From:
Susan
Kniep, President
The Federation of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website: ctact.org
email: fctopresident@ctact.org
860-524-6501
September
23, 2004
WELCOME TO THE 35th EDITION OF
TAX
TALK
Your update on what others are thinking, doing, and planning
Send your comments or questions to me, and
I will include in next week's publication.
Please note that TAX TALK is now on our Website
TODAY’S NEWS
Three Indictments Expected Soon
Former
Rowland Aide, His Son And Tomasso
Targeted
http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-rowland0923.artsep23,1,740595.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
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Other
Interesting Websites
The Rowland Corruption Trail begins on the
Campaign Trail
http://www.commoncause.org/states/connecticut/ccreport1.pdf
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Citizen's Demand to Stop Robbing the Social
Security Trust Fund Surplus
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=getinv_SocialSecuritypetition
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The American Patriot Network
http://www.civil-liberties.com/
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The Effects of Federal
Spending and Federal Debt
http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Spending_and_Debt.htm
Lights, Camera, Action ….. I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Richard Pozzo of the Winchester Taxpayers
Association who had me as a guest on his one hour call in talk show this week. It was
a great show with some stimulating conversation. The folks in Winchester and surrounding
communities which receive this cable network are educated, well informed on the
issues and are eager to speak out. Thank
you again Richard.
On Friday, September 24, at 7:00
PM I look forward to appearing on a cable show out of Waterbury.
As FCTO continues to bring its message to communities
throughout the State, I look forward to meeting with other taxpayer groups and
continued appearances on local cable shows.
If you would like to schedule a show, please contact me at 860-524-6501. Susan Kniep,
President, FCTO
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John Durand, lhi@ix.netcom.com
Tolland Taxpayers Association
Subject:
Charter Revision Issues
September 9, 2004
Susan, It
took The Tolland Taxpayers Association 3 tries to get the final Charter
revisions passed. I was a on the 2002
commission which failed then chaired the 2003 commission which passed in the
Nov. election including automatic budget referendum then a 2004 commission
which did fix to statutory issues our attorneys missed and was passed in May
2004. In this one we eliminated the "special town
meeting". We were also successful
in getting the charter etc. on the town web site ... Go to tolland.org,
municipal govt., at the bottom of page click Town Regs.
and ordinances then in table of contents click
charter .. ( this is the May '04 charter) at the
bottom of the municipal govt. page below the Town Regs.
And ordinances
is the charter passed in Nov. 2003. You can see the mods.
note: that we did a full revision
process between Jan. 1 and May 4th. I sometimes held 4 meetings
/hearings in one night to get the job done. Any way, after over 5 years of
pushing, Tolland now has a charter which included automatic budget referenda
and what a difference it made this year. I'd be happy to discuss ..... drop me an e-mail at porchejd@yahoo.com and I'll give phone #'s John Durand, Tolland Tax Payers Association
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Susan Kniep, fctopresident@aol.com
East Hartford Taxpayers Association (EHTA)
Subject:
Hartford
Courant Rejects Budget By Referendum
August 23, 2004
This year the Democrat Mayor of East Hartford offered a
proposed 10% wage hike for his appointed Directors and an 8% tax increase. A Republican Town Councilor didn’t
think the 10% wage hike was enough.
Ultimately, however, both the wage and tax hike were reduced
prior to budget approval by the Town Council.
The East Hartford Taxpayers
Association worked aggressively to bring the issue of Budget by Referendum to
public debate during the recent Charter Revision process. The wage and tax hike helped us to generate
3,000 signatures on a petition to convince the Town Council that taxpayers
wanted Budget by Referendum incorporated within their Charter. Although we did not get Automatic Budget by
Referendum which we were asking for, we were successful in getting them to
incorporate Budget by Referendum by Petition.
We intend to continue to work for
Automatic Budget by Referendum and another Charter Revision. We also proposed Automatic Audits of Projects
which exceed $500,000. Both Budget by
Referendum by Petition and Automatic Audits of Projects exceeding $500,000 are
being brought before the Voters on Nov 2.
I invite you to read the following editorial by the Hartford Courant, a newspaper which
has supported every ill conceived taxpayer funded project by state and local
politicians. The same party has
controlled East Hartford’s Town Council for 40 years and the Mayor’s
office for 36, thanks to continued endorsements by the Hartford Courant each
election year. For this editorial, the
Courant limited their conversations to those opposed to Budget by Referendum,
never talking to any member of the EHTA or supporters of Budget by
Referendum. Of course this did not
surprise us as the Courant is hesitant about covering any story controversial
to the administration.
The Hartford Courant
August 23, 2003
Editorial REJECT BUDGET REFERENDUM
East Hartford's charter revision commission was wrong to
cave in to public pressure and recommend referendums on municipal budgets under
limited circumstances. In its approval of the commission’s entire set of
recommendations, the town council should have deleted the one regarding budget
referendums. At a meeting Aug. 12, commission members, backed a charter change
that would call for a budget referendum if 15 percent of registered voters
signed a petition seeking one. On Aug.
17, by a 6-3 vote along party lines, council members approved that revision and
most others that the commission put forth.
Although the commission's version of a budget referendum is better than
the automatic referendum some residents sought, it is still unwise. A community's elected leaders are chosen to
make decisions for the people they represent. Among the council's jobs is sifting through
priorities and allocating financial resources appropriately. Council members
weigh the tax consequences against the town's needs. It isn't easy. Advocates of budget referendums make it clear
they'll continue working toward an automatic referendum. That's unfortunate. Even
when a referendum is held on a controversial budget, often, few people cast
ballots. Sometimes, 15 percent can be close to the entire
turnout A small group could derail a responsible budget. With this proposed revision, a failed budget
would be amended by the council and then adopted without another vote. East Hartford has a local
election every two years. That gives residents frequent chances to vote out
anyone whose decisions they don't like.
