Please
note that if you wish to be added to the Federation’s email list, write to
fctopresident@aol.com. Thank you.
July 13, 2015
From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
THE STATE BUDGET CON!
On May 4, 2011, Bloomberg News reported “Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed a $40.1 billion two-year budget
that raises taxes by $2.6 billion, the biggest increase in state history…”
On June 30, 2015, Governor Malloy signed into law a two year, $40
Billion Dollar State Budget, containing $1.5 billion in tax increases.
Rejecting the budget in the House were Enfield
Democrat David
Alexander and Democrat John Hampton of Simsbury. In the Senate, the 15
Republicans who rejected the budget were joined by Waterbury
Democrat Joan Hartley and Wethersfield
Democrat Paul Doyle which brought the total to 17 slightly less than the 19
votes cast to approve the budget.
We are grateful for the votes of all who rejected the budget.
And now that we know what the budget contains, some could question
if our government officials are running a Ponzi
scheme.
Any ponzi scheme needs new money and this
budget has it - $1.5
billion which will come out of the pockets of Connecticut taxpayers. It’s where some of that money will go
that is the concern.
Since the adoption of the budget, we have learned from Jon Lender
of the Hartford
Courant that
More
raises coming for state government managers, totaling $7 million...
Here’s a quote from Malloy’s budget
guru, Ben Barnes, on the raises….
"You need to treat your employees
fairly and appropriately," Barnes said, even during a time of
"strained resources."
THE FEDERATION ASKS: WHERE DOES MALLOY AND BARNES THINK
THAT MONEY IS COMING FROM ?
And More Importantly,
WHAT ABOUT TREATING CONNECTICUT TAXPAYERS AND PROPERTY OWNERS
FAIRLY!?!?!?
AS CONNECTICUT TAXPAYERS STRUGGLE TO PAY SOME
OF THE HIGHEST TAXES IN THE NATION TO INCLUDE THE SECOND HIGHEST
PROPERTY TAX!
Approximately six months ago we read of another wage increase
reported by CTMirror.org
two days before Christmas captioned Governor Malloy appointees get holiday raises of
up to 12% | The CT ....
Again, paid by you, the taxpayer! Here they are….
Salaries
of Top Malloy Appointees
|
|
Provided
by CTMirror.org Dec 23, 2014
|
|
http://ctmirror.org/2014/12/23/early-christmas-malloy-appointees-get-raises-of-up-to-12/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The old and new salaries
of the governor's chief of staff and his returning commissioners. The
commissioners with 0% raises are recent interim appointees. The raises take
effect Dec. 26, 2014. As
Provided by CTMirror.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Department
|
Appointee
|
Old salary
|
New salary
|
Raise
|
|
OPM
|
Ben Barnes
|
$186,999
|
$209,439
|
12%
|
|
Transportation
|
James P. Redeker
|
$174,999
|
$190,749
|
9%
|
|
Economic Development
|
Catherine H. Smith
|
$170,000
|
$190,400
|
12%
|
|
Public Health
|
Jewel Mullen
|
$170,000
|
$190,400
|
12%
|
|
Revenue Services
|
Kevin Sullivan
|
$170,000
|
$190,400
|
12%
|
|
Social Services
|
Roderick L. Bremby
|
$170,000
|
$190,400
|
12%
|
|
Chief of staff
|
Mark Ojakian
|
$169,600
|
$189,952
|
12%
|
|
Emergency Services
|
Dora B. Schriro
|
$178,000
|
$183,340
|
3%
|
|
Military
|
Thaddeus J. Martin
|
$162,617
|
$182,132
|
12%
|
|
Children & Families
|
Joette Katz
|
$153,831
|
$172,291
|
12%
|
|
Mental Health & Addiction
|
Patricia Rehmer
|
$147,799
|
$165,535
|
12%
|
|
Labor
|
Sharon M. Palmer
|
$148,000
|
$156,880
|
6%
|
|
Correction
|
Scott Semple
|
$155,000
|
$155,000
|
0%
|
|
Rehabilitation Services
|
Amy Porter
|
$136,812
|
$149,126
|
9%
|
|
Motor Vehicles
|
Melody Currey
|
$130,000
|
$145,600
|
12%
|
|
Early Childhood
|
Myra Jones-Taylor
|
$134,000
|
$142,040
|
6%
|
|
Energy & Environment
|
Robert J. Klee
|
$135,000
|
$139,050
|
3%
|
|
Agriculture
|
Steven Reviczy
|
$118,000
|
$132,160
|
12%
|
|
Housing
|
Evonne Klein
|
$120,000
|
$127,200
|
6%
|
|
Veterans' Affairs
|
Joseph Perkins
|
$125,000
|
$125,000
|
0%
|
|
Aging
|
Margaret Gerundo-Murkette
|
$119,999
|
$123,599
|
3%
|
Another benefactor of Connecticut’s recently passed budget was reported by CTMirror.org on July 1
captioned Retired teachers buck CT budget trend
and get a tax cut ....noting “When retired teachers still living in Connecticut file
their income tax returns next spring, 10 percent of their pensions will be
exempted, saving them an estimated $11.8 million. “That exemption is slated to
grow to 25 percent one year later, and then to 50 percent two years from now”.
*************
So How Much are Connecticut Employees and Retirees Receiving
from the State?
STATE EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION PAID IN 2014
In Fiscal Year 2014, the State paid its
employees
in wages and benefits a total of $5.94 BILLION DOLLARS .
The Top Ten State Wages and Benefits Paid
in Fiscal Year 2014 were …
$2,792,871; $2,330,412; $1,364,339;
$1,279,752; $1,027,743; $1,017,657;
$1,000,492; $837,691; $791,318; 726,103!
