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June 6, 2013  

 

 

From:  The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact:  Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/

Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032

 

BREAKING:  Connecticut's Economic Trend Worst In Nation

Only State Where Economy Shrank in 2012, New Report Shows

By MARA LEE maralee@courant.com The Hartford Courant  10:37 a.m. EDT, June 6, 2013 Connecticut was dead last in economic growth last year, the only state in the nation where the combined total of goods, services and salaries paid within the state shrank compared with 2011.

 

State aid: How did your city or town make out? | The CT Mirror

 

Here's a town-by-town breakdown of total state aid.

 

Keno legalization was a back room deal

 

CONNECTICUT:  Source: Hartford Advocate - Hartford CTWhere There’s Smoke: Investigators Uncover A Culture of Corruption at the Capitol

 

Silent on corruption

Minuteman News Center   What are Connecticut Democrats doing to reform the system and hold colleagues accountable in the wake of a corruption trial that exposed brazen swapping of cash for killing legislation in the General Assembly? Well, besides, absolutely nothing, they are actually sticking it right back in the face of voters they’re apparently confident won’t hold them accountable.

See all stories on this topic »

 

Tax lobbyists work to get on ‘The List’

Credit unions used simply to have to show their tax exemption was proving useful, he said. Now they have to explain why it needs to exist at all.

Report: NSA collecting data on all Verizon calls

The National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers under a top secret court order, according to the Guardian. The British newspaper obtained the order, which requires Verizon to give the NSA information on all of its customers' phone calls—not just those under any suspicion of wrongdoing.

 

 

IRS officials suspended for taking gifts

 

 

 

 

Why is what’s happening in Illinois, important to Connecticut? 

 

Because as Fitch Cuts Illinois Credit Rating Over Failure to Fix Pensions (Karen Pierog / Reuters) suggesting that “the burden of large unfunded pension liabilities and growing annual pension expenses is unsustainable”,    Connecticut’s State Legislators are proposing a State Run Retirement Plan for Private Sector Workers as State Employee Pensions are Funded at Only 48 Percent.  More on this issue can be found at the following link captioned  Senate Approves Drivers Licenses For Undocumented Immigrants.

 

 

Moody's Warns Illinois Credit Rating Could Fall Without Pension Reform (Karen Pierog / Reuters)

 

 

Connecticut State Employee Pensions:   Click Pensions  In 2012, payments were made to 46,124 retirees or beneficiaries totaling over $1.47 billion.

 

Connecticut State Employee Wages and Benefits:  Click  Employee Compensation Note:  Above the Seach Button Click Advanced Search to access more information.

 

The following are State Pensions Paid over $200,000

 

Get More Information on State Employee Pensions on the

 

Connecticut Transparency Website

 

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According to CalWatchDog,

 

Yes, govt. pensions can be completely canceled | CalWatchDog

 

 

May 15, 2013  By John Seiler  We’re constantly told that California governments have a “constitutional obligation” to pay for the pensions of public-sector employees. Except when there’s no money left. If a city, county or even the state goes absolutely flat broke, then nothing will be paid. That’s happening in Detroit: “DETROIT (AP) — The first report by Detroit’s emergency manager declares that the city is broke and at risk of running completely out of money — a financial meltdown that could mean employees don’t get paid, retirees lose their pensions and residents endure even deeper cuts in municipal services.”  Continue reading at …… http://www.calwatchdog.com/2013/05/15/yes-govt-pensions-can-be-completely-canceled/

 

 

Could this happen in Connecticut?  Let’s hope someone on the Hill in Hartford comes to their senses and we don’t have to find out after reading the 

 

REPORT State economy headed for crisis

 

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Also Check out the following:  Supreme court rules police can take DNA samples upon arrest, Obama appointees using secret email accounts, CT State Rep Blasts Irresponsible Budget, IRS Victims testify, CT State Legislators are proposing a State Run Retirement Plan for Private Sector Workers as State Employee Pensions Funded at Only 48 Percent, Court rebukes Rowland layoffs, Bridgeport taxpayers foot bill for contractor, Passage State Budget, Lawmakes want slot macines in their cities, Lembo reports surplus for 2013, ….

 

 

Supreme Court says police can take DNA samples upon arrest

By Lawrence Hurley  WASHINGTON | Mon Jun 3, 2013 1:15pm EDT  (Reuters) - In a major victory for law enforcement agencies, a divided Supreme Court on Monday ruled that police can take a DNA sample from someone who has been arrested and charged but not convicted of a serious crime.

 

Report: Obama appointees using secret email accounts

Several of President Obama’s political appointees are using secret government email accounts, The Associated Press reported Tuesday. The administration officials contend the separate addresses used by the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency and other departments are necessary to keep their primary inboxes from overflowing. But the practice invites concerns that federal agencies are conducting official business through accounts that go undetected in public records requests. It brings worries that government officials are hiding information and decisions. Continue reading at ….. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/303259-report-obama-appointees-using-secret-email-accounts

 

 

Giuliano Blasts Irresponsible Budget

HARTFORD – As the sun rose on Sunday morning, the Connecticut House of Representatives gave approval to a biennium budget that circumvents the Constitutional spending cap; relies on new gambling revenue; and accrues hundreds of millions of dollars in new debt, State Representative Marilyn Giuliano said. The constitutional spending cap was put into place as a compromise to the newly instituted income tax back in 1991 to prevent state spending from increasing too quickly.  However, the majority party’s budget exempts a whopping $6.3 billion from the cap to make possible a 10% increase in overall spending. Continue reading at ….. http://cthousegop.com/2013/06/giuliano-blasts-irresponsible-budget/