That's the way a ballot box should be used. At least council members made sure the budget
referendum will be a separate question from other charter revision recommendations. Voters who don't want it can reject it
without losing other changes they do like.
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Maury Johnson, Mauryj1923@aol.com
Taxpayers Association
Subject:
Senior Tax Relief
August 25, 2004
Hi Susan,
I am working on senior tax relief for the town of Stratford. I am also preparing a short presentation to the AARP State Advocacy group to see if I can get them to focus attention
on this subject this year. Do we have any good examples of senior tax
relief programs among our Chapters? Do you know whether the national
organizations (FCTO oriented) have come up with
programs/suggestions for how to help develop programs in this area?
Comments, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Maury Johnson
From Susan Kniep – I compiled the following information for
Maury. I thought you might find of
interest as well. Please let us know
what is happening in your town as it relates to Senior Tax Relief. Thank you.
GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS AFFECTING SENIORS
CONNECTICUT LAW
Homeowners' -
Elderly/Disabled (Circuit Breaker) Tax Relief Program http://www.opm.state.ct.us/igp/grants/CIRCUITB.HTM
http://www.cga.state.ct.us/2004/rpt/2004-R-0288.htm
http://www.cga.state.ct.us/2001/rpt/olr/htm/2001-r-0712.htm
http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/view.asp?a=1510&q=266718
http://www.cga.state.ct.us/2004/rpt/2004-R-0455.htm
http://www.cga.state.ct.us/2001/rpt/olr/htm/2001-r-0712.htm
NATIONAL LAW / PROPOSALS
http://www.mainesenate.org/gagnon/Press/2003-02-03%20Senior%20Tax%20Relief.html
http://www.senatenj.com/senior-tax-freeze.html
http://www.thecitizennews.com/main/archive-020125/news/cow-03.html
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Eldercare/4-02-10taxrelief.htm
http://www.illinoislegalaid.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=1418
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Say Goodbye To
Overtime Pay
By: Molly Ivins is a syndicated writer in Texas
August 25, 2004
It's an early Labor Day surprise. Congratulations. If you make
between $23,660 and $100,000, you have very likely lost your right to overtime
pay, courtesy of the Bush administration.
If this comes as news to you, thank your friendly media, who are much
too busy reporting lies abut John Kerry's heroism in Vietnam to bother with
this story affecting your life. But next time you hear someone say, "Oh, I
just don't care much about politics," you might want to recall this
particular connection - especially if it means you have to go out and get
another job. This stunner is brought to
you by President Bush and his big-business campaign donors. The Senate has
voted twice to stop the change, so there's no point in raising hell with them.
The House of Representatives, the "people's house," dodged the
question. So Bush's Department of Labor just up and issued hundreds of pages of
new rules on who gets overtime pay. The
administration contends there is some good news buried in the big pile of bad -
that 1.3 million of the working poor, making between $8,000 and $23,000, will
be eligible for overtime for the first time. That would be good news except
that a study by the Economic Policy Institute says only one in seven of those
workers actually works overtime. Meanwhile,
the AFL-CIO estimates 6 million people will lose overtime. It's the people in
the middle who are getting screwed. Works sort of like Bush's
tax cuts: a little help for the poor, lots and lots of goodies for the rich,
and everybody else - too bad. It
is true that the numbers on who benefits and who loses are not yet exact. There
are more than 500 pages of new regulations involved here, and a good bit of
them will have to be thrashed out in court. Nevertheless, there is no question
about the overall effect of the new regs: The AFL-CIO
is up in arms, and the Chamber of Commerce is just ecstatic about this. I can only assume that the lack of news
coverage on this issue stems from the fact that most journalists are unaware
that they are among those who are about to lose overtime rights. Chefs, cooks, sous chefs, computer workers, nursery school teachers, many
nurses, funeral directors and embalmers, "team leaders," some cops -
to find out if you are among the lucky 6 million, you can go to the AFL-CIO's
website: workingamerica.org. You can e-mail questions to a wage-and-hour
specialist under its "Ask a Lawyer" feature. Of course, employers are standing ready to
promote everybody and his dog to management so they won't be eligible for
overtime under the new rules. All they have to do is rename
the busboy "assistant night manager," and voila, as the Economic
Policy Institute titled its report, "Longer Hours, Less Pay." Large
companies can just reclassify entire groups of workers. Another new trick redefines
"salary." Under the old rules, a salaried worker was not entitled to
overtime - but now "salary" can be defined as an hourly wage. Under
the new regs, if you spend even a fraction of your
time on supervisory or "leadership" tasks, you're out of luck on
overtime. And of course penalties for employers who illegally dock the pay of
salaried workers have been reduced. In
one of those Bush administration maneuvers that just makes your teeth hurt, one
of the groups that lobbied hardest for these new rules is the National
Federation of Independent Business, and its top spokesman was Ed Frank. Guess
where Ed Frank is now? Spokesman for Bush's Labor Department
on overtime pay. Isn't that special?
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa has put up a
rearguard political action against this coup and continues to fight. The new
rules went into effect Aug. 23, but they can still be blocked or repealed by
Congress. In the House, Republican leaders have refused to let the issue come
up for debate. Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin will bring it up
again on Labor Day. As usual, there is
much spin and counter-spin about this, but it seems especially pointless to
blow smoke - the facts are actually quite clear. But then, they're quite clear
on John Kerry's war record, too, but that doesn't seem to have stopped that
idiotic "debate."
In this case, however, the reality check is in the numbers on your paycheck.
Good luck now and in the future on this one. Oh, and do please relish the Bush
line that this is a gift to workers because comp time will give you more time
with family. Molly Ivins is a syndicated writer in Texas.
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