BREAKING NEWS!
"At no
time did I know that anyone might have been trying to funnel illegal
contributions to my campaign," said Donovan.
June 4, 2012
From The Federation of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Contact Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
Revolutions can be costly as we learn that Governor Malloy's revolution cost $27 million - Courant.com
.
And so can Political Scandals as we have witnessed in the
past and will again as we Read The FBI Affidavit In Donovan
Corruption Case | Rick Green , which
is also provided Here.
The Governor’s $27 million taxpayer funded campaign “Still
Revolutionary" has left many perplexed!
Does the Governor mean our State is in the throes of a Revolution? Could be - as overtaxed taxpayers are leading
the charge in the highest taxed state in the nation! Or maybe our Governor means Connecticut is
evolving – from the sins of the past when we were labeled “Corrupticut”
- to a more positive image as noted within Ray Bendici’s
article in Connecticut Magazine captioned Corrupticut Gets a Passing Grade - On Connecticut - March 2012 –
.
Therein Mr. Bendici notes “Corrupticut?!! Hey, we didn't get that nickname by accident.
“As anyone even remotely familar with the state
knows, over the past decade or so we've endured a fairly steady barrage of
corruption scandals from a sitting governor, multiple mayors (including in
Waterbury more than once) and representatives. “We've seen abuses in terms of road and highway contracts
as well as other sundry municipal shenanigans.
“For a long time, Connecticut
has been known as a place where circumventing the system has (sadly)
flourished. “Until recently, apparently. “According to
a recent study by The Center for Public Integrity, Connecticut receives a B
grade in terms of being an accountable state.”
But the
question now is – Has our State again lost its moral compass?
Has it strayed off the straight and narrow path which led to The Center for
Public Integrity bestowing such accolades and high marks?!?
Or will we revert back to the label “Corrupticut”
following the disclosure by CTMirror.org that
the FBI arrests Chris Donovan's congressional fundraiser and CTNewsJunkie.com which reported Federal Investigation Included Straw Donations to Republican
PACs; Correction Officer In The Middle. Within this
article, Christine Stuart and Hugh McQuaid,
note “The federal investigation into House Speaker Chris
Donovan’s congressional campaign also included donations to Republican
political action committees under the purview of House Minority Leader Lawrence
Cafero’s office”….. “Cafero
said he promptly returned the donations after being informed that they came
from straw donors, but he added that he was not given an explanation as to why
the donations were made and was told he was not a target of the investigation.
Sources have speculated that the target of this part of the investigation
appears to have been the individual who arranged the straw donations that
eventually reached the Republican PACs.”
We also learned that a Key Figure In Donovan Campaign Probe Abruptly Loses Union
Positions as reported by Jon Lender
of The Hartford
Courant. Lender reports “Ray Soucy
of Naugatuck, a politically
active state worker and union official, has abruptly left three union posts
after being identified Friday as a central figure in the federal investigation
that led to the arrest last week of House Speaker Christopher Donovan's
congressional campaign finance director. “Soucy was
removed as treasurer of a union local representing state correction officers,
and he stepped down voluntarily from two ConnecticutAFL-CIO
posts after the head of that union expressed concerns about Soucy's
role in an unfolding political corruption scandal, union officials said
Saturday.”
As we assess the more recent Scandal, it is interesting to
reflect on the Second Circuit Upholds Connecticut Pay-to-Play Law
where it is noted “
In a much anticipated opinion (attached), the United States Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit has upheld significant portions of Connecticut’s pay-to-play
law. “Interestingly, while the Court upheld the state’s very strict prohibition
against contractors from contributing to the campaigns of state candidates, it
invalidated a similar provision as applied to state lobbyists. The opinion also
rejected a provision of the law which prohibited contractors and lobbyists from
soliciting campaign contributions from others.”
Lay of the Land 2011 Pay-to-play laws at the state
and municipal levels are in a constant state of transition - a tendency which
does not look to abate in 2011. We thought it might be helpful to categorize a
few representative jurisdictions to highlight some recent trends. http://www.paytoplaylawblog.com/
u.s. supreme court endorses connecticut campaign finance law
... June 27, 2011|By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com,
The Hartford Courant A much-anticipated U.S. Supreme Court elections decision
Monday had the effect of endorsing a key portion of Connecticut's campaign
finance law, but failed to address unresolved disputes over two other parts of
the law.
