About 10 people stood in the strip of grass between Route 8 and Mike Kelly Cadillac Friday morning to protest what they call “a tax cut for the rich.”

About 10 people stood in the strip of grass between Route 8 and Mike Kelly Cadillac Friday morning to protest what they call “a tax cut for the rich.”

Several members of the group were local Democrat organizers, and the rally was organized by Ron DiNicola's congressional campaign. DiNicola is running to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-3rd) in November's election for the newly drawn 16th Congressional District.

The group chose their placement, DiNicola's campaign manager Tony Coppola said, to hammer an accusation that Kelly inserted a tax break for car dealers into last year's federal tax bill.

An amendment to the tax bill went through the House Ways and Means Committee, of which Kelly is a member. Among other changes, the amendment included a limit exemption for the interest on loans car dealers use to keep for-sale vehicles on their lots, according to tax cut reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

In a written statement, Kelly's press office discredited the protesters: “The notion that Rep. Kelly inserted any sort of kick-back for himself into the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is desperate, ridiculous, and totally false.

“The bottom line: there is no giveaway to this industry whatsoever.”

Protesters at the auto dealer Friday, such as Alice Stehle of Butler, claimed otherwise.

“I think our public servants are really serving themselves,” Stehle said.