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Corporate Welfare in Connecticut

 

 

www.ct.gov/ecd/lib/ecd/Mid_Term_Report_Append.xlsx

 

 

After you have clicked on the page, go to the bottom of the page,  and click on each individual heading to view who is receiving your State taxpayer dollars! Programs Include: The First Five; Express; Express MAA; Manuf Act; JET. 

 

 

 

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As we review below Governor Malloy’s Corporate Welfare Program which includes the conflicting, surreptitious deal involving City of Hartford and State public officials and employees who released taxpayer money to Hybrid Insurance owner Earl O'Garro Jr. as his finances were imploding - which has in turn drawn the attention of the FBI - the Hartford Courant is reporting ….. 

 

 

 

From the Hartford Courant

 

Documents: O'Garro Admitted To Creating Phony Website In Scam

 

During a Dec. 4 civil proceeding in Hartford Superior Court, O'Garro told Judge Carl Schuman and AmTrust's attorney that he purchased a web domain name that closely matched that of AmTrust's in a scheme to obtain more than $600,000 in premium payments. Continue reading http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-ogarro-transcript-0131-20140130,0,4072412.story

 

 

 

Connections Smooth O'Garro's Cash Collection

 

 

Some lethal emails revealed by The Courant last week interrupted the genial flow expected in the week ahead. Trouble grows in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's promiscuous grant-and-loan business. The public and federal criminal investigators are getting a look at the crony capitalism that infects what should be the fair operation of the state's Department of Economic and Community Development. The story is another dispiriting tale of Hartford insurance broker Earl O'Garro and lobbyist Christopher Cloud. http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-rennie-ogarro--cash-connections-malloy-admin-20140130,0,1326427.column

 

 

 

January 31, 2014 

 

 

From:  The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact:  Susan Kniep, President
Website:
http://ctact.org/
Email:
fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032

 

 

 

Did our State Officials learn nothing from Enron,

As Governor Malloy’s Costly Corporate Welfare Program Comes Under Scrutiny????

 

 

Much of the State money which feeds the Corporate Welfare Trough comes through the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD)  for which taxpayers pay $15.6 million for 212 employees with the highest paid at $190,000 as illustrated within http://www.ctact.org/upload/home/decd salaries.xls.

 

 

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2012 was a good year for the lobbying firm of Camilliere, Cloud and Kennedy.  On July 12, 2012 the  Hartford Courant announced that one of their former employees landed a job with Gov. Malloy in an article headlined - Malloy Appoints Rep. Michael A. Caron to Public Utilities Regulatory noting “Caron….. was most recently a lobbyist for Camilliere, Cloud and Kennedy”.  Also, their client Earl O'Garro Jr. of Hybrid Insurance was being awarded State loans regardless of his ability to repay them.  

 

 

As the controversy surrounding the President and CEO of Hybrid Insurance Group, Earl O'Garro Jr., expands, it takes on the suspense of a John Grisham crime novel with a wife fearing for her life as O'Garro Charged With Assault, Threatening - Hartford Courant and a hunt for public money – not stolen by masked men from the public treasury – but willingly handed over to O’Garro by State and City of Hartford public officials and employees while O’Garro’s personal finances were imploding. 

 

 

As conflicts emerge in the City of Hartford which illustrate the close ties between O’Garro and the city’s Treasurer, Adam Cloud, from whose family O’Garro rented property and to whom Cloud transferred a noncompete liability policy to O’Garro, taxpayers may be out not only the money lost through loans/grants - payments on just under $400,000 he owes to the state -  but also $669,997 in insurance premiums which cannot be found since the city of Hartford wired the money to O’Garro/Hybrid on July 18, 2013. 

 

 

And the conflicts don’t end there.  It appears O’Garro used Christopher Cloud, a twin brother of Adam Cloud and partner in Camilliere, Cloud and Kennedy - A Connecticut Lobbying and ... to secure State funds. 

 

 

And there is more as news has surfaced that  Adam Cloud Campaign Consultant Got Hybrid Insurance Job | WNPR News. 

 

 

One facilitator of the state loans to Hybrid, Ron Angelo,  deputy commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), states his case in yesterday’s Hartford Courant article captioned Top Economic Official Defends Role In Second O'Garro Loan.  The following emails between Christopher Cloud, lobbyist for Hybrid Insurance and Ron Angelo are highlighted by the Courant:  Cloud wrote:  “…..we hope that we can discuss this application with you directly and work through whatever issues there may be to move this process forward. … “Thanks for your continued support."   Angelo – “I’ll take care of it.”  Cloud -   “Thanks my friend! Have a great weekend!” This article is worth reading in its entirety at http://articles.courant.com/2014-01-29/community/hc-ogarro-decd-loan-0130-20140129_1_hybrid-insurance-group-decd-earl-o-garro

 

 

On Nov 1, 2013, WNPR had reported In Hartford Controversy, Feds Serve Subpoena on Two State Agencies.  noting “We already know that federal investigators served subpoenas on Hartford's city hall and board of education. “They want to see everything from contracts to emails that have to do with Hybrid Insurance Group and its CEO Earl O'Garro.  “Now we can add the Connecticut Insurance Department and its Department of Economic and Community Development to the list of those who got served.”

