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With Bags of Cash, C.I.A. Seeks Influence in Afghanistan

 

 

 

JPMorgan Chase Faces Federal Probe Over Energy Trading 'Schemes'

DailyFinance ‎- 4 hours ago

 

 

May 3, 2013 

 

 

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

 

Breaking:  Projected revenues plunge nearly $500M

 

By Keith M. Phaneuf  Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's efforts to avoid more state tax increases took a hit Tuesday as fiscal analysts concluded revenues to fund the next two-year budget will be almost $500 million less than anticipated.

 

The governor's budget staff and the Legislature's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis issued their latest consensus revenue report. It reduces revenue expectations by $259 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1, and by another $229 million in 2014-15.

 

And while revenues did grow in the current budget, which expires June 30, the governor has said he wants the projected surplus of $150 million-$160 million to remain in the bank.

 

"These are conservative projections," Malloy's budget chief, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes, wrote in a statement late Tuesday afternoon. "OFA and OPM are in agreement that we should not expect the revenues realized this past month to continue based on the underlying national economy. This presents Connecticut with some real challenges in finalizing a budget, but I am confident that we will work with the legislature to come to a responsible and balanced budget plan."

 

The state's single-largest source of revenue, the personal income tax, posed the biggest problems Tuesday for the next budget.

 

Analysts said the income tax would yield $144 million less next year and almost $70 million less in 2014-15 than the forecast used when Malloy prepared his budget last winter.

 

Sales tax receipts also should be weaker than anticipated, down $75 million from the last forecast for 2013-14, and down $105 million for 2014-15.  Continue reading at ….. http://www.ctmirror.org/story/19871/revenues-next-state-budget-plunge-nearly-500m-malloys-efforts-avert-tax-hikes-risk

 

Lembo's new site offers 'build your own' state tax plan

 

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Also, check out below:  State economy headed for crisis, CT Sales Tax 10th highest in nation,  School choice expanded for 2500 Hartford students, The Estys are making the news!  And not in a good way!, Questions raised re Ritter, Cafero, and CRRA, Tom Foley crusading for Ethics Reform in State Government,  High Court Makes Decision On Pot , Feds spend $890,000 on fees for empty accounts  with a zero balance, Botched ObamaCare rollout tops Democratic fears for 2014,  Millions eligible for Obamacare subsidies, but most don't know it, Licenses for immigrants has support in Conn.

 

REPORT State economy headed for crisis

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.

 

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Connecticut Sales Tax is 10th Highest in Nation - CT by the ...  Numbers

 

 

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Today, CTMirror.org announced that 2,500 Hartford students to have chance to attend different school noting:   Having run out of time to comply with a court order to desegregate Hartford's schools, the state has entered into a new agreement that will expand school choice opportunities for 2,523 more students.  The new order -- agreed to Tuesday by the Connecticut Attorney General and the plaintiffs in the state's landmark Sheff vs. O'Neill supreme court decision -- requires the state to pay to open four new magnet schools, offer more Hartford students seats in vocational-technical high schools and send more children to suburban schools "For all the children that have benefited, this is terrific," Superior Court Judge Marshall Berger said before signing off on the one-year agreement.  The state has spent billions to open integrated schools since the state Supreme Court ordered the state nearly 20 years ago to eliminate the inequities caused by segregating students.  But despite these efforts, the state has routinely fallen short of the benchmarks they have agreed upon.  This school year, 37 percent of Hartford's students are attending integrated schools -- 4 percentage points shy of the number the state agreed to reach in a settlement five years ago.  Addressing the court before the new one-year agreement was approved, the mother responsible for successfully suing the state nearly 20 years ago on behalf of her son told the court she is growing impatient for parents with children still in school  Continue reading at http://ctmirror.org/story/19879/2500-hartford-students-be-given-chance-attend-different-school

 

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The Estys are making the news!  And not in a good way!  Jon Lender of the Hartford Courant reported in his April 24 article captioned Esty Criticized, And Then Apologizes, For Briefing Clients Of ...Investment Firm on Energy Issues a Day Before Scheduled Vote on Energy Bill which “could benefit Northeast Utilities – which paid Esty $205,000 in consulting fees before Gov. Dannel P. Malloy appointed him in 2011”. 

