Bridgeport named highest-taxed city
in the Country!
February 20, 2013
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 of our State is Not so Stately
The 169 towns throughout Connecticut will be
forced to dramatically increase property taxes as Governor Malloy shifts state
aid away from municipal budgets while concurrently ending such programs as
Pilot funding and prohibiting the collection of automobile taxes while providing
no alternative resource. His budget will
push homeowners and businesses off the State’s own Fiscal Cliff and into a cesspool of growing debt, deficits,
and unsustainable public sector union contracts while he continues to march to
the beat of the public sector unions as the self-proclaimed Son of Organized
Labor. Missing from the equation of the
Governor’s budget, which has yet to be addressed by legislators, the news
media, or municipal officials, is a frank and honest discussion of State
mandates such as Binding Arbitration, Collective Bargaining and Prevailing Wage
Laws. Collectively these mandates are
the primary drivers of state and local property taxes, 85% of which pay for the
personnel related costs of Town and Board of Education employees.
The Governor, in his last
state budget, not only imposed the largest tax increase in State history of
$1.5 billion, but also locked taxpayers into a 9% wage increase for State
employees. He also laid the golden goose
of job security at their feet while Connecticut
taxpayers continue to be thrust onto the unemployment line and homeowners lose
their homes to Tax Lien Sales.
As the Governor proposes ending the collection of automobile taxes,
he should immediately call for ending Collective Bargaining Laws and give the
management of our towns and cities to those whom we elect to office. Instead those management rights have been
steadily chiseled away by arbiters in support of public sector unions as their
wages, pensions and healthcare benefits have become unsustainable. The Federation offers below further information
to substantiate why the State of our State must now be addressed in an effort
to keep businesses from fleeing Connecticut and homeowners from losing their
homes to property taxes they cannot afford to pay.
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Let’s Talk!
As we assess the State’s
Budget, we must question the wisdom of allowing Governor Malloy and Mr. Barnes
to place our towns and our own personal finances at risk.
JOIN THE
FEDERATION ON MARCH 23, 2012
AS WE DISCUSS HOW WE CAN PROTECT OUR HOME
AND BUSINESSES FROM GOVERNOR’S MALLOY’S BUDGET GUARANTEED TO DRIVE UP LOCAL
PROPERTY TAXES!
Date: Saturday, March 23, 2013, Time: 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Location: Wethersfield
Library, 515 Silas Deane Highway,
Wethersfield, CT
RSVP/Questions: Susan Kniep 860-841-8032, email: fctopresident@aol.com
Directions: http://wethersfieldlibrary.org/contact/directions.html
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ALSO, ATTEND THE FEB 21, 2013, 3:30
PM FORUM ON
The Future of Public Pensions in Connecticut
Central Connecticut State
University, Philbrick
Room at the CCSU Student Center,
Moderated by former Democratic governor
candidate Ned Lamont
Also read, CPI's recent policy paper, Connecticut's Public Pension
Liabilities: How Large are They and What Can Be Done About Them, as well as an accompanying op-ed in the Hartford
Courant.
And Watch: The State Pension Time Bomb: Video - Bloomberg
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The Federation
raises the following questions following the release of Governor Malloy’s
Budget:
How Many
Towns and Taxpayers in CT
will become Bankrupt under Governor Malloy’s Budget as
Mayors Call Malloy Budget Dishonest, ‘Shell Game’?
As reported by Christine Stuart of CTNewsJunkie.com in her aforementioned
article: “Shell game” and “dishonest” were the words a bipartisan group of
mayors and first selectmen used Friday to described Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s
budget proposal, which they said shifts how the state funds municipalities.
Malloy’s budget shifts municipal funding to cover the state’s education
obligation and changes another funding stream into a capital program. The move
allows Malloy to boost education funding and allows him to argue he’s giving
municipalities $45 million more than he did last year. But local leaders say
the new spending comes with so many strings attached that it does the exact
opposite of what the governor says it does.
Setting aside the elimination of the car tax, the changes will cause New Haven to lose $13.8
million, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, said at a
Capitol press conference. Continue
reading this article at http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/mayors_call_malloy_budget_dishonest_shell_game/
How Much will
Your Town Receive To Manage its General Fund?
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Did the Governor Use Sound Management Practices in Stamford as its Mayor? Is he Applying those
same Practices as Governor?
