The Federation received several
inquiries regarding the Political Action Committee promoting the passage of the
$800 million MDC Clean Water Project Referendum under the name Vote Yes for
Clean Water.
Below we have noted what we have learned to
date….
STATE TAX DEADLINES EXTENDED TO
NOVEMBER 7th, COMMERCIAL TAX REGISTRATION WAIVED
Cold hits storm victims ahead of
election
Nor'easter: New York, New England May
See Snow Post-Election Day
David Moffa
pleads guilty in Chris Donovan campaign finance scandal
Gov. Malloy Announces Insurers Cannot
Impose Hurricane Deductibles in Connecticut
November 4, 2012
From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer
Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, PresidentWebsite:
http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
Mail-in ballots: the hanging chads of
2012?
As Republicans and Democrats raise alarms
about potential voter fraud and voter suppression, mail-in ballots have boomed
as an uncontroversial form of convenient, inexpensive voting.
Could e-voting machines in Election 2012 be hacked? Yes.
Campaigns Brace to Sue for Votes in Crucial States
Secretary of State
Denise Merrill’s Latest Message on Voting is here:
http://www.sots.ct.gov/sots/lib/sots/releases/2012/11_1_12_merrill_updates_on_polling_places_for_november_6th_election.pdf
All Town Ballots are on line here…. http://www.sots.ct.gov/sots/cwp/view.asp?a=3179&Q=513068&PM=1
Gov. Malloy: Residents Seeking Federal Assistance Must Register
Gov. Malloy: FEMA Opens Additional Disaster Recovery Centers in
New Haven, Old Saybrook and Groton
Gov. Malloy Announces Bridgeport and Greenwich Disaster
Recovery Centers Open
FOR MORE HURRICANE SANDY NEWS AND INFORMATION FROM THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT, CLICK ON
www.ct.gov/sandy
********************
Lembo certifies $60M
state deficit
noting that State Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo certified
a $60.1 million
state budget deficit Thursday,
citing declining revenue estimates and a growing Medicaid caseload, and
********************
The
Federation received several calls regarding the PAC (Political Action
Committee) promoting the passage of the $800 million MDC Clean Water Project
under the name Vote Yes for Clean Water. Here is what we have learned to date…..
According to July 25, 2012 Meeting Minutes “the MDC and Graff Public Solutions are working on a
comprehensive strategy for a separate and independent entity to advocate for
the Clean Water Project.” Homepage - Graff Public Solutions LLC is described as a “full-service government relations firm
that offers a customized approach to your needs”. Vote YES for Clean Water is described as “a group of concerned parents,
environmentalists, business leaders and other community activists that support
passage of a referendum question that will be on the November ballot in the
towns of: Bloomfield - East Hartford - Hartford - Newington - Rocky Hill - West
Hartford - Wethersfield – Windsor.”
According to Elections Enforcement, the paperwork on this Committee had
to be filed with the Town Clerk of those town’s
holding a referendum on the Clean Water Project and not the State. Donors include the Attorney’s under contract
to the MDC – Chris Stone of Chadwick & Stone and R. Bartley Halloran of Halloran & Halloran - and it appears some contractors which we are
checking further. Donations ranged from
$10 to the highest of $17,111 by the authorized agent, Oz Griebel,
of Metro Hartford Alliance.
The next required filing follows the election. We will report further on this issue and ask the MDC to provide
transparency of their organization, financed
with public dollars, through their website
The MDC to include salaries
and benefits of their employees and vendor/contract information similar to what
is being provided at the Connecticut Transparency Website
as well as audits of the “first $800 million
approved at referendum and appropriated in August 2006” as described by the
Hartford Courant in their recent article captioned MDC
Users To Vote On $800 Million Bond - Hartford Courant . Therein, the
Courant notes “The MDC can't legally advocate for voters to support the
referendum, but a political action committee, or PAC, was formed by others,
including members of the Connecticut River
Watershed Council, in support of it”. For more information on the MDC, click on FAQs - The MDC. If any questions of the Federation, contact fctopresident@aol.com.
********************
Tough state rules on outages too late for Sandy
New state regulations could mean millions of dollars in fines for utilities
that botch their response to devastating storms like Hurricane Sandy. But, in a case of awkward timing, the
rules come a handful of days too late to apply to this
week's storm cleanup.
********************
The Public Auction: Outside groups spend over $500 million in October - Dave Levintha on the 2012 Election
All groups spent more than $526 million in total last month
— a significant chunk of the $6 billion the Center for Responsive Politics predicts all federal-level candidates, parties and committees will
spend during the 2012 election.
Former lawmakers sit on piles of cash
Former members-turned-lobbyists such as Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Michael Castle
(R-Del.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.)
all have significant amounts of cash in their accounts. Bayh,
a two-term senator and two-term governor of Indiana, has the most by far— more than $10
million cash on hand.
RELATED: Exclusive: E-voting
puts vote accuracy at risk in four key states
*******************
States with the highest and lowest taxes
Connecticut was ranked the third highest in both
years
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2012/10/28/state-taxes-states-highest-lowest/1654071/
Employers added 171,000 people to their
payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. The government also
said 84,000 more jobs were created in August and September than initially
estimated.
