October 21, 2016
From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone:
860-841-8032
RECENT HEADLINES EXPOSE
CONNECTICUTS FISCAL CRISIS
BREAKING:
CTs fiscal
woes could mean higher municipal borrowing costs
By Keith M. Phaneuf,
CtMirror.org, Oct 20, 2016
A major
Wall Street credit rating agency warned Thursday that Connecticuts
state budget woes and dim economic growth could make it more costly for
its cities and towns to get credit.
In a new
report titled Connecticut Budgetary
Pressures and Dim Economic Growth Dampen Local Government Credit, S&P Global Ratings cited high property tax burdens,
potential cuts in municipal aid and rising pension costs in municipal budgets
as additional factors that could boost borrowing costs or otherwise make it
harder for communities to get credit. Read on
**************
Detroit Bankruptcy: 6
Lessons For Hartford
Hartford
Courant - 8 hours ago
Cities rightly fear
bankruptcy because it sends them running naked under harsh light, a cry for
help exactly as they are asking people to move in. But the national shame is
more about the colossal mess that leads up to bankruptcy than the petition
itself — which sends a signal that the city is finally facing its crises. Read More
**************
**************
New Pew Trust Report: Connecticut Has One
of Highest Public Debt to
Personal
Income Ratios
CTNewsJunkie.com reports Connecticut
has one of the highest ratios of debt to personal income and the fifth highest
ratio of state retiree health care liabilities to income, according to a Pew
Charitable Trusts report released Tuesday.
The report, which measured each states pension,
health care and debt costs as a percentage of personal income, put Connecticuts
total liabilities at $67.5 billion dollars or 30 percent of personal income.
The ratio of public debt to private income is 8.8 percent, which ties Connecticut with Massachusetts
for the second highest rate of public debt.
When pension, healthcare and public debt
are totalled, Connecticut
has the fifth highest rate of unfunded liabilities. Connecticuts
pension woes are well documented. The states pension obligations are about 40
percent funded, according to the 2015
actuarial valuation of the fund. Only 7 other states
have a higher rate of unfunded liabilities. Continue reading at http://www.ccm-ct.org/pewreportctdebt
**************
Accounting Group Says
Connecticut Has Second Highest Tax Burden
CTNewsJunkie.com reports Connecticut
has the second-highest taxpayer burden in the nation, according to a report released
this week by a think tank.
The states tax burden the amount each
individual taxpayer would have to pay the state treasury for the state to be
debt free is $49,000, according to Truth in Accounting (TIA), a Chicago-based
nonprofit organization that analyzes government financial reporting. Continue
reading at http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/accounting_group_says_connecticut_has_second_highest_tax_burden/
**************
Connecticut
rainy day reserve among the lowest in the nation
Connecticut
was the 7th lowest-ranked state in the country for state budget reserves even
before it drained another $170.4 million out of its rainy day fund last week to
close a deficit at the end of the 2015-16 fiscal year,
according to a recent report from Pew Research. Read more at http://trendct.org/2016/10/04/connecticuts-rainy-day-still-below-pre-recession-levels/
**************
Report ranks Connecticut last in fiscal
health
**************
In Bridgeport,
Property Values Plummet, but Taxes Soar for Some
New York
Times
**************
Moodys Drops
Hartford Bond Rating Again
**************
STATE DEBT
AND DEFICITS CONTINUE TO PLAGUE
CONNECTICUT AND ITS TAXPAYERS
The States $71 Billion
Debt according to the Latest Fiscal Accountability Report is due to what
Taxpayers owe State Retirees for Pensions and Healthcare
STATE DEBT
$71 BILLION DOLLARS
As noted within the
States latest
[PDF]Fiscal Accountability Report -
Connecticut General Assembly
The majority of
state debt is due to lucrative pension and healthcare benefits promised by
legally binding contracts to public employees as noted below in red.
And Taxpayers Are
Forced to Pay the Bill!!!!
STATE OF CT LONG
TERM DEBT OBLIGATIONS IN BILLIONS
|
|
|
|
|
Unfunded Liabilities
|
Nov. 2014
|
Nov. 2015
|
Difference
|
Debt Outstanding
|
$21.3
|
$22.8
|
$1.5
|
State Employee Retirement System (SERS)
|
13.3
|
14.9
|
1.6
|
Teachers Retirement System
|
10.8
|
10.8
|
0
|
State Post Employment Health and Life
|
19.5
|
19.5
|
0
|
Teachers Post Employment Health
|
2.4
|
2.4
|
0
|
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
Deficit
|
1.1
|
0.7
|
-0.4
|
TOTAL
|
$68.4
BILLION
|
$71.1 BILLION
|
$2.7
BILLION
|