More European Nations Face Downgrade After Italy, Moody’s
Says
Bernanke to Congress: Sluggish growth
ahead
October 5, 2011
From The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact Susan Kniep
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
From the
Federation:
While many Connecticut taxpayers stand in the
unemployment line and are burdened with $1.5 billion in new state taxes, State Employees Reap $250M A Year In OT . As reported by Jon
Lender of the Hartford Courant, One correction officer with a regular salary of $51,180 was paid
$91,930 in overtime, for a total paycheck that year of $143,110.
While it was revealed that Audit: state DSS gave benefits to dead people we also learned
that a Retired
warden had prison sex, collects pension behind bars , Thousands of non-union workers to receive longevity bonuses
and the Malloy Administration recalls laid-off troopers, easing labor
acrimony.
As taxpayers worry about their own pensions, they are forced
to dig down deep in their pockets for the pensions of State and Local public
sector employees as a recent new articles noted that
Latest public pension fund data show taxpayers still on hook
for ... Trillions and as USA Today reported Federal retirement plans almost as costly as Social Security.
The two online news publications - ctmirror.org and
ctnewsjunkie.com - recently revealed that the state Budget leaves Malloy, lawmakers, little margin to handle
crises , the State Budget Picture For 2012 Is Still Cloudy and Task Force Looks At Municipal Funding Formulas .
As the state is already burdened with a $72 billion debt,
taxpayers in the 169 towns throughout Connecticut have to be prepared for possible
cuts in municipal aid and increased property taxes as long as the recently
signed state employee contracts are in effect which award a four year job
guarantee and 9% wage increase to state employee unions.
As unemployment remains at 9.1%, and Connecticut property
owners pay the third highest property taxes in the country, The Federation
suggests that those concerned for property tax increases ask their local elected officials to approve
the following Resolution, or a facsimile thereof, which would then be forwarded
by them to their State Representatives in Hartford to encourage reforms to
State Collective Bargaining Laws. The
intent of the RESOLUTION TO REFORM STATE OF
CONNECTICUT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING LAWS is to give
local elected officials the tools to better manage town budgets, finances, and
personnel recognizing the costs are born by the residential and business
taxpayers of the 169 towns. Proposed
reforms to Collective Bargaining Laws include, but are not limited to, ending the collection of union dues by the
state and municipalities, removing management issues from public sector union
contracts, ending longevity pay, and prohibiting overtime from being factored
into pensions. In addition, it would
give towns the authority to freeze municipal employee wages if necessary and
prohibit unions from accessing town reserve funds during negotiations.
If
Municipal aid to the 169 towns is cut, the end result will be either an
increase in local property taxes, layoff of municipal and Board of Education
employees, or both.
Taxpayers have a right to know what
their local officials are prepared to do should such cuts be made.
*******************
Other News Highlights include…..
Fannie Mae ignored foreclosure abuses
How Generous Are Federal Employee
Pensions? (blog - Andrew Biggs / American Enterprise Institute)
Bridgeport burdened
by unfunded pension, retiree health costs
In Debt Talks, Divide on What Tax Breaks Are Worth Keeping
Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales
Bottom Line - U.S. CEOs in no mood to hire, spend
Visit http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org
America’s $320 Billion Shadow Government
LOUIS PECK, The Fiscal Times |
September 28, 2011
Stocks 'can't escape that fear factor'
Union pushes for power to set teacher standards By Jacqueline Rabe
Thomas on September 30, 2011
CTMirror.org The state's largest teachers union is urging state legislators to
remove the authority to set certification and ethical standards for teachers
from the State Department of Education and have an autonomous panel led by
educators determine those requirements for themselves.
Read more http://www.ctmirror.org/story/14077/should-teachers-be-responsible-setti...
Insurance department reduces Anthem's rate hike
Governing by Crisis on Capitol Hill
Gov. Malloy comes through for unions where legislature failed
...
By Zachary Janowski Gov. Dannel Malloy took steps today toward
forcibly unionizing daycare providers and home health care workers in Connecticut.
Malloy used two executive orders, his ninth and tenth, to make the first steps toward forcing
these workers to pay union dues like most state employees – a boon to the very
unions Malloy frustrated with the concessions he negotiated and
the layoffs he threatened. At the AFSCME Council 4 rate of $21.80 a month, the
state’s 4,000 day care providers would add just over $1 million to the union
coffers. Council 4 Executive Director Salvatore Luciano earns more than Malloy,
taking home $151,003 according to federal disclosures. In addition to
providing for normal union elections, the executive orders also take away the
right to a secret ballot election for workers in these fields by providing for
a card
check process. Continued at …. http://www.raisinghale.com/2011/09/21/malloy-for-unions/
Bottom Line - U.S. CEOs in no mood to hire, spend Sept 29, 2011
By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer The CEOs of American’s biggest companies are
not in a hiring mood – and more of them say they expect to announce layoffs in
the coming months. Responding to a survey by the Business Roundtable, only
about one-third of chief executives of the largest U.S. companies said they
expect to hire more workers in the next six months, down sharply from about
half who said so three months ago. And about a quarter said they expected to
have to cut U.S.
jobs in the next six months, more than double the 11 percent who had forecast
that in the second quarter. Continued at …. http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/29/8040885-us-ceos-in-no-mood-to-hire-spend
The Man Behind Pakistan Spy Agency's
Plot to Influence Washington By Kim
Barker and Habiba Nosheen, ProPublica, and Raheel Khursheed, Special to
ProPublica In some ways, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai was living the American dream,
with friends in high places and a nice home in suburban Washington. Now the
advocate for Kashmir is under house arrest, facing a charge that he
was a foreign agent. Continued at …. http://www.propublica.org/article/the-man-behind-pakistani-spy-agencys-plot-to-influence-washington
Related: Guide to the Latest on Pakistan's
Terror Ties
EPA's Mission Leap Posted 10/03/2011 Investors Business Daily - What does the Environmental Protection
Agency say it needs to fully implement new greenhouse gas emissions rules? How
about an army of 230,000 new bureaucrats and an additional $21 billion a year?
