Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

Highest property taxes in Northeast Homeowners in the Northeast pay the highest property taxes in the nation. New Jersey residents pay the highest annual tax bill of any state - a median $6,579 per year, according to the Tax Foundation, which calculated the tally using data the U.S. Census Bureau released on Tuesday. Connecticut comes in second place ($4,738), followed by New Hampshire ($4,636) and New York ($3,755). http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-highest-property-taxes,0,428343.story

The Tax Foundation's Data Analysis Division used newly updated data from the 2009 American Community Survey to rank high-population counties across the country according to various property tax measures. Read the new report.

In addition, a new property tax lookup tool at www.mytaxburden.org/propertytax, lets users select their state and county and compare property tax statistics to other states and counties. This tool is part of the Tax Foundation's ongoing MyTaxBurden.org interactive project.

Here is what is contained in this edition of Tax Talk

� Congress OKs stop-gap spending, ready to go home

� Audit: Ex-Postal Service workers return as private contractors, make more money

� Credit Unions Bailed Out - U.S. Backs $30 Billion in Bonds to Stabilize Key Institutions; Subprime Legacy

� Obama Signs Small Business Bill Into Law�

� Obama Approves Billions for Teachers, Cops in Cash-Strapped States

� Shadow Elite: The DISCLOSE Act -- Who's Blindfolding the American Electorate?�

� THE SECRET ELECTION.�

� Linda McGibney: We Who Prospered Should Pay Tax

� Obama presses for longer school year

� Waiting for Superman Trailer

� Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries�

� Check out Connecticut in this Quarterly Summary of State & Local Tax Revenue

� Quarterly Tax Information Sheet

� Connecticut School leaders say regional transportation could cut costs�

� Lax State Gun Laws Tied to Crimes in Other States

� HUD Report Slams Corrupt ACORN As Funding Ban Set To Expire ��

� Governor Rell Nominates Four to Superior Court

� Governor Rell: Proposals to Unfunded Liabilities Panel Could Save $300M/Year

� Connecticut State Employee Labor Contracts

� Marsh on health care: A personal view�

� Towns could see less revenue, but from more sources, next year

� Foley, Malloy, take different paths to job growth�

� Broke City in Broke State Blows $578 Million on Nation's Costliest School

� Foley education plan emphasizes school choice

� Raters Ignored Proof of Unsafe Loans, Panel Is Told

� Census 2009 Poverty and Health Insurance Data

� For the Unemployed Over 50, Fears of Never Working Again?

� Letters: Out of Work, and Running Out of Hope

� U.S. Tries to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet

� One Third Of Americans Can't Get Mortgages

� Campaign 2010�
The Stagnating Labor Market

� Reasons for Skepticism about Structural Unemployment, Examining the Demand- Side Evidence Labor,

� The Largest Tax Hikes in History

� SING ALONG.

� Welcome to the Taxpayer's Tab

� Newly Hired Citigroup Banker Could Get Pay Package Worth $30 Million

Congress OKs stop-gap spending, ready to go home By Jennifer Liberto and Jeanne Sahadi, CNN September 30, 2010 1:42 a.m. EDT Washington (CNN) -- Congress on Thursday passed a measure to fund the federal government another two months, their last major legislative action before shutting down and returning to the campaign trail for the Nov. 2 elections. The House voted 228-194 early Thursday morning and the Senate voted 69-30 on Wednesday to pass a stop-gap effort that effectively keeps the lights on at agencies and major federal programs until Dec. 3. The tab for the 64 days tops $219 billion, meaning the overall budget for the new fiscal year will be $219 billion lighter, a congressional aide explained. Congress also plans to keep in place, through next Sept. 30, higher limits on the mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The limits range up to $729,750 for pricey areas. The measure also will maintain loan limits for federally insured reverse mortgages for pricey areas at $625,500. And it will extend loan limits insured by the Federal Housing Administration. All the loan limits were set to expire at the end of the year?."Fannie and Freddie are synonymous with mismanagement and waste, and have become the face of Too Big to Fail," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. said. Article continues at ?..

