Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

Excerpts: As early as Tuesday, the city's Department of Water and Sewerage is prepared to begin shutting off the water to as many as 23,000 commercial and residential customers who've defaulted on their payments

Meanwhile, amid a bribery scandal that hasled to corruption charges against 14 employees

, the school system is running out of money and will have to stop paying teachers and staff on June 30, according to a school system memo obtained by the teachers union. Read entire article at http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/no-water-no-teachers-behind-detroit-s-surge-old-problems-n565591

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PUERTO RICO

Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis Deepens as Government Misses Payment

Wall Street Journal‎ May 2, 2016

By NICK TIMIRAOS and HEATHER GILLERS and MATT WIRZ

Excerpt:Puerto Ricos debt crisis moved into a more perilous phase for residents, lawmakers and bondholders Monday after the Government Development Bank failed to repay almost $400 million.

The missed principal payment, the largest so far by the island, is widely viewed on Wall Street as foreshadowing additional defaults this summer, when more than $2 billion in bills are due.Continue reading at http://www.wsj.com/articles/puerto-ricos-debt-crisis-turns-up-the-heat-on-congress-1462219483

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CONNECTICUT

Malloy Offers A Budget Compromise; Democrats Balk On Tax Side

Hartford Courant‎ May 3 2016 By Christopher Keating

HARTFORD In an attempt to break the budget deadlock at the Capitol, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy offered Democrats a compromise solution Monday to restore some controversial cuts that brought the two sides closer to a deal.

The offer for more funding for hospitals and public schools came amid a clash between the governor and Democratic leaders that has been percolating for weeks and became worse over the weekend with no budget talks and no progress. Both sides have been unable to agree on how to overcome a nearly $1 billion budget deficit forecast for the fiscal year that starts July 1.Continue reading at http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-malloy-compromise-0503-20160502-story.html

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Christine Stuart of CTNewsJunkie.com reports

Public Retirement Bill Headed To Malloy After Wyman Breaks Tie Vote

Stuart writes: Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman broke a tie vote Saturday in the Senate to send to the governor a controversial bill that would create a quasi-public agency to administer a retirement system for Connecticut residents.

Sens. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, and Paul Doyle, D-Wethersfield, joined Republicans in voting against the measure and tying the vote 18-18. Wyman cast her vote in the affirmative to send the bill to Gov. Dannel P. Malloys desk.� Continue reading "Public Retirement Bill Headed To Malloy After Wyman Breaks Tie Vote"

And Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) provides their perspective on this deal within Read Article which they captioned House Narrowly Approves Shaky Retirement Savings Plan ...

Here is an excerpt from CBIA �

Its the classic legislative bait-and-switch. Workers will get:

No tax-deferred retirement savings benefit for the mandatory 3% contribution deducted from their paychecks

More money taken out of their hard-earned retirement dollars to fund a new quasi-government bureaucracy.

In other words, supporters of this bill want your employees to save�but not as much as they could.

The bill is a knock against employers, a bad deal for employees, and could cause the loss of private-sector jobs in the state.

Whats worse, this new plan will directly and unnecessarily compete against Connecticuts private-sector businesses selling retirement plans.Continue reading at http://www.cbia.com/news/issues-policies/shaky-retirement-savings-plan-narrowly-approved-house/

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And you fellow taxpayers have good reason to question the folly of our State legislators wanting to exert control over the pensions of private sector workers.

After all, their track record has been a failure when managing the pensions of our public employees as noted in Oct, 2015 when the Wall Street Journal wrote WSJ: Wealthy Connecticut's Pension Problem Is a 'Ticking ...Time Bomb noting and we quote Connecticut has roughly half of what it needs to pay future retirement benefits for its workers, with one lawmaker calling the situation a ticking time bomb.

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PROPOSED MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

In January, 2016 the Hartford Courant editorial staff wrote GE's Leaving Connecticut -- Here's Why You Should Care

The following is an excerpt - On Wednesday, General Electric, one of the world's largest and wealthiest companies, announced that it is moving its headquarters from Fairfield to Boston.� This is why it matters:� 1. Hundreds of high-paying jobs are leaving, including top company officers, and we lose their income tax revenue.