 

Here is the Transcript of Daniel Esty's conference call with UBS

 

 

Before Esty’s appointment in 2011, CTMirror.org in a headline article captioned Malloy says NU consulting fee presented no conflict for Esty | The ... noted the following:  Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today defended the intervention by Daniel C. Esty, his commissioner of the new Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, in a regulatory issue involving a subsidiary of a former consulting client, Northeast Utilities.  "I don't believe there is a conflict. If I believed there is a conflict, I would indicate he shouldn't be involved, and I don't believe that is the case," Malloy told reporters.  The governor was responding to questions arising from a Hartford Courant story about Esty, a Yale professor who had a busy consulting business before joining the administration, receiving $205,000 from NU from 1997 to 2005. Malloy said Esty disclosed his consulting for NU before he was appointed as the commissioner of environmental protection, with the expectation that the legislature would approve Malloy's proposal for the new, expanded agency. Esty has recused himself from issues involving clients with whom he has worked within the last five years. "Based on the information that I have, I do not believe the commissioner acted in an improper way," Malloy said. "I can assure you he did in fact disclose the work that he had done for that company." On Aug. 30, Esty wrote a letter effectively suspending an application by NU's Connecticut Light & Power to install 1.2 million "smart meters," whose cost would have been borne by ratepayers. He acted the day after a regulator produced a draft decision recommending denial of the application, concluding that the benefit to consumers--smart meters allow sophisticated off-peak pricing--was negligible, compared to the cost. Esty says he acted because the issue of smart meters should be considered as part of a broader, still-evolving state energy policy, including smart meters.  Malloy said his commissioner's rationale was reasonable.    You can continue reading the article at ….. http://www.ctmirror.org/story/14021/malloy-says-consulting-fee-presented-no-conflict-esty

 

 

Esty’s wife, is having a little trouble of her own as noted within the article by the New Haven Register captioned Elizabeth Esty to return contributions from Northeast Utilities ...  employees, lobbyists noting: Esty’s husband, Dan, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, heads the agency that regulates the utility. Dan Esty gave a briefing Tuesday to UBS Securities, an investment banking firm that had upgraded the utility’s stock rating less than a week earlier. http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2013/04/25/news/doc517982accc808584119266.txt

 

Another issue raising eyebrows is that which was reported by Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie captioned  Lawrence Cafero's emails with Thomas Ritter appear to benefit CRRA  in which he notes: House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero and Democratic former Speaker of the House Thomas Ritter have blurred the lines between Cafero's public office and the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, a client of the law firm where they are partners. Cafero has the power to appoint two members of CRRA's 11-member board and appears to have let his choices be influenced by the authority's executives. Ritter, who has a dubious government relations contract with CRRA, acted as a go-between, according to emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.  Continue reading at http://articles.courant.com/2013-03-01/news/hc-op-rennie-cafero-ritter-dealings-benefit-crra-o-20130301_1_cafero-crra-management-ritter-heads

 

 

Rennie goes on to write further on this issue in a headline article captioned Thomas Ritter's work for CRRA blurs distinction between paid and ... in which he notes: Reviewing a couple thousand pages of documents exchanged among the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, Democratic former Speaker of the House Thomas D. Ritter and House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, provides a look at the lucrative and complicated relationship that they would rather the public and ethics regulators not see.  CRRA is the troubled trash-to-energy entity that is a quasi-public agency. Ritter and Cafero are partners in the Hartford office of the law firm Brown Rudnick.   Continue reading at ….. http://articles.courant.com/2013-03-15/news/hc-op-rennie-crra-ritter-cafaro-have-cozy-relation-20130315-1_1_crra-cafero-state-officials

 

