Booth for Mayor

Elmira · New York · November 2, 2027

Lower taxes. Stabilize the tax base. Incentivize development.

Elmira needs someone who will fight for our city and can make the hard decisions.

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Where I stand

Three things I’ll work on

01 · Taxes

Stop punishing the people who live here

Elmira currently has the second-highest city tax rate in New York State. I'll reopen the county sales tax allocation, competitively bid the service contracts, and lower city taxes as much as possible.

02 · Re-Development

Let’s start building again

Tearing a building down is half the job. I'll promise no city-funded demolition without a long-term plan for the lot — and a permit process that doesn’t slow down the people trying to build.

03 · Public Safety

Blight is public safety

You cannot arrest your way out of an empty block. Help the police by doing the part of public safety that isn’t their job.

Read my full positions

John Hunter Booth, candidate for Mayor of Elmira

Priority #1

Lower Taxes Lower Taxes Lower Taxes

All in, city + county + school, an Elmira homeowner pays $39.64 per $1,000 of what their house is assessed at. That’s almost 4% every year, forever. The city line alone is the second-highest of New York’s 61 cities.

39% of the property value in this city is off the tax roll — hundreds of millions exempt or sheltered. That’s every third building you drive past, shifting the burden onto the rest of us. In order to lower taxes, we have to increase the number of properties paying them. This includes selling off government owned properties, and negotiating with the owners of exempt lots.

The other revenue problem is sales tax. Of the 8% we pay at the register, the county gets half, then allocates a portion back to the city and the other municipalities. Elmira’s share of that countywide pool shrank significantly since the early 2000s. We need some back to close the deficit, start paying down the debt, and take some weight off the people who live here.

More about me

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