Taxpayers and voters of Connecticut deserve full accountability
following the revelations of the recent scandal which will again define our
State as “Corrupticut”.
Regrettably, this is not “Revolutionary” but instead sounds similar
to the “Corruption”
of the past!
For Congress, Donovan financed by
reformers and lobbyists | The Connecticut Mirror
Key Dates In
Corruption Investigation
Notes on a Scandal. Why Donovan is Doomed.
search for List of state and local political scandals in the
United States in addition to more recently
*********************
As the Republican and Democrat Parties in Connecticut respond to the recent
aforementioned scandal, the State Bond Commission is preparing to vote on June
4 on a proposed $300,000 bond to be paid by taxpayers for a center with
Communist Party ties. The Hartford
Courant has correctly noted that the People's Center Doesn't Deserve State Bonding - Hartford Courant.
Other items to
be voted on by the Bond Commission on June 4 are noted within the
INDEX AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE STATE BOND COMMISSION
...
As the State Bond Commission prepares to burden taxpayers
with more debt, in October, 2011 it was noted within the article 10 States With The Highest Debt Per Person: Report that Connecticut has the highest debt per capita
at $5,402. According to Connecticut’s Fiscal Accountability Report - Connecticut General Assembly our total debt is $71.4 Billion.
Reuters in its article captioned Cities lose property tax, state aid:
report recently
noted that “For the first time since 1980, property tax revenue and state aid
to cities across the United States are shrinking simultaneously, the Pew
Charitable Trusts said in a report on Thursday. “The downward double spiral is
likely to continue for at least two to three years at a time when local
governments have already been squeezed by increasing costs and falling revenue,
Pew researchers said. "More tough choices lie ahead as leaders look to
balance the day-to-day needs of their communities with their long-term
prospects," said Robert Zahradnik, research
director for the Pew American Cities Project. “The project is examining the
biggest city in each of the country's largest 30 metropolitan areas. “The
report, which uses U.S.
Census Bureau data, is its first. www.pewstates.org/localsqueeze
“
Business Week reported in their article Dismal jobs report sends Dow
into 275-point dive that “American employers added just 69,000
jobs in May, the fewest in a year, and the unemployment rate increased to 8.2
percent from 8.1 percent. Economists had forecast a gain of 158,000 jobs. “The
report, considered the most important economic indicator each month, also said
that hiring in March and April was considerably weaker than originally
thought.”
In their article captioned Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran
, The New York Times recently reported
that “ From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly
sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s
main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first
sustained use of cyberweapons, according to
participants in the program. “Mr. Obama decided to
accelerate the attacks — begun in the Bush administration and code-named
Olympic Games — even after an element of the program accidentally became public
in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran’s
Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the
Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been
developed by the United States
and Israel,
gave it a name: Stuxnet.”
ProPublica offers a “cheat sheet on what’s new and the
fallout at http://www.propublica.org/article/behind-the-u.s.-cyberattacks-on-iran. You may also find ProPublica’s
article on Remember Stuxnet? Why the U.S. is Still
Vulnerable also an interesting
read.
As we
learned in 2011 of the Desperate U.S. Cities, Counties File for Bankruptcy - ABC
News and how
Cops, Firefighters Asked to Downsize Pensions in Central
Falls, Rhode Island, today we have learned STOCKTON DEFAULTS ON ANOTHER BOND: WELLS FARGO TAKES BACK NEW CITY
HALL .