Neena Satija of CTMirror.com in a Two Part Series
Reports:
Stamford's failed attempt at energy innovation cost taxpayers
tens of millions
Excerpt: In the
summer of 2010, residents in the Shippan neighborhood
began complaining of strong, unpleasant smells wafting through their open
windows and into their cars. They live near the city's marinas and just to the
south of its sewage treatment plant……… After borrowing millions of dollars from
the city for immediate repairs in recent years, the WPCA is likely to
require millions more, and it has no money on hand for emergencies. State
environmental officials say the agency will likely have to remedy that with a
significant increase in user rates……..Critics say
that while Malloy, Barnes and Brown spent years and millions of dollars
planning the project, known as "Waste-to-Energy" or "Stamford
Biogas," they ignored the real issue: The plant was malfunctioning
regularly, costing the city, its harbor and Long Island Sound dearly. "Waste-to-Energy.
This was the big thing," said Louis Casale, who
was on the WPCA board for about 10 years and left the chairmanship and the
board in late 2011. "...We had no idea, at least I had no idea," he said, "that
things at the plant were literally falling down around us." Read this article in its entirety at http://www.ctmirror.org/story/18458/long-after-upgrade-stamfords-sewage-plant-still-disrepair
Striving for innovation, spending millions, leaders ignored major problems.
Excerpt: Plagued by mismanagement, faulty equipment
and a botched $105 million upgrade, Stamford's
Water Pollution Control Authority has come under fire for sending hundreds of
millions of gallons of sewage into Long Island Sound in recent years. Part of the problem was that three top city officials -- the mayor,
who is now Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy; his aide, Ben Barnes, now the
state's budget chief; and the sewage plant's longtime director, Jeanette Brown,
who resigned in 2011 -- were focused on an exciting new technology that aimed
to turn waste into energy. Unfortunately, their plan had a few glitches. Read this article
in its entirety at http://ctmirror.org/story/18930/advanced-technology-if-it-worked
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While the Governor bleeds
municipal budgets by eliminating the Car Tax and offering no alternative
funding or solution, he gives his own State
Budget an Infusion of “$21 million in
extra revenue as most vehicle owners will no longer be able to claim a credit
on their state income tax returns” as noted within Terry Cowgill’s
OP-ED | Malloy's Budget Strategy: Divide And Offend.
Recently, Gallup released a pole captioned Alaska, Hawaii Follow D.C. in Highest Gov't
Employment in which they noted “States with the highest percentages of local government workers include
Maryland in fifth place, but are led by New York, followed by neighboring Connecticut, and then
Wyoming and Tennessee”. Gallup's "State of the States" series “reveals state-by-state differences on political, economic,
and wellbeing measures Gallup tracks each day. “New stories based on full-year
2012 data will be released throughout the month of February”.
As noted by CTMirror.org in their article captioned, Mayors accuse Malloy of obscuring cuts to cities “Connecticut's mayors launched a pointed attack Friday
on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposed budget, saying the former mayor of Stamford
is obscuring cuts to municipalities and usurping their authority by shifting
state aid from discretionary to education grants”.
The Huffington Post in their article captioned States With The Highest Taxes Include New York, New Jersey:
Report notes that “New York, New
Jersey and Connecticut are the three most expensive states to live in when it
comes to state and local taxes. “New Yorkers pay the highest rate in the
nation, handing over 12.8 percent of their income to state and local taxes. “Next
are residents of New Jersey, who pay 12.4
percent, and Connecticut residents pay 12.3 percent, the report
showed.”
Economist: Connecticut's Real Jobless Rate At 14.4 Percent |
CT ... Posted by Dan Lovallo
on Jan 18, 2013 | Leave a Comment With Connecticut’s latest
economic picture being described as “dismal,” one economist said even the
jobless rate of 8.6 percent is misleading. Don Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of
research for New Haven-based DataCore
Partners, is quoted in the Day of New London newspaper, that the state’s real
jobless rate is at 14.4 percent, when counting workers who have given up
looking for jobs, are marginally employed or working part-time. READ MORE
CTMirror.org in their article in June, 2012 captioned Report: Connecticut was among nation's worst at saving for
public ...Benefits notes: There is a
$1.38 trillion gap between the total pension and retiree health care liability
facing states and their respective municipalities, and the funds they have set
aside to meet them. Of that figure, $757 billion was for pension obligations,
and $627 billion was for retiree health care.
Their article further notes: With
states' savings for employee retirement benefits at an all-time low, Connecticut ranked among the worst of the worst in 2010,
according to a new report this week from the Pew Center
on the States. Reeling from recession-driven investment losses, a pension raid
to prop up state finances and a history of not saving for retiree health care, Connecticut government had more than $71 billion in liabilities and
less than $24 billion set aside to cover them two years ago.