Enter Tom Foley who appears to be the only crusader for ethics reform in Connecticut as noted within the article captioned Republican Tom Foley's ethics push unsettles Connecticut legislators.  The article notes: Republican Tom Foley, the 2010 Republican nominee for governor who hopes to reprise that role next year, ventured into a legislative public hearing last week. What a lesson the former ambassador to Ireland learned. You mention ethics at your peril in the presence of Connecticut's insular governing class. Foley thinks the law ought to be changed to protect the public from conflicts of interests that can arise between public duties and private temptations. Foley pointed to House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero's long running employment by the Hartford office of the Brown Rudnick law firm. His colleagues there include lawyer and lobbyist Thomas Ritter.  Continue reading at ….. http://articles.courant.com/2013-03-29/news/hc-op-rennie-foleys-ethics-bill-riles-cafero-other-20130329-1_1_house-republicans-foley-lieutenant-governor

 

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Thehill.com is reporting that the Botched ObamaCare rollout tops Democratic fears for 2014  noting:  Anxious Democrats fear a botched implementation of ObamaCare could dash their hopes of controlling the House and Senate for President Obama’s last two years in office.  At his press conference Tuesday, Obama acknowledged “glitches and bumps” in the law’s rollout, but some congressional Democrats fear much worse.  One high-ranking Democrat told The Hill that it is his leading concern.  Continue reading at …. http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/297103-botched-obamacare-tops-dem-fears-for-14

 

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The Huffington Post reports that High Court Makes Decision On Pot  in favor of: a longtime resident of the United States from Jamaica who was deported from the United States over possession of a small amount of marijuana. The justices said in a 7-2 decision that Adrian Moncrieffe should have had the opportunity to contest his deportation. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her opinion for the court that marijuana offenses must involve either the sale of the drug or possession of more than a small amount to count as serious enough to warrant automatic deportation. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. Continue reading at  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/23/supreme-court-deportation_n_3138954.html?ref=topbar

 

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The Washington Post reports that Feds spend at least $890,000 on fees for empty accounts ...  with a zero balance noting that:   It is one of the oddest spending habits in Washington.  At last count, Uncle Sam has 13,712 such accounts with a balance of zero.  They are supposed to be closed. But nobody has done the paperwork yet. So even as the sequester budget cuts have begun idling workers and frustrating travelers, the government is required to pay $65 per year, per account to keep them on the books.  Continue reading at http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-24/politics/38780373_1_obama-administration-accounts-tom-coburn

 

 

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Whether you like the new Healthcare system or not, you may not know that Millions eligible for Obamacare subsidies, but most don't know it .  CNN reports that:  Nearly 26 million Americans could be eligible for health insurance subsidies next year, but most don't know it.  That's because relatively few people are familiar with provisions in the Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare," that will provide tax credits to low- and middle-income consumers to help them purchase health coverage through state-run insurance exchanges.   Most of those who will be able to claim the subsidies are in working families with annual earnings between $47,100 and $94,200, according to a recent analysis by Families USA, a consumer advocacy group. More than a third of those eligible will be young adults between ages 18 and 34.   Continue reading at http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/23/news/economy/obamacare-subsidies/index.html

 

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If you are an illegal immigrant in Connecticut, No Problem, because Licenses for immigrants has support in Conn. from Governor Malloy to the State Legislature to some municipal CEO’s.  Those who have jumped on the bandwagon, as reported by the AP,  include mayors of Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, Meriden, Willimantic, New London, and New Britain.  Joining them are  Senators Andrew Maynard of Stonington, ­Joseph Crisco of Woodbridge, Representatives ­Ronald Lemar, James Albis of East Haven, ­Hilda Santiago of Meriden, ­Angel Arce of Hartford, Victor Cuevas of Waterbury, and ­Susan Johnson of Windham.  Although all are Democrats at least one Republican,  Larry Cafero,    Minority leader in the Legislature,and possible GOP gubernatorial contender also likes the idea but would restrict the licenses from being used as a pass to access the voting booth or allowing convicted felons to drive. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/29/licenses-for-immigrants-wins-broad-support-connecticut/PwECw5lpxS7yaeL9sqKFpI/story.html

 

 

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How’s your health?  Well, the US economy – not so much! As thehill.com reports the US economy grows by 2.5 percent in first quarter of 2013  slightly below estimates as concerns linger about the health of the recovery. 

 

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