 

 

As a State employee, Angelo is paid $160,000 along with many at DECD earning six figure salaries/benefits as noted at http://www.ctact.org/upload/home/decd salaries.xls .

 

 

As it relates to Enron, With a Bond Payment, CRRA-Enron Deal Is History – the Hartford Courant  recently wrote noting “The state's trash-to-energy agency made the last payment on its debt for the Hartford plant on Thursday, finally ushering out the painful era of the scandalous Enron deal that cost the agency $200 million”.

 

 

 

Before we continue on to the scandals of today under Governor Malloy’s Corporate Welfare Program, you can refresh your memory regarding the 2003 surreptitious debacle involving Enron, state power brokers, and public money  at Connecticuts Shell Game with Taxpayer Money and Enron...How Taxpayers Lost $220 Million .

 

 

The recent headlines (see below) tell some of the stories where taxpayer money was put at risk under Governor Malloy’s other corporate welfare deals.  But what is of a greater concern is what we don’t know.  Are there other financially strapped individuals or companies which received our money under any one of the myriad of state programs processed through the State and the State’s Department of Economic and Community Development - CT.gov and as listed at

 

http://www.dir.ct.gov/opm/IGP/decd/index.html . 

 

 

More importantly, how did the companies who received our money get their foot in the door of the decision makers. 

 

 

The following is what had been disclosed by the Journal Inquirer in June of 2013.

 

 

25 Taxpayer Subsidized Companies Did Not Meet Contracted Job Goals

The state Department of Economic and Community Development  Report for 2011-12 shows that the companies in its Business Assistance Portfolio received a total of $296 million in state subsidies, including $219 million in tax credits, $73 million in loans, and $3.25 million in grants. 
Journal Inquirer - Don Michak - June 2013

 

 

 

WNPR News in December wrote a Message to Earl O'Garro: The State is Coming for Its Money | WNPR ....  Herein they note “The state Department of Economic and Community Development has held O'Garro in default of those two loans. “Now, the state attorney general's office says it's trying to get that taxpayer money back. “But it also doesn't sound terribly confident that it will”.

 

 

 

The following are additional headlines which give credibility to

 

Tom Foley Calls For Legislative Inquiry Into DECD Loan Program ...!

 

 

The Public has a right to know why Republicans and Democrats in our State Legislature and Governor Malloy are Not Supporting such an Inquiry? 

 

 

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State Loaned Restaurant $149,900 Despite Foreclosure

 

Hartford Courant, Jan 24, 2014:  State officials awarded $149,900 in economic aid in May 2012 to a Waterford man to open a burrito restaurant in Mystic — even though he was then the defendant in two foreclosure lawsuits over mortgage debts totaling $728,000, Superior Court records show. The recipient of the $49,502 state grant and $100,398 low-interest loan, Tyler Gilbertie of Waterford, has already closed the Lazy Burrito shop in Mystic and two other area restaurants, despite the Department of Economic and Community Development's agreement last September to defer his repayment of the loan for an extra year. Continue reading at ….. http://articles.courant.com/2014-01-24/news/hc-burrito-decd-bankrupt-0124-20140123_1_decd-small-business-express-waterford

 

 

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Lay off your workers, get paid to rehire them - Journal Inquirer: Chris ... Powell

January 11, 2014 Maybe other big employers in Connecticut will get an idea from the state Economic and Community Development Department's latest excursion into corporate welfare.

Last March ClearEdge Power Corp., owner of the former United Technologies Corp. fuel-cell factory in South Windsor, laid off more than 100 employees. But this week state government loaned the company $1.4 million at a deeply discounted rate, with about half the loan to be forgiven if the company adds 80 employees over three years. Rehiring employees laid off in March will count toward the total of new employees to be added to achieve loan forgiveness.So in Connecticut you now can lay off your workers and then get money from state government for hiring them back. The economic development commissioner, Catherine Smith, explains this as a plan to induce ClearEdge to expand in Connecticut rather than at its facilities in Oregon and California. But the plan will work only at the expense of inviting more big employers to blackmail state government -- not just by threatening to move but also by laying off employees and then demanding that state government ransom them.  http://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/chris_powell/lay-off-your-workers-get-paid-to-rehire-them/article_b19b1f6e-7a11-11e3-9901-0019bb2963f4.html

 

 

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In Hartford Controversy, Feds Serve Subpoena on Two State Agencies

 

WNPR News:  The state DECD confirmed it also got a federal subpoena -- and it sent it to WNPR.  In it, federal prosecutors asked for all information related to grants or loans Hybrid received from the DECD.  You may recall that the state gave Hybrid around $100,000 to move its business to Hartford -- into the building owned city Treasurer Adam Cloud and his family. The subpoena also asks for emails involving Hybrid, Cloud, and his brother -- Christopher Cloud.  O'Garro paid Christopher Cloud's firm Camilliere, Cloud & Kennedy to be its lobbyist at the state. DECD officials say Christopher Cloud was at least one meeting with the state on Hybrid's behalf. Adam Cloud has long denied allegations that he had anything to do with giving city business to O'Garro, who rents office space from Cloud's family and who has hired Cloud's brother as his lobbyist. Emails obtained by WNPR seem to suggest otherwise.