Watergate Records To
Be Unsealed After Order From Federal Judge
*********************
Fight likely in Congress over Hurricane Sandy funds
Could Obamacare take a backseat to FEMAcare as we reflect on
the article captioned CNN || Disaster
relief: Obama, Romney differ on federal role.
As FEMA declares four
Connecticut counties disaster areas, the Wall Street Journal announced
that FEMA Covering Costs of
Restoring Power, Transit Through Next Week noting that “The
Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay the full cost of efforts to
restore power and public transportation in hard-hit areas of New York,
Connecticut and New Jersey through the end of next week, area lawmakers said
Wednesday. “The agency usually pays 75%
of costs, but can increase that percentage after a severe disaster. The move
will likely relieve pressure on a host of local governments and agencies that are
already facing deficits and budget shortfalls.”
On Oct 29th Zachary Janowski of the Yankee Institute reported Connecticut cities and
towns wasted at least $20 million because of state storm-cleanup contract suggesting that “With Hurricane Sandy threatening, it would
pay for local officials to look back on the freak snowstorm that struck one
year ago.”
On September 26, 2012 an article was published on the 10 Most Costly American Natural
Disasters Of The - InvestingAnswers - Past
35 Years by David Sterman
Who
do you believe should pick up the tab for disaster relief – the States, the Towns, and/or the Federal
government? Let us hear from you! Write to fctopresident@aol.com
Here are two opinions:
A Big Storm Requires Big Government -
NYTimes.com and Michelle Malkin
» NYT: Big storm requires big government
Reuters recently reported that Bloomberg endorses Obama
for a second term, climate change a ... factor “particularly in the aftermath of the devastating blow dealt
to the New York area by storm Sandy.
“Bloomberg said Obama has taken significant
steps to reduce carbon consumption, whereas Republican challenger Mitt Romney
has backtracked on earlier positions he had taken as governor of Massachusetts
to battle climate change.”
So
what do you think? Did
Climate Change Cause Hurricane Sandy? | Observations ... as others suggest
in the article captioned Will Sandy change the climate change conversation? Noting that
"This was a complex storm, so we do need to be cautious about linking it
to climate change," said Jonathan Foley, an ecosystem researcher who is
director of the University of Minnesota's Institute on
the Environment. "Only some of its components may have been due to climate
change." Let us hear from
you! Write to fctopresident@aol.com
*********************
Consumer Confidence in US Rises to Highest Since 2008
*********************
*********************
Ben Zimmer, the executive director of the Connecticut Policy
Institute, recently wrote State Must Wrestle Pension Obligations
To The Mat noting “Connecticut's
obligations to its current and future public employee retirees are so large
that it is almost certain they will never be met. “And yet, our leadership in Hartford is playing a
pension tweaking game reminiscent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
“In an internal memo leaked last month, Gov. Dannel
P. Malloy endorsed reducing the
state pension fund discount rate — the amount the state expects to earn
annually on the fund's investments —from 8.25 percent to 8 percent. New
York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg recently
described a similar proposal in New
York as a change in policy from the "absolutely
hysterical" to the merely "totally indefensible." His complete article can be found at http://articles.courant.com/2012-10-19/news/hc-op-zimmer-connecticut-underestimates-pension-fu-20121019_1_pension-fund-pension-liabilities-sebac
*********************
Recently, Zack Albert wrote True Unemployment Paints Bleak Picture
In CT, noting that “While the
government likes to point to their official unemployment rate as evidence for
economic recovery, many argue that this rate, called U3, does not capture a
full picture of the economy. “Veronique de Rugy and
Jason Fichtner of the Mercatus Center say that, ‘While [the] official unemployment rate remains the
primary measure of labor market performance, there are reasons to believe that
it is not the most realistic representation of the economy.’ “For this reason, the Bureau of Labor Statistics prints quarterly and annual alternative measures of
unemployment. The next report is due Friday, Oct. 26. “These values
take into account not only the jobless who are actively seeking work (U3), but
also discouraged workers (U4), marginally attached workers (U5) and part-time
workers due to economic factors (U6).”
Mr. Albert was a summer intern at the Yankee Institute and is a junior studying political science and economics at Fairfield University.
Find more interesting reports at
http://www.RaisingHale.com
*********************
As The Hill reports on Tax bill to rise for 30M
households unless Congress acts
noting that “More than 30 million households could
be hit with the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) if Congress doesn’t take action
after the election, adding another pressure point to talks on the “fiscal
cliff”, Reuters is reporting on Tax haven property
markets thrive as political scrutiny grows. Emphasizing that “A judicial crackdown and mounting
political pressure on legal tax avoidance are failing to deter companies from
setting up in European tax havens. “Growing
numbers of accountants, banks and
consultants are signing lengthy office leases in Luxembourg
and the Channel Islands as they flock to serve
customers seeking the legal ways to cut their tax bills offered by having a offshore base. “That is in stark contrast to the
traditional financial districts of London and Paris, where letting
markets are lacklustre. "The
tax avoidance business is alive and well," tax
adviser turned campaigner Richard Murphy told Reuters. "The economic
downturn is not having any impact on this type of banking."
*********************
Visit the Federation’s Website for Previous Publications
http://ctact.org/