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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
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
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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
************************
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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