 

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Court rebukes Rowland, rules '03 layoffs were punitive

 

By Mark Pazniokas Monday, June 3, 2013 Email Follow @CTMirrorPaz

 

In a decision with far-reaching political and legal implications, a federal appeals court has concluded that former Gov. John G. Rowland illegally discriminated against union employees when ordering 2,800 layoffs soon after his election to a third term in 2002. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit faulted Rowland for exclusively eliminating union jobs when the Republican governor was confronting a budget deficit. ……The decision is binding on the Second Circuit, which covers Connecticut, New York and Vermont.  Read entire article at https://www.ctmirror.org/story/us-court-appeals-rebukes-rowland-rules-03-layoffs-were-punitive

 

 

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In February 2013, Bridgeport named highest-taxed city | WTNH.com Connecticut in the country.  Today we learned why! CTPost.com reporters Daniel Tepfer and Brian Lockhart write in an article captioned Taxpayers foot the bill for driveway the following:  BRIDGEPORT -- Millionaire developer Manuel "Manny" Moutinho has the best driveway to his waterfront mansion that taxpayer money can buy.   And he ought to know -- he built it.  Moutinho claims he and his two neighbors -- with far more modest homes -- ripped up a Stratford wetlands for a new, 20-foot-wide, 1,000-foot-long gravel driveway to their Long Island Sound properties because of flooding on a dirt driveway across from Sikorsky Memorial Airport.  Bridgeport owns Sikorsky. City officials confirmed they picked up the nearly $400,000 tab, and hired Moutinho's company, Mark IV Construction, without a formal bidding process……. Like many other developers and contractors doing business in and around Bridgeport, Moutinho has contributed to the powers-that-be. Between 2007 and 2008, Moutinho and family members gave a combined $4,500 to the Bill Finch for Mayor campaign.

Continue reading at ….. http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-pays-400-000-tab-for-gravel-road-4569762.php

 

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Senate Gives Final Passage To Budget

Democratic Senators Joan Hartley of Waterbury, Gayle Slossberg of Milford, and Paul Doyle of Wethersfield joined Republicans in voting against the budget.

by Christine Stuart | Jun 3, 2013 9:47pm CTNewsJunkie.com

The Senate gave final passage Monday to the two-year, $37.6 billion budget that moves more than $6 billion in Medicaid spending out from under the spending cap. If that money was kept under the cap, the two-year budget would be about $44 billion, an increase of almost 10 percent over the last biennium.

Republican Senators objected to moving the federal Medicaid money. It was the focus of nearly eight hours of debate before the budget passed 19-17. Democratic Senators Joan Hartley of Waterbury, Gayle Slossberg of Milford, and Paul Doyle of Wethersfield joined Republicans in voting against the budget………...

Sen. Toni Harp, who co-chairs the Appropriations Committee, said the public voted on the constitutional spending cap in 1992. But she says the legislature never returned to codify it.

“It has never been defined by any legislature to date,” Harp said.  She said in a Supreme Court case clarified that the legislature had an obligation to pass the implementation language of the constitutional spending cap. The legislature meets every year and has the ability to implement it, but bills proposing definitions are often defeated in committee.

“It’s a failure of ours not to address this in 22 years,” Frantz said.

Read entire article at ….. http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/senate_gives_final_passage_to_budget/

 

 

House adopts $37.6 billion budget for next biennium — or is it $44 billion?  By Keith M. Phaneuf and Jacqueline Rabe Thomas   CTMirror.org Sunday, June 2, 2013   The Connecticut House voted at sunrise Sunday to adopt a $37.6 billion, two-year budget that preserves municipal aid and meets a rising demand for social services, while relying on one-time revenues and the exemption of an unprecedented $6 billion from the spending cap. …… The budget expands the education reform initiatives adopted last year while launching a major science and technology expansion plan at the University of Connecticut. It calls for expenditures of $18.6 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1 and $19 billion the next. ………………….. No New Taxes? 

Read complete article at ….. https://www.ctmirror.org/story/house-adopts-376-billion-budget-next-biennium-%E2%80%94-or-it-44-billion

 

 

Keno not enough? Lawmakers want slot machines in their cities  By Keith M. Phaneuf and Jacqueline Rabe Thomas   Sunday, June 2, 2013 Tired of watching neighboring states expanding gambling while Connecticut's revenue from the casinos steadily declines, a handful of Democratic legislators Monday threw their support behind allowing 7,500 slot machines to open in Bridgeport, New Haven and Windsor Locks.  Continue reading at ….. https://www.ctmirror.org/story/keno-not-enough-lawmakers-want-slot-machines-their-cities

 

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COMPTROLLER LEMBO REPORTS $164.8-MILLION SURPLUS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013
Monday, June 3, 2013 | Contact: Tara Downes (860.702.3308) Tara.Downes@po.state.ct.us)

Lembo cautioned that the surplus is good news for the current fiscal year, but is largely attributed to unreliable revenue sources that the state may be unable to count on in the following years.  -- read more

 

 

View PDF for Economic Indicators

 

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