Governor touts tax plan to local officials

HERSHEY — Gov. Tom Wolf is telling Pennsylvania’s local officials his property tax cut plan will help them.

Wolf spoke before about 3,000 people Tuesday at the annual conference of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors. The Democrat said his proposal would tap new state taxes to reduce local school taxes and redistribute that burden to remove inequities between wealthy and poor districts.

Wolf said his plan will benefit local officials as well as constituents who are unhappy about rising property taxes. He said his $3.2 billion proposal would increase the state’s share to public schools to 50 percent from the current 35 percent.

House Republicans are offering a competing plan that would cut property taxes by $4.9 billion.

Man takes ride on hood of vehicle

PITTSBURGH — Police said a Pittsburgh man drove for several miles through seven communities with a man clinging to the hood of his vehicle after an argument.

The driver, 46-year-old Dwayne Harvard, is charged with aggravated assault and other crimes but told local television reporters he was just defending himself and called 911 to summon police while driving with the man still hanging on.

Police haven’t charged the other man, but Harvard and his girlfriend claim he had a knife, though Harvard also said he was afraid the man might shoot him if he stopped before police could intervene.

State police filed the charges because much of the incident Sunday evening occurred on Route 28, which they patrol. It began in Springdale Township, and stretched through five other communities before ending in the seventh, Harrison Township.

Teen faces charges in pair of fires

PITTSBURGH — A teenager is facing attempted homicide and arson charges after police say he used a Molotov cocktail and a plumber’s torch to start two fires.

Police said Tuesday 19-year-old Sean Hallam admitted to setting both fires in Allegheny County.

The first fire began at a duplex in Harrison in the early morning hours of April 9 and caused $100,000 in damage. Investigators said they found evidence that a Molotov cocktail was used to ignite the blaze.

The second fire occurred the next day about two blocks away from the first one. Detectives found a plumber’s torch on a window at that blaze.

Online court records didn’t list an attorney for Hallam.

Company reportedly facing fine for spill

FINLEYVILLE — The state Department of Environmental Protection is negotiating a “significant” fine with Sunoco Pipeline for thousands of gallons of drilling clay that a subcontractor spilled into several Western Pennsylvania creeks.

A spokesman for Philadelphia-based Sunoco isn’t commenting on comments DEP spokesman John Poister made to a Washington County newspaper.

Poister said DEP officials are seeking the fine for erosion problems, and alleged failure to control the bentonite mud spills on a 53-mile natural gas pipeline that crosses Washington and Westmoreland counties.

About 5,300 gallons of the nontoxic mud leaked into Little Mingo Creek in Union Township, Washington County, on Sept. 18.

It can kill fish if enough of it enters a water.

The fines also pertain to five other inadvertent mud spills that Poister called “obvious clean stream violations.”

By The Associated Press