Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

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Thank you to all who contributed to TAX TALK this week. Several interesting articles follow to include the

RHAM Budget Referendum,
Response on the Congressional Pay Raise,
Suggestion to Place the Congress on Social Security,
Free Markets and Prescription Drugs,
How Connecticut Could Have Stopped the Casinos.

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INCLUDE IN NEXT WEEK'S PUBLICATION?
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From Taxgroup: Hebron Dollars and Sense
Subject: RHAM XI Budget Referendum Fails by 9 Votes
Date: 1/20/2004 6:00:23 PM Pacific Standard Time
Website: http://www.hebrondollarsandsense.com/

In an expected light voter turnout, the RHAM XI budget referendum for FY 2003-04 has failed by only 9 votes. The referendum failed in Hebron and Andover, and passed in Marlborough. The final vote by town was as follows:

Hebron                  647 Yes               741 No
Andover                185 Yes                203 No
Marlborough         378 Yes                275 No
TOTAL              1,210 Yes            1,219 No

Voter turnout in Hebron was 24.79%; turnout in Andover was 19.29%; and turnout in Marlborough was 17.51%.    Please check the website tomorrow morning after 9:00 a.m. for additional information on RHAM XI. D&S will have the Voter Analysis list updated so that you can compare the voter turnout and results for this referendum with the previous ten referendums. Also, check the local and regional newspapers for detailed coverage. Traci Dutcher reports for the Chronicle; Steven Goode reports for the Courant; and Eric Gershon reports for the Journal Inquirer. Weekend newspapers will also have coverage. Mike Thompson reports for the Rivereast and Pamela Morello reports for the Regional Standard.
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Robert Green, green_robert@hotmail.com
Chairman, Republican Town Committee, Salem
Subject: Another January, Another Congressional Pay Raise
January 14, 2004

Should we be surprised? Fits right in with the doubling of salaries of our
State legislators and the Governor. Must be nice to collect full time pay
and benefits for part time work (i.e. the legislators).

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FROM A FRIEND OF FCTO:
How Connecticut Could Have Stopped The Casinos
January 5, 2004
Op Ed in Hartford Courant by Brett D. Fromson
http://www.ctnow.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-fromsonoped0105.artjan05,1,1507600.story?coll=hc-headlines-oped

On the eve of the one-year anniversary, Jan. 6, of the repeal of the state's Las Vegas Nights statute - the legal loophole exploited by lawyers for the Mashantucket Pequots to bring casinos to Connecticut - we should recall the remarkable story of how and why the state legislature failed in its first attempt in 1991. If the General Assembly had acted then, it could well have prevented the out-of-control proliferation of Indian casinos confronting the people of Connecticut today. It all began in January 1991, when former U.S. Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. was sworn in as Connecticut's governor. With New England in economic recession and Connecticut government in fiscal crisis, Weicker expected his first months in office to focus on balancing the state's budget. Instead, Weicker was about to get a mini-Atlantic City shoved down his throat. On April 22, Weicker learned that the U.S. Supreme Court had declined to review the prior administration's appeal of lower court rulings compelling Connecticut to allow the Pequots a casino. Weicker was apoplectic. "I don't want gambling in Connecticut," he shouted to aides. "Gambling is not Connecticut." Weicker, however, was in a pickle. Attorneys for the Pequots had out-lawyered the prior administration of Gov. William O'Neill. The attorneys had convinced a federal judge that Connecticut's Las Vegas Nights statute - which let nonprofits raise funds for charitable purposes via low-stakes blackjack and other table games - meant the state allowed casino gambling. Under federal law, if Connecticut was deemed to have allowed casinos, then the Pequots, as a federally recognized tribe, could have a casino, too. To make matters worse for Weicker, the O'Neill administration had already acceded in secret to a Pequot-designed casino agreement, and this compact was about to be signed by the secretary of the Interior.   Weicker asked the state legislature to repeal the statute. Lobbyists for the Pequots were ready for him. They argued that Weicker was "reneging" on O'Neil's casino deal. They knew if the debate centered on the question of legalizing gambling casinos only for Indian tribes, they would lose. The Pequots framed the debate around the issue of fairness. Would the state honor its word? The implication - quite unfair - was that Weicker was another fork-tongued white politician.   Only by pulling out all the stops did Weicker narrowly win in the state Senate. Repeal, however, also required his winning in the House of Representatives. He fought with every argument he could muster but succeeded mainly in generating a political backlash that he was being unfair to the Pequots. A young Republican member from South Windsor, Rep. Kevin Rennie, said in the defining speech of the final debate, "Where's the fairness? ... In the 19th century, which may seem like a long time ago, the trail of tears for the American Indian led to Oklahoma and its reservations, but here today it runs from the Senate to the House of Representatives. Let it end here, and let it end today." Rennie urged the House to reject Weicker's proposal. And it did, voting against repeal by an overwhelming majority. Today, Rennie's appeal to historical guilt would move fewer hearts. Public sympathy for tribes such as the Pequots has eroded. Their casinos, armed with seductive video slot machines, have inflicted serious social costs on the people of Connecticut. We have seen a rise in women and children addicted to gambling, to say nothing of increases in crime, traffic, pollution, noise, drunken driving, suicides, larceny and bankruptcies in the towns and villages near the casinos. Meanwhile, as the casinos grow, people are increasingly concerned they threaten state and local authority. The gambling money has financed aggressive attempts to annex land to the reservations and through disproportionately large campaign contributions has bought significant political influence in Hartford and Washington for these special interests.
Finally, recent investigations, including mine into the Pequots, raise questions about the authenticity of other Indian bands in the state who want federal recognition - that is, casinos. The Pequots have little, if any, Pequot blood. Your typical tribal member is at most 1/64 Pequot. Many are 1/128, and some may have no Pequot blood at all. Nor do they have a unique tribal culture. When asked some years ago to perform a traditional Pequot song at an aboriginal cultural center in Hawaii, tribal members sang, "You Are My Sunshine." It's enough to make anyone wonder whether groups like the Pequots are real tribes or simply Americans seeking the American Dream by reinventing themselves as American Indians. Brett D. Fromson, who has a home in Salisbury, is the author of "Hitting The Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History" (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003).
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Subject: The Free Markets
Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 22:03:02 -0500
From: "Robert E. Chenard" Reply-To: frenchcx@adelphia.net
Organization: The French Connection

Free Markets

A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it's a free market. A toy company can outsource to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it's a free market.   A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it's a free market.   We can buy HP printers made in Mexico. We can buy shirts made in Bangladesh.   We can purchase almost anything we want from many different countries,   BUT heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian or Mexican pharmacy. That's called un-American!     And you think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby?   Think again!
(Please forward this to every person you know over age 50 or cares about someone who is....)
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GET A BILL STARTED
TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY

2004 Election Issue!!
This must be an issue in "2004". Please! Keep it going.

SOCIAL SECURITY: Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.
In more recent years, no congress person has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. For example, former Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries. Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives. Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH.... This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds; "OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, -every payday until we retire (wh h amount is matched by our employer)- we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits! Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. That change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us ... then sit back and watch how fast they would fix it. If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve. How many people can YOU send this to?
Keep this going clear up thru the 2004 election!! We need to be heard
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