Despite what some have said, GE does pay taxes, according to FactCheck.org and ProPublica. As do or did its employees. It is Fairfield's largest taxpayer. Continue reading at http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-why-ge-matters-20160114-story.html

Will other companies follow as on April 28, 2016, Democrat Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney proposed increasing the states hourly minimum wage to $12 by Jan. 1, 2020 which was denounced by Senate Republicans as described within CTMirror.org article captioned Connecticut Senate debates, for a while, a $12 minimum wage.

And here is what others are saying on this issue.

Former CEO of McDonalds: $15 Minimum Wage Will Cost Jobs

Jon Miltimore is the Senior Editor of Intellectual Takeout, Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. | April 25, 2016

Ed Rensi, the former president of McDonalds USA, wrote an article that appeared in Forbes in which he argued that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour could cost about a million jobs in limited service restaurants.

Rensi, who worked at McDonalds for three decades before he became Chief Executive Officer, made three key points: 1) A $15 minimum wage would eat up 75 percent of the profit for a typical McDonalds franchise owner; 2) Franchise owners would be compelled to shift to automated kiosks to protect their bottom line; 3) the job losses would primarily impact young workers.

UC Berkeley recently offered a real-life case study on this very topic. Continue reading at http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/former-ceo-mcdonalds-15-minimum-wage-will-cost-jobs

And in an Editorial by Investors Business Daily

UC Berkeley Touts $15 Wage Law, Then Fires Hundreds ... Of Workers After It Passes

Labor Markets: Hundreds of employees at the University of California at Berkeley are getting schooled in basic economics, as the $15 minimum wage just cost them their jobs. Too bad liberal elites fighting for $15 dont get it.

A week after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the states $15 minimum wage boost into law, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees announcing that 500 jobs were getting cut.

Coincidence? Not really. Continue reading at http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/uc-berkeley-touts-15-minimum-wage-then-fires-hundreds-of-workers-after-it-passes/

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This has been a tumultuous year for Connecticut taxpayers. Governor Malloy and our State Legislature have been on a spending spree with taxpayer dollars yet it appears that only now they have come to the realization that the state is broke. Worse than that � the States high debt and deficits have rating agencies questioning the financial stability of our state as Most Wall Street agencies have 'negative outlook' on CT ... as noted by CTMirror.org.

In an article captioned The 10 Worst Sinkhole States in America | Wolf Street written in March, 2015 it is noted the following and we quote� The taxpayer burdens in Connecticut and Illinois weigh over twice as much on each of their respective taxpayers as the burden in California.

Recently it was reported by WFSB that Wallet Hub ranks CT most expensive states for real-estate taxes noting that Connecticut ranked 46th in real-estate tax out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia.To learn more information on the study, click here �

2016 Property Taxes by State as Provided by Wallethub
Rank	State	Effective Real-Estate Tax Rate	Annual Taxes on $176K Home*	State Median Home Value	Annual Taxes on Home Priced at State Median Value
Top 4 Lowest Property Taxed States
1	Hawaii	0.28%	$489	$504,500	$1,405
2	Alabama	0.43%	$764	$123,800	$538
3	Louisiana	0.48%	$841	$140,400	$672
4	Delaware	0.53%	$929	$232,900	$1,231
Click Real Estate Tax Rankings Below to obtain the standing of other states
Real-Estate Tax Rankings
Top 6 Highest Property Taxed States
46	Connecticut	1.91%	$3,357	$274,500	$5,244
47	Texas	1.93%	$3,392	$131,400	$2,537
48	Wisconsin	1.97%	$3,459	$165,900	$3,266
49	New Hampshire	2.10%	$3,698	$237,400	$4,996
50	Illinois	2.25%	$3,959	$175,700	$3,959
51	New Jersey	2.29%	$4,029	$319,900	$7,335