To View a complete list
Click on Employee Compensation
Upon arrival to this website you will find
that you can check state employee compensation for each Fiscal Year from 2010
to 2014. To check the
Compensation paid to each employee from the highest to the lowest paid, do the
following….
After you have clicked on Employee Compensation, Click on Advanced Search, Then click onSearch, you will then see
5 columns. Go to the last
column captioned TOTAL and click on two times. This
will give you the highest to the lowest paid. To move from page to page – Go to the
heading over the columns which is labeled Search
Results. At the end you
will see an arrow which you can click each time you want to move on to the next
page.
*************
STATE EMPLOYEE PENSIONS PAID IN 2014
In Calendar Year 2014, the State paid 49,616
individuals
Pensions totaling in excess of $ 1.62 BILLION DOLLARS .
The Top Ten State Pensions Paid in Calendar
Year 2014…
$335,573; $290,355; $286,691; $278,167;
$254,096; $238,132; $236339; $222,367;
$218,882; $216,797!
To View a complete list
Click on Pensions - Transparency Connecticut -
CT.gov .
Next, click SEARCH. Then click
column heading TOTAL two times. You
will see the highest to the lowest pensions being paid per retiree.
Click the arrow at the top of the column to continue your search.
*************
But wait - the spending is not over! CTPost.com reports Malloy's transportation plan could
require another special legislative session... noting “If Connecticut’s border communities appeared to
have dodged highway tolls in this legislative session, well — not so fast. “Lawmakers
could get called back to Hartford
in the fall for yet another special session, this time to deal with funding a $100 billion long-term transportation overhaul prescribed by Gov.Dannel P. Malloy
.”
And is there more we didn’t know before the Budget was sealed?
YES! CTNewsJunkie reported on July 9, 2015: Sharkey’s
Property Tax Legislation Rides Through in the Budget Implementer » noting
“A bill touted by House Speaker Brendan Sharkey that would put student housing
and new medical facilities acquired by large hospital networks on the tax rolls
for the first time was one of the many concepts buried in a special session
budget bill last week. “Its
passage means that, as of October 2015, municipalities can levy property taxes
on any student housing that’s not considered a dormitory and any new medical
facility acquired by a hospital network that netted patient revenue of $1.5
billion as of 2013”.
AP reported Budget
Implementer Surprise: State parks grappling with new 6.35 percent tax on
parking...
And is there more to come? Probably! We will keep you posted!
********************
SO WHAT IS THE STATE OF OUR STATE?
Suzanne Bates of the Yankee Institute summed up the State’s recent
legislative session best in her article dated July 8, 2015 captioned
Connecticut's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad
2015 Legislative ....Session
As national news publications shine a light on Connecticut’s
Fiscal Climate, it appears Connecticut
has taken a nose dive off the fiscal cliff.
The Mercatus Center of Mason University in
their report Ranking
the States by Fiscal Condition | Mercatus ranked Connecticut at 47 among US states for its fiscal health based on
its fiscal solvency in five separate categories. In the bottom five, we were amongIllinois, NewJersey, New
York and Massachusetts due to “low amounts of cash on hand
and large debt obligations.”
Excerpts from the Mercatus
Center Report on
Connecticut ’s debt and deficits
include the following:
State debt is calculated from
each state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. At $14 billion, Connecticut had more
than twice the amount of general obligation debt as the national average,
contributing to a total primary government debt of nearly $20 billion, or 9
percent of total state personal income.
Pension liability is calculated from
each state’s pension actuarial reports. Connecticut’s
five state-operated pension plans had a total unfunded liability of $76
billion, when calculated on a guaranteed-to-be-paid basis.
Other Post Employment Liability (OPEB) liability is
calculated from each state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. OPEB liabilities
in Connecticut
were significant at more than $22 billion, or 10 percent of state personal
income, and they were unfunded with no assets to back the liabilities.
What is of further concern is that Mercatus
ranks Connecticut 48th in terms of cash solvency noting ……Cash solvency
measures whether a state has enough cash to cover its short-term bills, which
include accounts payable, vouchers, warrants, and short-term debt. Connecticut could cover
only 40 percent of its short-term bills with the most liquid forms of cash.
When including less liquid forms of cash, Connecticut had slightly more than
the amount needed to fully cover all short-term spending, a ratio of 1.1 times
cash to short-term liabilities.
Click on Connecticut to continue reading their report.
But this is probably no surprise to many in Connecticut who are still
choking on the hard to swallow budget formulated and approved by Governor
Malloy and State Democrats as described by Rex Sinquefield a contributor to
Forbes in his article captioned Fiscal Suicide: Connecticut Governor
Malloy's $40 Billion ...Budget.
The writer notes “Insurance giant Aetna, currently headquartered in
Hartford, already pays $65 million a year in state and local taxes; under this new budget,
Aetna’s tax burden goes up by another 27 percent. “The tax hike is particularly
unconscionable considering the fact that Connecticut ranks in the bottom 10 on the Tax Foundation’s 2015 State Business Tax Climate
Index (and has the second-highest property tax in the entire nation).
Malloy also took some jabs from one of the most respected financial
publications in the world – the Wall Street Journal - which in their June 5,
2015 article captioned Connecticut
Tax Boomerang - WSJ described
Governor Malloy as “the nation’s worst Governor since Pat Quinn lost
in Illinois…”
How much worse can it get?
Well, here’s how Connecticut
began its new fiscal year…. .
Lembo Certifies $115.7M Budget Deficit »
Nappier threatened to warn investors of CT
pension crisis
By: Keith M. Phaneuf | July 2, 2015 CTMirror.org
State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier threatened last year to warn Connecticut bond
investors about legal problems that still leave the state’s pension system at risk of
federal disqualification, according to a letter obtained this week by The Mirror. Continue Reading →
***********