 

 

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Documents: O'Garro Was Late On Payments Before State OK'd ...Second Loan

 

Hartford Courant, Jan 22, 2014:  Earl O'Garro Jr. was late making payments on a state loan that he received to expand his company, Hybrid Insurance Group, months before he was given a second loan from the Department of Economic and Community Development, documents obtained Wednesday by The Courant show. After O'Garro failed to make payments on time, DECD Deputy Commissioner Ron Angelo instructed agency employees to "get the ball rolling" on a subsequent $3.5 million loan request by O'Garro.

 

 

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Insurance Company In Hartford Controversy Got $500,000 State Loan

 

Hartford Courant, Dec 10, 2013: Earl O'Garro Jr., the young insurance broker whose business with Hartford's city hall is the subject of a federal investigation, was approved for a $500,000 state loan last summer to expand his company — months after it had begun unraveling and just as it was about to collapse.

 

 

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Restaurant That Renovated With Connecticut State Money Quickly ...Closes.

 

 

FOXCT, May 2, 2013: After reopening as Thirty-Five Bar And Grill, the spot closed after being open for only six months, and West Hartford leaders and local business owners are not pleased.  The thought that it’s nearly $50,000 in taxpayer money is what’s got so many folks upset in this town. Officials spoke out about getting the money back, and local shop and restaurants sound off about not getting assistance like this now closed restaurant did. http://foxct.com/2013/05/02/restaurant-that-renovated-with-connecticut-state-money-quickly-closes/

 

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State To Re-Evaluate 'First Five' Status Of TicketNetwork After CEO's Arrest

 

 

Hartford Courant, Feb, 2012: In July, Malloy added the company to his "First Five" project, the governor's high-profile economic development initiative. The state agreed to offer TicketNetwork $6.3 million in low-interest loans after the company promised to add at least 200 jobs.  Malloy noted that the agreement had not been finalized.

 

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Bravo to the Journal Inquirer for it Excellent Editorial Captioned

 

Special-interest money puts Democrats at risk

 

January 10, 2014

 

 

Look for more interesting articles at

Journal Inquirer: North-Central Connecticut's Hometown Newspaper

 

 

Recent contributions to the Democratic State Central Committee by developers and others who are seeking or have received various state grants are alarming. Maybe few people who make political contributions do so without some selfish interest, but at least there sometimes has been a little subtlety to those contributions. Such subtlety lately seems to have all but disappeared in Connecticut.
   

For example, a $5,000 contribution in November from "consultant" Bruce Whitaker was followed just days later by Governor Malloy's announcement of $5.7 million in funding from the Connecticut Housing Finance Agency for a project in Westport with which Whitaker is involved. The grant'' recipient, the Westport Housing Authority, should explain what Whitaker's role is.
   

 Of course political contributions by recipients of government largesse are not unusual. But some recent contributions to Connecticut's Democratic Party stand out for a timing that has created a quid-pro-quo atmosphere.
   

Money keeps pouring into the party from the Winstanley family, which wants state government to finance $12 million for their proposed residential and commercial development project in Windsor.
   

Vigorous investment by state government to develop Connecticut's economy, the policy of the Malloy administration, will not sustain public support if it starts looking more like a mechanism of campaign financing. While the Democrats seem to have refrained from soliciting political contributions from recipients of the big state economic development grants in the co-called "First Five" program, they seem to be soliciting nearly everyone who has or aspires to have some financial connection with state government. This essentially repudiates the party's longstanding support for a system of fair and transparent public campaign financing that was to diminish the influence of special interests.
   

The Democrats control every major office in Connecticut and hold big majorities in the General Assembly, but their zeal to obtain special-interest campaign money implies great fear. They should remember that good government remains good politics -- the best politics -- and that, as advantageous as the contributions they are amassing may seem at the moment, some of those contributions inevitably will be corrupting and are likely to become embarrassing issues against them.
 

 

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CONGRATULATIONS TO The Day of New London and its Excellent Reporting on State Employee Pensions

Taxpayers:  What are you paying for State Employee Pensions? Click on the headline above – Not only will you see some State employees are receiving six figure pensions over $100,000 and $200,000 but you will also get a glimpse of lifetime pensions and other important news as

CT TAXPAYERS ARE TAXED TO THE MAX!!!

 

 

 

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State Is Broke — 'Surplus' Is Pocket Change

 

 

By MARCIA MARIEN | OP-ED , Marcia Marien, CPA, is past president of the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants.

 

The Hartford Courant,  Jan 17, 2014  

 

Connecticut is broke.

Not going broke, but broke right now. Today.

 

http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/hc-op-marien-connecticut-is-broke-0119-20140117,0,5423195.story