Connecticut is Now Ranked Number 1 in the Country in
Net Tax Supported Debt Per Capita at $5,096. Read More on Pages 30-31 of the Report at http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa/Documents/year/FF/2013FF-20121115_Fiscal%20Accountability%20Report%20FY%2013%20-%20FY%2016.pdf
On January
1, 2013, CBIA in an article
captioned Avoiding a Cliff of Our Own - CBIA , Why the state must set a new course for
fiscal responsibility By Bill DeRosa noted: A report published in September by the Connecticut Policy Institute
(CPI) puts the state’s total long-term debt at more than $80 billion, the
third-highest debt per capita in the country, and argues that the state
underestimates the amount of its long-term obligations because it uses an
unrealistically high assumed discount rate (the return on invested funds)—8.25%
or higher—which allows for a lower valuation of unfunded liabilities. …….According to a
report published by CBIA this month, state spending has grown 184% since 1990, easily outpacing growth in inflation, the state population,
and median household income. The most dramatic spending growth over the last
two decades has occurred in five main areas:
- State employee retiree health benefits—1,395%
- Medicaid—405%
- Debt service (paying off state borrowing)—391%
- The corrections system—253%
- State employee pensions—187%
Read the aforementioned article in its entirety at http://www5.cbia.com/cbianews/article/avoiding-a-cliff-of-our-own/
In the
article by The Hartford Advocate in Dec, 2012, captioned Can Connecticut Afford to Hand Out $860 Million in Tax
Incentives to Businesses Each Year They report: A news analysis by the New York
Times puts the national tab at more than $80 billion a year in state and local
taxpayer handouts to businesses. Those include tax breaks, low-interest loans
and outright cash giveaways to encourage companies to locate in a particular
area or expand there. Now, none of this is really a surprise to Connecticut's political leaders. After all,
they were the Sugar Daddies and Mommas who approved all these bribes to
corporations.
Nearly seven years ago, some lawmakers were so worried about how much
the state was losing in revenue because of all these tax credits and exemptions
(by one estimate it amounted to something like $5.3 billion in all) that they
set up a special committee to look into the mess and weed out some of these
giveaways.…… Jackson Laboratory is
getting a package worth $291 million in return for coming to Farmington. Cigna Health and Life Insurance
pulled in $21 million for its Bloomfield
expansion plans. NBC Sports Network is enjoying $20 million in taxpayer support
to create a new operation in Stamford.
ESPN will receive a tidy $18.7 million for additions to its Bristol
campus, and UBS AG is another $20 million beneficiary (for not taking jobs out
of Stamford) of
the Malloy administration's programs. Read the article in its entirety at http://www.ct.com/news/advocates/latest-news/nm-ht51nctaxincentives-20121211,0,3742528.story
William Baldwin of Forbes writes Do You Live In A Death Spiral State? - Forbes. noting: Don’t buy a house in a state where private
sector workers are outnumbered by folks dependent on government. Thinking about
buying a house? Or a municipal bond?
Be careful where you put your capital. Don’t put it in a state at high risk of
a fiscal tailspin. Eleven states make our list of danger spots for investors.
They can look forward to a rising tax burden, deteriorating state finances and
an exodus of employers. The list includes California,
New York, Illinois
and Ohio, along with some smaller states like
New Mexico and Hawaii…………..Two factors determine whether a
state makes this elite list of fiscal hellholes. The first is whether it has
more takers than makers. A taker is someone who draws money from the
government, as an employee, pensioner or welfare recipient. A maker is someone
gainfully employed in the private sector……The second element in the death
spiral list is a scorecard of state credit-worthiness done by Conning &
Co., a money manager known for its measures of risk in insurance company portfolios.
Conning’s analysis focuses more on dollars than body counts. Its formula
downgrades states for large debts, an uncompetitive business climate, weak home
prices and bad trends in employment……..Conning rates
North Dakota the safest state to lend money to, Connecticut
the most hazardous. A state qualifies for the
Forbes death spiral list if its taker/maker ratio exceeds 1.0 and it resides in
the bottom half of Conning’s
ranking.
Read entire article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2012/11/25/do-you-live-in-a-death-spiral-state/
The news that Bridgeport named highest-taxed city in the Country
followed reports Thirteen American Cities Going Broke - 24/7 Wall St.
The Yankee Institute published an article today captioned Average unemployment higher in liberal states than conservative .. state in which they note: Gallup
just released its most recent poll on which states are
the most conservative and which are the most liberal, based on how residents
identify themselves. Connecticut was tied for
the fourth most liberal state with Delaware. When you compare the December 2012
unemployment rates against the list of conservative and
liberal states, you’ll find the most liberal states have an average
unemployment rate that is almost 2 percent higher than the average unemployment
rate for the conservative states.
