January 1, 2013
From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer
Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep,
President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
FISCAL CLIFF AVERTED! FOR NOW!
BREAKING: At 2 AM, a
bipartisan Senate with 89 votes rang in the New Year with a Bill intended to
keep the country from tumbling off the Fiscal Cliff as noted within Senate Passes Fiscal Cliff Deal, 89-8 - New York Magazine.
The Text of the Senate Bill and Summary of tax provisions in Senate bill are provided by the Wall St Journal.
Although some believed the bill would die in the House due
to concerns raised by some House Republicans to include House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor, ultimately a deal was struck.
At approximately 11 PM Congress rang out the New Year with House Speaker
John Boehner and Representative Paul Ryan joining several Democrats and
Republicans in supporting the Bill as passed by the Senate and as noted within
the Wall Street Journal Article captioned
Congress Passes Cliff Deal
. The
WSJ reports: “At the heart of the deal
are some of the biggest tax changes in years, including an increase in tax
rates for couples with incomes over $450,000, to 39.6%. “For those same
households, capital-gains and dividend taxes would increase to 20%, from 15%. “Estate
taxes would increase from 35% to 40%. More than three-quarters of American
households would see a tax increase from their 2012 tax levels, according to an
analysis by the Tax
Policy Center,
a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. “For
households earning between $500,000 and $1 million, the additional tax owed
would be about $15,000. “For households with incomes over $1 million, it would
average about $170,000.”
Yet, with
all the nail biting by many concerned Americans for the stock market and all
else which could have been impacted by going over the Cliff, the vote today was
a hiccup in what promises to be even more stimulating debates between the two
parties as they gear up for the The next battle: The debt ceiling
which also comes with a deadline - February 28, 2013. As
reported by USA Today “In a letter to
Congress on Monday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, said he has begun a "debt issuance
suspension period," using "extraordinary" borrowing measures to
make sure the government avoids exceeding its debt limit of $16.394 trillion.”
Medicare and Social Security will take center stage in these
debates which is guaranteed to draw the public’s interests.
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More
great reporting by Don
Michak of the Journal Inquirer on Dec 31, 2012
9 Connecticut hospital executives paid more than $1 million
Three hospital chiefs were each paid more than $2 million in
fiscal 2011, when six others — including the top administrators at Hartford Hospital
and St. Francis
Hospital and Medical
Center in Hartford — were each paid more than $1
million, state records show.
The compensation packages are striking given the pre-Christmas protests by the
lobbying arm of the hospital business, the Connecticut Hospital
Association, following the General Assembly’s move to cut $103 million in
hospital payments as part of a state deficit mitigation plan.
The CHA said then that that the reductions meant “hundreds of hospital jobs are
now on the chopping block,” and that critical programs that help the state’s neediest “may need to be eliminated.” Continue reading this article at
http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2012/12/31/page_one/doc50e1c29aa870a667735315.txt
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No Shortage Of Legislation For 2013 by Christine Stuart | Dec 31, 2012 CTNewsJunkie.com Posted to: State Capitol - It took the General Assembly
years to abolish the death penalty, legalize medical marijuana, and to allow
Sunday liquor sales, but they did all of that in 2012 during a short legislative session. On Jan.
9, the General Assembly will convene an even lengthier six-month legislative
session where they will seek to pass a two-year budget and hundreds of other
bills.
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Cliff deal halts milk price hike, disappoints farmers By Ana Radelat Washington
-- An agreement aimed at saving
the nation from dropping over the fiscal cliff would also prevent a sharp
increase in the price of milk, but some dairy farmers are upset about the deal.
In an angrily worded statement, the National Milk Producers Federation called
the compromise approved by the Senate early New Year's Day "a devastating
blow to the nation's dairy farmers."