Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

In Arizona a senate committee voted to ban collective bargaining with public employee unions, the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld a 2009 lawsuit which challenged the State of Connecticut�s requirement that union labor be used on public sector jobs,� the State of Indiana joined 22 other Right-to-work states,� Connecticut teachers may lose tenure�.� �
Susan Kniep - The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayers - Feb 2012

OBAMA TAX TARGET: THE RICH

1:19PM: Obama's 2013 budget includes many tax proposals he has offered before. More

Obama's $3.8 billion budget plan

Obama's election-year budget challenge

Video: Obama's 2013 budget: There's an app for that

House GOP have backup on payroll tax WASHINGTON (AP) � Feb 13, 2012� House Republicans say they will introduce legislation to extend payroll tax cuts through the end of the year, even though bipartisan talks are stalled on a plan to make sure the cost doesn't add to federal deficits. Continued at �.. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PAYROLL_TAX?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-13-15-01-06

President calls for cuts to defense spending in budget request for 2013

Obama budget repeals billions in oil, gas tax breaks, reviving fight with GOP

Lessons for US in Greek debt deal?

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Malloy talks of surpluses while his new budget aims for a deficit� By Keith M. Phaneuf on February 13, 2012 When animated television tyke Lisa Simpson had to announce a tax increase to the American public, she deftly called it a "temporary refund adjustment," avoiding any mention of the three-letter T-word.� Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration stole a page from The Simpsons last week, repackaging a projected deficit in his new budget as a conditional surplus -- all without using the D-word. But while Lisa earned accolades from the fictional voters who only heard her mention a "refund," it remains unclear whether Malloy effectively steered the political debate -- and media coverage -- away from the $424 million hole his budget is headed for one year after it would take effect. "I was left wondering what the hell had happened," Rep. Vincent J. Candelora, a North Branford Republican, said of the $20.7 billion budget Malloy offered for the fiscal year that starts in July. "I think they found a way to circumvent the open and transparent part of our budget process, and the public should be outraged." Continued at �.. http://ctmirror.org/story/15418/malloy-talks-surpluses-while-his-new-budget-aims-deficit

Four GOP Candidates Make The Cut, A Fifth Misses By Minutes

No margin for error in Malloy's second budget�� Red ink, spending cap threaten new budget next year� By Keith M. Phaneuf� A year after building the largest fiscal security blanket in more than two decades of state budgets, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy moved onto the fiscal high wire without a net. ��Malloy spoke decisively Wednesday about finding spending cuts to keep his $20.7 billion plan for 2012-13 in balance, but lawmakers and the state's chief business lobby balked at the plan's barely visible margin for error. Continued at �.. http://ctmirror.org/story/15377/red-ink-spending-cap-threaten-new-budget-one-year-down-road

Jepsen defends 25 billion dollar settlement with banks over mortgage fraud and foreclosure abuses

Teacher, principal evaluations approved� By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas on February 10, 2012� The State Board of Education unanimously approved a system to grade teachers and principals Friday, noting the next step will be implementation. Read more about the details for these evaluations here and here

Teacher Tenure No Longer Taboo

Poll: Should Prospective Teachers Have Better Grades?

Jon Lender: Anti-Poverty Agency Pays $100,000+ To Exec Who's Rarely There �Jon Lender Government Watch 9:03 p.m. EST, February 10, 2012 In recent years Paul Puzzo has received more than $100,000 in annual compensation as vice president of business development and community affairs at the Community Renewal Team, the Hartford region's anti-poverty agency �- but he rarely appears at the office, and doesn't have a desk there. Puzzo, CEO of the anti-poverty agency until 2005, has a contract with CRT that runs through the end of 2013, although he spends a significant amount of time in Florida, a Courant investigation has found. Puzzo's mail now is forwarded from his longtime home in East Hampton to Stuart, Fla., where since 1993 he and his wife have owned a waterfront condominium unit on a cove sheltered from the nearby Atlantic Ocean, on a spit of land roughly 40 miles north of Palm Beach, records show. Both Puzzos registered to vote there on Jan. 17 � the same day Puzzo, 68, applied for a "Florida Homestead Exemption," local officials told The Courant. Under that "Homestead Exemption," a property owner can gain significant property tax savings if he declares that his Florida home is his or his dependent's "permanent residence." Continued at �.. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-lender-column-puzzo-0212-20120210,0,1460141.column?page=1

