Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Org
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032

$$$$ BREAKING NEWS $$$$

CONNECTICUTS FINANCIAL CRISIS DEEPENS

RESULTING IN A RATINGS DOWNGRADE

BY MOODYS AND DEEP CUTS IN

MUNICIPAL AID BY MALLOY

CTMirror.org Reports

Moodys adds to Connecticuts woes on Wall Street

By Keith M. Phaneuf May 15, 2017

For the fifth time in the past year - and for the second in two business days - a Wall Street credit rating agency has downgraded Connecticuts status, potentially raising the cost of borrowing. Continue to read at View as Clean Read

Malloy would cut local aid deeply to offset eroding CT tax receipts

To see changes to each grant, for every town, see the interactive

at the bottom of this story.

By Keith M. Phaneuf, Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Kyle Constable

and Jake Kara May 15, 2017

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has recommended more than $700 million in cuts to municipal aid to help compensate for a $1.5 billion projected decline in state income tax receipts over the next two years.

The adjustments Malloy proposed Monday to the $40.6 billion, two-year budget he first unveiled on Feb. 8 also would add about $80 million in annual tax hikes to the $600 million in new yearly revenue he recommended three months ago. Most of the increase comes from boosting the real estate conveyance tax, though the governor also recommended ending the sales tax exemption on nonprescription drugs and imposing certain restrictions on business tax credits. Read on


THE NEW YORK TIIMES BREAKING NEWS ALERT New clues point to North Korea linked hackers as suspects in the global ransomware attacks, U.S. officials and private experts say
Monday, May 15, 2017 9:26 PM EDT

Intelligence officials and private security experts say that new digital clues point to North Korean-linked hackers as likely suspects in the sweeping ransomware attacks that have crippled computer systems around the world. The indicators are far from conclusive, the researchers warned, and it could be weeks, if not months, before investigators are confident enough in their findings to officially point the finger at Pyongyangs increasingly bold corps of digital hackers. Read more

Scandal Leads to Updated Sexual Misconduct Regs

Military.com Reports

Reuters: US appeals court to review Trump revised travel ban

By Tom James May 15, 2017

A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments on Monday over President Donald Trumps temporary travel ban on people entering the United States from six Muslim-majority countries, the second such court to review Trumps directive over the past week. Read the full story here

BREAKING NEWS from the New York Times

A major cyberattack hit 16 British health facilities, blocking access to patient files and causing emergency rooms to divert patients

May 12, 2017

The attack on Britains National Health Service stoked fears about hackers ability to wreak havoc on vital public services.

It is still ongoing, said Tom Donnelly, a spokesman for N.H.S. Digital, the arm of the health service that handles technology. We were made aware of it this afternoon.

By Beth Braverman May 9, 2017 The Fiscal Times

Three-quarters of graduating college students will have student loans to deal with, and most are optimistic about paying off those loans quickly.

Among those who have student loans, nearly half expect to be done with student loan payments in less than five years, and another 28 percent expect to have paid off their loans within 10 years, according to a new study from McGraw-Hill Education. Read more

The Hardest College to Get Into in Each State

The State Has a Money Problem. They ran out of it.

The State has deficits of $5.1 Billion Dollars and

a $74.3 Billion Dollar Debt
The Federation of CT Taxpayers May 2017

Monday, May 15, 2017 9:26 PM EDT