Many towns and
cities throughout the country are faced with unsustainable public pensions and
healthcare cost obligations which, unlike private pensions and 401k plans, are
guaranteed regardless of the volatility of the market as noted by Frank Keegan in his COMMENTARY Study calls for 'drastic reform' of public pension
regulation. Mr. Keegan goes on to say “Right now public pensions are betting they
will average about 10 percent return a year every year for the next 30 years
and there never will be another market downturn. “If investments fall short,
generations of citizens who already face destitution in old age will get hit
with higher taxes to pay twice for public pensions.” Mr. Keegan further notes that According to "Pension Fund Asset Allocation and Liability Discount Rates:
Camouflage and Reckless Risk Taking by U.S. Public Plans?" "current laws and regulations effectively exempt states and
cities from behaving prudently in how they manage and disclose the financing of
pension systems of their employees. The
result is "... camouflaging and risky behavior of U.S. public pension
plans seems driven by the conflict of interest between current and future
stakeholders, and could result in significant costs to future workers and
taxpayers."
With the Election
Season in full throttle, the Miami
Herald recently reported in their article captioned Justice Dept. orders Florida to halt non-citizen voter purge. that the “The Justice Department ordered Florida’s elections
division to halt a systematic effort to find and purge the state’s voter rolls
of non-citizen voters. “Florida’s effort appears to violate both the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protects
minorities, and the 1993 National Voter
Registration Act – which governs
voter purges – T. Christian Herren Jr., the Justice
Department’s lead civil rights lawyer, wrote in a detailed two-page letter sent
late Thursday night.”
On the home front, McMahon's wrestling company threatens JI
with libel lawsuit which captured the interest of columnists such as Rick Green
who in his article asks the question What Is Porn? You Decide | Rick Green.
As WWE attempts to protect itself from scrutiny, Connecticut
taxpayers paid a hefty sum to protect the Governor as the Hartford Courant
described in its article Malloy's Security Detail Nears $700000 In Overtime Pay . Here reporter Dave
Altimari describes Malloy’s budget “road show has
helped fuel a jump in overtime pay for Malloy's 11-member security detail of
state troopers. “They have earned a total of nearly $700,000 in overtime since
the governor took office. His two drivers alone made a
total of more than $150,000 in overtime during that period.”
As political candidates come under scrutiny, so do public
employees. In Waterbury a Firefighter Spent 4 Months in Puerto Rico on City's Dime
“accused of manipulating sick days and vacation
days to leave the country for four months, instead of doing his job. “But
according to Waterbury officials, he was in Puerto Rico getting a nursing degree. “After leaving
work on January 10, he used a combination of sick, vacation, and swap time,
where one firefighter swaps with another to cover shifts, to study in Puerto Rico, officials said. He didn’t come back
until May 17. “Make no mistake about it. It’s a slap in the face to
the taxpayers of the city of Waterbury,”
Mayor Neil O’Leary said.”
A former state employee also appeared to pick up some extra
cash as Jon Lender informed us that UConn Paying An Extra $108,000 To Top Cop Who Retired
With $154,000 Pension. As Jon Lender reminds us “University of
Connecticut Police Chief Robert Hudd,
whose super-high salary of $256,000 drew heavy criticism last year, retired in
April to collect a lifetime pension that starts at an eye-catching $154,000 a
year – and, what's more, the school agreed to pay him an additional $108,000”.
And municipal employees are also pulling in some envious pay
as noted in the article Conklin, Hamilton top Stamford salary list - StamfordAdvocate
where we learn Stamford’s Police Capt. took “home $277,051.52 last year,
including $186,451.52 in base pay and overtime and $90,600 in non-taxpayer
funded extra duty work” while “Stamford's deputy superintendent before stepping
into the schools' top position last July, earned $207,877 in 2011”.
Connecticut taxpayers are generous when it come to some of
their public servants, others however are not so lucky as New London firefighters, police receive pink slips
as the Day Newspaper reported “Mayor Daryl
Justin Finizio announced two weeks ago that the city
would have to lay off 25 firefighters and 10 police officers to stay within the
confines of next year's proposed $83 million budget. The layoffs would save
about $1.2 million”.
And some Connecticut taxpayers will join the “more
than 200,000 long-term workers who will lose their federal benefit checks as
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania and Texas all end their participation in a federal unemployment
benefits program” as reported by By Stacey Bumpus in her article captioned One Downside to Economic Recovery: People Are Losing Federal
...Unemployment Benefits.
Visit the Federation’s website at http://ctact.org/ for previous
publications.
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