Greek Parliament Passes Sweeping Cuts Euro-zone finance ministers last week set Parliament's approval of the package as condition for handing Greece a second bailout of at least EUR130 billion ($ 171.5 billion) from euro-zone governments and the International Monetary Fund, which should allow Greece to escape a potentially chaotic debt default next month. The legislation outlines the terms of a bond-swap plan that will reduce the debt Greece owes to its private-sector creditors by around EUR100 billion. Continued at �. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/greek-parliament-passes-sweeping-cuts-20120212-00056

Even Critics of Safety Net Depend on It Increasingly - NYTimes.com� Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert Gebeloff , The New York Times News Service: He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this region�s long-serving Democratic congressman. Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice. Read article at

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/even-critics-of-safety-net-increasingly-depend-on-it.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

AGAIN? DEBT CEILING DEBACLE COULD STRIKE BEFORE ELECTION� Huffington Post�� Feb 13, 2012� The cost is expected to be $166 billion. A similar funding plan for the full-year package would require roughly $145 billion in borrowing before November. As a result, the pre-election deficit would be about $175 billion more than lawmakers anticipated in August, bumping up the timing of the debt-ceiling collision by at least a month.� But a more pressing concern for Treasury is the economic underperformance since August. Treasury emphasizes that the terms of the August deal were negotiated by members of Congress, but acknowledges that it provided the information. Among the key facts -- the U.S. could expect to run an average monthly budget deficit of about $125 billion for the next couple of years. That estimate was based on economic assumptions from the White House Office of Management and Budget, which have proved off the mark.

At the time Congress cut the debt ceiling deal, OMB expected real gross domestic product growth of 2.7 percent and an average interest rate on 10-year Treasury bills of 3 percent for 2011. For 2012, the office expected GDP growth of 3.6 percent and interest rates of 3.6 percent. That resulted in expected tax revenue of $2.2 trillion for 2011 and $2.6 trillion for 2012. Continued at �.. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/debt-ceiling-congress-_n_1253655.html

Court approves a new U.S. House map -- and the map maker's fee

By Mark Pazniokas �CTMirror.org� The Connecticut Supreme Court adopted a congressional redistricting plan Friday that makes minimal changes in the state's five U.S. House districts, and it ordered the legislature to pay the court-appointed special master who produced it a fee of $36,400.

Ponying up: Connecticut's true role as the political cash cow state

By Ana Radelat�� Connecticut's 20-year history as a loyal supporter of Democratic presidential candidates -- the state gave Obama 61 percent of the vote in 2008 -- probably means that none of the presidential candidates will physically spend much time in the state between now and November, but they will look to the state for more money than ever to run their campaigns.�

34 Shocking Facts About U.S. Debt That Should Set America On Fire With Anger We have all been lied to. For decades, the leaders of both major political parties have promised us that they can fix our current system and that they can get our national debt under control. As the 2012 election approaches, they are making all kinds of wild promises once again. Well you know what? It is all a giant sham. Continued at �.. http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/34-shocking-facts-about-u-s-debt-that-should-set-america-on-fire-with-anger

10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free Washington Post

�Immunity from judicial review �Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has successfully pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens, blocking the ability of citizens to challenge the violation of privacy. (Similarly, China has maintained sweeping immunity claims both inside and outside the country and routinely blocks lawsuits against private companies.) The Obama administration has successfully defended its claim that it can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review. (Saudi Arabia has installed massive public surveillance systems, while Cuba is notorious for active monitoring of selected citizens.) Continued at �. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-the-united-states-still-the-land-of-the-free/2012/01/04/gIQAvcD1wP_story_2.html