The only question now is how many towns and taxpayers will
sink or swim in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy as the CTPost
in their article captioned Deficit expected to balloon to $1.2B - Connecticut Post
notes
“The state's $365 million budget deficit may explode to about $1.2 billion by
the time the next fiscal year starts July 1, according to a forecast announced
Thursday.” The article goes on to note:
House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said that
Malloy's handling of the budget has been opaque for months, with understated
summaries and overestimated savings from union concessions that can no longer
be hidden. "What we're saying is this state is spending $1 million every
day more than we're taking in," Cafero said
Thursday afternoon. "What should be disturbing is that we're finding it
now, conveniently after an election. We've had an inkling
about the revenues going south for almost a year. That's irresponsible." Cafero recalled that hard-fought union concessions of 2010
that were supposed to save $700 million the first year and $900 million the
second, seem to be largely illusory. "That's $1.6 billion and the governor
has never been able to show even half of that savings," he said, "But
we relied on it. Had we achieved that $1.6 billion, we would be in surplus
right now." Continue reading the article at http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Deficit-expected-to-balloon-to-1-2B-4040685.php
The State Continues to Borrow Come Hell or High Water while committing
millions of State taxpayer dollars to speculative business ventures to include a
Hedge Fund whose manager, with a net worth of $10 Billion, earned $3.9 Billion in 2011.
Last month, the Yankee Institute published The List of Lasts, to “highlight the disgraceful list of lasts Connecticut has compiled in recent years”. They include:
- Barron’s rated Connecticut’s debt
situation as the worst in the country
in 2012 (Bary, Andrew. “State of the States”
Barron’s. August 27, 2012)
- TopRetirements.com ranked Connecticut
as the 2012 worst state for retirement
(Murphy, Eamon. “The 10 Worst States to Retire
In: They’re Frosty and Costly” January 13, 2012. TopRetirements.com)
- The Institute for Truth in Accounting ranked Connecticut’s
financial status as the worst in the nation with a debt burden of
$49,000 per taxpayer (The Institute for Truth in Accounting, “The Financial State of the States”)
- Connecticut’s credit quality was ranked 50th in the nation by
Conning Inc’s State of the States Municipal
Credit Research Report in 2012 (Sturdevant, M.
“Connecticut Ranks Last Among 50 States in Credit Analysis by Conning”
Courant Blogs. November 27, 2012.)
- Connecticut’s Tax Freedom Day of May 5, 2012 was
the latest in the nation according
to the Tax Foundation (Tax Foundation Tax Freedom Day Study 2012)
- Connecticut’s Achievement Gap is the worst in the nation
according to the Connecticut Council for Education Reform
- The Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors by the Cato
Institute gave Gov. Dan Malloy an “F” (Edwards,
Chris. “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors” October
9, 2012.)
Recently, The Day
of New London
in their article captioned The Day - Legislators concerned about spiraling state pension
...Obligations. noted: State pension costs increased more than 580 percent in the
past 20 years, to $900 million annually from $130 million annually, while Connecticut's population has increased only 9 percent,
the Connecticut
Business & Industry Association reported on Wednesday. Union contracts and
state employee perks need to be evaluated again, said state Rep. Diana Urban,
D-North Stonington, a member of the Appropriations Committee. "I think we
need to get people to come back to the table," Urban said Wednesday.
Health benefit costs for state employee retirees increased more than 980
percent in that 20-year span, to $640 million annually from $60 million
annually, according to the association's report. The governor and state
legislature have increased taxes, negotiated with unions, combined state
agencies and cut spending in various sectors, but the state's budget deficit
continues to grow. Just last week, this year's budget deficit increased to $70
million from $40 million based on decreased revenue projections. The governor
and legislature have an estimated $2.13 billion budget deficit to tackle in the
2014-16 biennium. No one in the governor's administration would be commenting
on the upcoming budget proposal or pensions and retiree health benefits
specifically, said Steve Jensen, director of communications for the Office of
the Lieutenant Governor, in an email Wednesday.
The article continues at http://www.theday.com/article/20130124/NWS12/301249540/1070/SPORT10
In conclusion, as Malloy Releases Budget. GUARANTEED
TO DRIVE PROPERTY TAXES.
, it is
apparent that the Taxes in Connecticut have
become a lethal weapon killing the finances and stability of Connecticut families and businesses.
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It’s Your
Money! Protect it!
Date: Saturday, March
23, 2013, Time: 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Location: Wethersfield Library, 515 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield, CT
RSVP/Questions: Susan Kniep 860-841-8032, email: fctopresident@aol.com
Directions: http://wethersfieldlibrary.org/contact/directions.html
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What will Your Town Receive?
CONNECTICUT
FY 2014 – FY 2015 BIENNIUM
GOVERNOR’S BUDGET
Proposed
Appropriations - Excel Format
BUDGET
HIGHLIGHTS
BUDGET
SUMMARY
BUDGET-IN-DETAIL
Synopsis of Governor's FY 14 & FY 15 Budget and Revenue Plan
... which you can also View
as HTML.
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