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/30/congress.continuing.resolution/index.html?hpt=T2

Audit: Ex-Postal Service workers return as private contractors, make more money By Ed O'Keefe Washington Post Staff Writer�� September 26, 2010;

Who says you can't go back? Apparently you can at the U.S. Postal Service. Dozens of former top executives and hundreds of former employees have returned to the agency in recent years as private contractors, sometimes making double the salaries they made as full-time workers, according to one of three watchdog audits released late last week. The reports said the cash-strapped Postal Service is doing a poor job tracking its use of no-bid contracts, contributes more to worker health and life insurance benefits than other federal agencies and should consider closing more of its regional offices to help address an expected $230 billion, 10-year budget gap. Continued at ?.. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/26/AR2010092603359.html

Credit Unions Bailed Out - U.S. Backs $30 Billion in Bonds to Stabilize Key Institutions; Subprime Legacy By MARK MAREMONT And VICTORIA MCGRANE Wall St Journal� Sept 25, 2010 Two years after the peak of the financial crisis, the federal government swooped in to stabilize a crucial part of the credit-union sector battered by losses on subprime mortgages. Regulators announced Friday a rescue and revamping of the nation's wholesale credit union system, underpinned by a federal guarantee valued at $30 billion or more. Wholesale credit unions don't deal with the general public but provide essential back-office services to thousands of other credit unions across the U.S. The majority of retail credit unions are sound, but they will have to shoulder the losses through special assessments over the next decade. Friday's moves include the seizure of three wholesale credit unions, plus an unusual plan by government officials to manage $50 billion of troubled assets inherited from failed institutions. To help fund the rescue, the National Credit Union Administration plans to issue $30 billion to $35 billion in government-guaranteed bonds, backed by the shaky mortgage-related assets. �http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499604575512254063682236.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Obama Signs Small Business Bill Into Law� President Barack Obama today signed into law a chain of tax cuts for small businesses and up to $14 billion in federally funded loans aimed at stimulating job creation, in what's likely to be the government's last bid to boost the economy before the midterm elections. http://www.aolnews.com/money/article/president-obama-signs-small-business-jobs-act-into-law/19650337?icid=main%7Cmain%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C173638

Obama Approves Billions for Teachers, Cops in Cash-Strapped States

House Passed $26 Billion Aid Package Earlier Tuesday; Republicans Cry 'Bailout'� http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/congress-approves-billions-state-workers-gop-cry-bailout/story?id=11365593

Shadow Elite: The DISCLOSE Act -- Who's Blindfolding the American Electorate?� Sept 23, 2010, Huffington Post, Janine R. Wedel and Linda Keenan� If you think that an "information era" has ushered in a golden age of transparency, read on. This is the first in an occasional Shadow Elite series examining how private actors seize and hoard vital information to serve their own interests, not the public interest.� Is there anything more toxic to a healthy democracy than special interests buying elections? Sadly, yes. It's when citizens have no idea who those special interests even are, and no way to find out. That's where the U.S. stands in the wake of decisions over the past several years vastly enabling campaign finance secrecy, the focus of the current congressional fight over a so-called DISCLOSE Act.

The blindfolding of the American electorate is a sign of the new era of power and influence -- the shadow elite age, as identified in Janine's book, Shadow Elite. It's an era in which basic questions like "who funds it?" and "who is responsible?" often lack straight answers. It's an era of deniability. Far from transparent, the source of more and more campaign financing is ambiguous or even secret, enabling the funders (and their comrades in the know) to deny responsibility. Continue at ?.. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janine-r-wedel/shadow-elite-disclose-act_b_736127.html

Here is The Times editorial captioned THE SECRET ELECTION.�

Linda McGibney: We Who Prospered Should Pay Tax http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/26/sunday/commentaries/main6901949.shtml?tag=dis

Obama presses for longer school year, By ERICA WERNER , 09.27.10,� Forbes/AP,� WASHINGTON -- Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/09/27/general-us-obama_7963826.html?boxes=Homepagetopnews

NEW YORK (CBS) Davis Guggenheim, the man who brought forth the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary an "Inconvenient Truth" with Al Gore, ignited a debate over his new film, "Waiting for Superman," which highlights the failures of the country's public school system. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20017690-10391698.html

Waiting for Superman Trailer

http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/trailer

Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries� By DAVID STREITFELD� September 26, 2010 SANTA CLARITA, Calif. ? A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country?s fifth-largest library system. Continued at ?.. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27libraries.html?src=me&ref=general

