Each CT taxpayer owes more than $50,000
Complete report
below
Rescuers searching for victims of Texas
fertilizer plant blast
Wall Street
dips as after disappointing data
April 18, 2013
From: The Federation of
Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep,
President
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
Also,
check out below: Comptroller launches
calculator, CT unemployment rate at 8%, Pensions Paid
over $200,000 and website where you can access State Employee Pensions,
Salaries and More
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/19737/report-state-needs-ramp-efforts-reverse-decades-debt-stagnant-job-growth
Connecticut's massive long-term debt, deep pockets of
poverty and more than 20 years of stagnant job growth threaten to sink the
state's economy for decades unless major reforms are enacted, according to a report Wednesday from a national fiscal responsibility group and
the University of Connecticut's economic think-tank.
Comeback America Initiative founder David M. Walker and UConn
economics Professor Fred V. Carstensen, who outlined
their report at the Hartford Marriott, called for dramatic new reductions on
public worker retirement benefits, deeper investments in transportation, education
and economic marketing, and an enhanced "culture of transparency"
that will drive greater efficiencies in state spending.
Each CT taxpayer owes more than $50,000
Though Connecticut has one of the highest bonded debts, per
capita, of any state in the nation, that represents just a fraction of the
crippling debt taxpayers must answer for the in near future, said Walker, a
Bridgeport resident and former U.S. comptroller general under President
Clinton. He launched his Comeback America campaign for fiscal
responsibility in 2010.
The picture goes from bad to scary, the report says, when
one considers state employee and public school teacher pension funds that have
less than half the resources they need to meet future obligations, as well as a
state retiree health care program for which government has saved almost
nothing..
Connecticut ranked dead last
among states in 2011 when all debt is combined and assessed on a per capita
basis. Each taxpayer effectively owed $50,900 here.
The second-worst state, Illinois, had per capita debt of $38,500. Ohio and Washington
ranked in the middle with $7,700 and $8,200 owed, respectively. Six states,
particularly those rich in energy resources, topped the list with positive
balances, led by Alaska
with an average per person credit of $34,100.
And even though interest is not charged on retirement
benefit debt, it ultimately translates into state budget deficits that often
are financed with bonding -- and interest charges.
Though interest rates have been kept low artificially,
largely by the Federal Reserve System, that cannot continue much longer, Walker said, adding that it represents a crippling
financial blow for Connecticut
somewhere down the road.
"It's not a matter of if," he said. "It's a
matter of when, how much, and how fast."
Though state employees did agree to some restrictions on
retirement benefits in 2009 and 2011, Walker
said the reforms simply didn't go far enough, and retiree health care in
particular may need to change dramatically -- both for existing and future
state workers.
The existing benefits contract between state government and
employee unions runs through 2022, but Walker
predicted severe budget crises would spring up well before then. "That
cannot stand," he said.
Both Walker and Carstensen
acknowledged that the huge cost of providing public-sector benefits stems
largely from poor planning. State government provided very generous benefits
for decades without saving anything to cover them over the long-term.
In addition, past governors and legislatures routinely
raided worker pensions -- with union permission -- to close budget deficits.
No job growth and pockets
of poverty
Unfortunately while this was going on in the 1990s and
2000s, Connecticut
"hit the wall" in terms of growing private-sector jobs, said Carstensen, who is director of the Connecticut
Center for Economic Analysis.
"We have a terrible track record in terms of employment."
But the financial services, insurance and real estate
sectors, which dominated the economy in the 1980s, have been on a
two-decade-long plunge and "we don't have a coherent strategy overall
about how we're going to address that issue," Carstensen
said.
Further complicating matters, the pain of that 20-year slide
wasn't felt equally, the UConn professor said, adding
that Connecticut's urban centers faced the worst of lost jobs, businesses and
declining earnings. This, in turn, drove up local property taxes, which then
accelerated the cities' economic decline.
Connecticut has become one large suburb that maneuvers
around economic sink holes in its big cities, a disparity that costs money.
"Doughnuts do not succeed," he said, adding that this poverty creates
much greater costs for government, particularly with education.
"We've been trying to treat the symptoms too long. It's
time we started trying to treat the disease," Walker said, adding that any
so-called solution to fiscal woes that only relies on slashing all government
spending will exacerbate urban poverty -- and ultimately weigh down the whole
state.
The first step in reversing these trends, Walker said, is for voters to demand a change
in culture at the Capitol that demands greater transparency and accountability
in all programs -- which is the best way to weed out unnecessary spending and
waste.
Carstensen noted that a recent restriction on worker
health care negotiated by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy two
years ago -- a $35 co-payment for emergency room visits that don't lead to a
patient being admitted to the hospital -- has cut ER visits by 40 percent since
then.
But both Walker and Carstensen
said state officials also will need to raise more revenue. Some should come
from taxpayers with a revised system that asks the state's
wealthiest to pay more.
But Connecticut
also should become more creative with tolls and other types of user fees that
require those who heavily use public services and other resources to pay more.
"There's no way we're just going to cut our way out of
this," Carstensen said.
******************
COMPTROLLER LEMBO LAUNCHES "DIY
TAX CALCULATOR" USERS ESTIMATE IMPACT OF STATE TAX CHANGES
Comptroller Kevin Lembo
today launched a “DIY (Do – it - Yourself) Tax Calculator” - an
online tool where users can
calculate the approximate impact tax changes would have
on overall state revenue.
******************
New England
unemployment rate at 7 percent
Rhode Island and
Connecticut, meanwhile, had higher rates, 9.4 percent and 8 percent,
respectively.
******************
The
following are State Pensions Paid over $200,000
Get More Information on State Employee Pensions on the
Name
|
Total Pension Payments
|
Veiga, John
|
276,364.26
|
Blechner, Jack
|
270,234.60
|
Henken, Eleanor
|
239,708.52
|
Blanchette, Edward A
|
226,658.28
|
Hartley, Harry
|
211,652.28
|
Judd, Richard L
|
208,335.30
|
Sigman, Eugene
|
204,352.26
|
Dibenedetto, Anthony T
|
203,594.04
|
Raye, John R
|
200,597.34
|