According to the Daily Caller news site, a court brief filed by the Justice
Department on behalf of the EPA argues that the agency would need "230,000
full-time employees necessary to produce the 1.4 billion work hours
required" to administer rules under the Clean Air Act. This added burden,
it is reckoned, "would result in an increase in Title V administration
costs of $21 billion per year."
Continued at …. http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/586825/201110031849/EPAs-Mission-Leap.htm
Euro Crisis Makes Fed Lender of Only Resort as Funding Ebbs
By Craig Torres and
Caroline Salas Gage - Sep 28, 2011 The Federal Reserve, chastised by Congress
for lending money to foreign institutions including a Libyan-owned bank, is
once again the lender of last resort for banks around the world it knows little
about. Three years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.,
money-market borrowing rates for dollars are rising, leading the Fed and European Central Bank
to make the currency available to Europe’s institutions for as many as three
months. U.S. prime money-market funds cut
their exposure to euro-zone bank
deposits and commercial paper, or short-term IOUs, to $214 billion in
August from $391 billion at the end of last year, according to JPMorgan Chase
& Co. data.
The failure of
regulators worldwide to address European banks’ fragile dependence on
short-term funding is “putting the Fed in a really awkward position,” said
Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics, a Washington regulatory research firm whose clients include
the biggest U.S. banks. The swaps with Europe “are an extremely advantageous political football”
for critics of the Fed, she said. Continued at …. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/euro-crisis-makes-fed-lender-of-only-resort-as-banks-chase-dollar-funding.html
Latest Public
Pension Report Means Taxpayers Are Still on the Hook for About $30 Trillion
(Frank Keegan / Franklin Center)
Federal
Retirement Plans Are Now Almost as Costly as Social Security (Dennis Cauchon /
USA Today) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-10-11/federal-retirement-pension-benefits/50592474/1
Double Dipping a Hot Topic; States Have $690 Billion in Unfunded Pension
Liabilities (Danny Robbins, Tammy Webber & Peter Jackson / News-Herald)
9 American cities going broke
Montana governor calls for universal health care
Democrats Want Probe of Justice Thomas as Health Law Ruling Looms
Read the Article at The Hill
MILLER: Hey, big spender When it comes to budget cuts, Congress is
just a tease By Emily Miller
- The Washington Times Sept 28, 2011
Despite politicians spouting off about tough cuts, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported federal outlays have gone up by
$118 billion through August. America is barreling over the cliff into
bankruptcy, but Washington isn’t willing to stop the train. Continued at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/28/hey-big-spender/
UBS Scandal Reinforces Need for Strict Volcker Rule
by Jesse Eisinger | @eisingerj Sept 28,
2011 A draft of the Volcker Rule has
alternatively caused fits of despair and cries of exultation. And that's just
among the proponents of the regulation. But the real question is whether
regulators will use the new powers granted by the rule. Continued at …. http://www.propublica.org/thetrade/item/rogue-to-the-rescue-ubs-scandal
More coverage: The Trade
Watchdog finds TARP paid questionable legal fees Reuters The U.S.
government's bank bailout program paid more than $9 million in legal fees to
law firms that submitted questionable bills with little or no details on
services provided, the agency's watchdog said in a report released on Thursday.
Continued at ….
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/09/29/usa-tarp-lawyers-idUSS1E78R21C20110929
Report G_09_OFS_Contracting_Final_11-004_09-28-2011.pdf
Tobacco Companies Knew of Radiation in Cigarettes, Covered It
Up
By CARRIE GANN, ABC News Medical Unit
Sept. 29, 2011 A new study of
historical documents from tobacco companies revealed that companies knew that
cigarettes contained a radioactive substance called polonium-210, but hid that
knowledge from the public for over four decades. Continued at …. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/tobacco-companies-hid-evidence-radiation-cigarettes-decades/story?id=14635963
D.C. ANC members
break the rules without redress City has No Power to Police ….. September 30, 2011, By Luke Rosiak, Source The Washington Times Regina James stood by as taxpayer funds under her watch disappeared in a few months. In June, the D.C. auditor determined that
William Shelton withdrew $30,000 from an Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5B
account, spending it on payments for a Lexus and purchases at Bloomingdale’s.
Mr. Shelton was chairman of the ANC in Ward 5, one of 37 little-scrutinized
boards of elected officials each with budgets in the tens of thousands. Continued at …. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/29/dc-anc-members-break-the-rules-without-redress/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
Influential Charity Applies Political Pressure To Win
Hospital ... Approval On Third Try Print, September 30, 2011, Gilbert M. Gaul, Kaiser Health News This story was
produced in collaboration with McClatchy
The story of how Orlando got a third new children’s hospital when most cities only have one is more than a tale of
wealthy health care providers pressing their case. It is also about the
pressures facing state regulators charged with restraining spiraling health
costs. Attempts to limit expensive new hospitals, MRIs and other technologies
have been under attack almost since the first laws requiring “certificates of
need” were passed in the early 1970s. Continued at …. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/September/27/Childrens-Hospitals-Part-Two.aspx
Internet firms co-opted for surveillance: experts September 30, 2011 By Georgina Prodhan,
Reuters Internet companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook are
increasingly co-opted for surveillance work as
the information they gather proves irresistible to law enforcement agencies,
Web experts said this week. Continued at …. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/30/us-internet-security-idUSTRE78T2GY20110930