Check out Connecticut in this Quarterly Summary of State & Local Tax Revenue The Quarterly Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue provides quarterly estimates of state and local government tax revenue at a national level, as well as detailed tax revenue data for individual states. This quarterly survey has been conducted continuously since 1962. The information contained in this survey is the most current information available on a nationwide basis for government tax collections. http://www.census.gov/govs/qtax/

Quarterly Tax Information Sheet [PDF, 182KB] http://www2.census.gov/govs/qtax/information_sheet.pdf

Connecticut School leaders say regional transportation could cut costs� By Jacqueline Rabe� Local school districts, under pressure to cut costs as they face of dwindling resources, could save millions of dollars through regionalized bus transportation, education officials said Monday.� http://ctmirror.org/story/7801/school-leaders-eye-saving-money-school-transportation

News on Senate and Gubernatorial Debates:�� The televised gubernatorial debates: Oct. 5 on Fox61, Oct. 13 on WTNH, Oct. 19 on WFSB, CPTV and WNPR and Oct. 29 on NBC30.� The televised Senate debates: Oct. 4 on Fox61, Oct. 7 on Cablevision 12 and Oct. 12 on WTNH.� http://ctmirror.org/story/7796/lwv-cancels-three-gubernatorial-debates

Lax State Gun Laws Tied to Crimes in Other States By ERIC LICHTBLAU� September 26, 2010WASHINGTON ? Nearly 600 mayors nationwide, led by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and other city leaders, are mounting a new campaign to identify states with lax gun laws and push for tighter restrictions to prevent the trafficking of guns used in crimes. A study due to be released this week by a coalition called Mayors Against Illegal Guns uses previously unavailable federal gun data to identify what it says are the states that most often export guns used in crimes across state lines. It concludes that the 10 worst offenders per capita, led by Mississippi, West Virginia and Kentucky, supplied nearly half the 43,000 guns traced to crime scenes in other states last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/politics/27guns.html?_r=2&hp

HUD Report Slams Corrupt ACORN As Funding Ban Set To Expire For ...� By Matthew Vadum� Sept 25, 2010 The Sept. 21 report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development?s Inspector General found that ACORN Housing, which changed its name earlier this year to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHC), may have concealed fraud by destroying or failing to produce records. http://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2010/09/24/hud-report-slams-corrupt-acorn-as-funding-ban-set-to-expire-for-undead-group/

Governor Rell Nominates Four to Superior Court http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/view.asp?A=3872&Q=466348

Governor Rell: Proposals to Unfunded Liabilities Panel

Could Save $300M/Year, Billions Over Time

http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/view.asp?A=3872&Q=465580

Connecticut State Employee Labor Contracts

http://www.ct.gov/opm/cwp/view.asp?a=2992&q=383228&opmNav_GID=1792

Marsh on health care: A personal view� The Republican-turned-Independent Party candidate for governor speaks of having no health insurance just two months before his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, giving him an understanding of the pitfalls faced by people who can't afford insurance http://ctmirror.org/story/7794/tom-marsh-health-care-927

Towns could see less revenue, but from more sources, next year

By Keith M. Phaneuf� With the potential for deep municipal aid cuts looming less than 10 months away, Connecticut municipalities' longstanding cry for a new alternative to the property tax could be answered next year at the Capitol. http://ctmirror.org/story/7753/towns-could-see-less-revenue-more-sources-next-year�

Foley, Malloy, take different paths to job growth �By Keith M. Phaneuf

�

Gubernatorial candidates Dan Malloy and Tom Foley both have visions of robust job growth spearheading a rebounding Connecticut economy - but that's about where the similarities end. http://ctmirror.org/story/7773/foley-malloy-take-different-path-job-growth

Broke City in Broke State Blows $578 Million on Nation's Costliest School http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2010/08/broke-city-in-b.html

Foley education plan emphasizes school choice By Robert A. Frahm

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley unveiled a sweeping education plan Wednesday calling for fundamental changes in the state's public schools, including a controversial proposal on how to pay for them. http://ctmirror.org/story/7708/foley-education-plan-emphasizes-school-choice

Raters Ignored Proof of Unsafe Loans, Panel Is Told By GRETCHEN MORGENSON September 26, 2010 NY Times, As the mortgage market grew frothy in 2006 ? leading to a housing bubble that nearly brought down the banking system two years later ? ratings agencies charged with assessing risk in mortgage pools dismissed conclusive evidence that many of the loans were dubious, according to testimony given last week to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27ratings.html?pagewanted=all