Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

On March 22, 2007, the Federation of Connecticut Taxpayers Organizations hosted the first annual �Tax Day� Forum in Room 1C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.� The agenda included legislators and members of organizations as representatives from tax organizations.� A question and answer period followed each speaker and many ideas were exchanged and debated.� Members of the press as well as Channel 30 News were there to report on the event.

Susan Kniep, President of The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. began the forum by introducing the Federation�s Plan for local reform of union contract negotiations and adoption. Susan stated that �although the Federation continues to seek reform of Binding Arbitration at the state level, the Federation is beginning a campaign to encourage local elected officials to revise their town ordinances and/or town charters to allow for transparency of union contracts.� Susan emphasized that taxpayers now pay approximately 75% to 85% of their property taxes to pay for personnel related expenses. As such, taxpayers are entitled to know the substance of all contracts prior to their approval and prior to receiving their tax bill to pay for the contracts.

Susan indicated that the Federation will encourage all of the 169 towns in the State of Connecticut to:

end the secrecy of contract negotiations and require all future union contracts be negotiated in public,
provide full public disclosure of all costs associated with proposed contracts, delineated by wages, healthcare, pensions, and any and all changes in work conditions which affect costs
hold a public hearing on all contracts to allow for local citizen input prior to town officials agreeing to the terms of the contract.

The Federation strongly feels that this transparency is necessary for taxpayers to know what they are paying for and to give taxpayers the same rights and opportunities as union members.

The forum was kicked off by a presentation by State Representative Arthur O�Neill, who explained his proposed legislation for property reform in CT, which contains elements of Massachusetts Proposition 2 1/2. He demonstrated how CT is following in the path of NJ who has done little to cap spending versus Massachusetts who has implemented Proposition 2 1/2 placing a cap on municipal spending and allowing the taxpayers to vote on budget spending if the cap is exceeded or come under the 2 1/2 cap.� A clear need was expressed for property tax reform in the state of CT.��

Senator Lou Deluca followed up with his presentation about binding arbitration and how that is hurting municipalities and their ability to control their budgets. There was concern expressed about how binding arbitration is done behind closed doors and is not a transparent process to the taxpayer.� There is also a problem perceived with the �take it or leave it� attitude of binding arbitration, and that the process is used as a threat or leverage by unions.

Mike Guarco, a Granby Finance Chair, spoke about binding arbitration and prevailing wage.� His strongest point was that spending is the biggest part of the overall tax problems we have in the state. Mr. Guarco has organized representatives of 113 of the 169 municipalities in the state to work on budget issues.

A representative of the Connecticut Council of Municipalities (CCM) also spoke on property tax relief and unfunded mandates. Gian-Carl Casa decried the inequity of property taxes and how municipalities are not getting the funding that they need from the state. Grants like Education Cost Sharing are not being funded enough and subsequently towns are not getting their fair share of funding which means they have to resort to taxing their residents to make up for the shortfall. He felt that the state needs to send more funding to the towns. It was suggested by FCTO President, Susan Kniep, that Mr. Casa should encourage his membership, which are the CEOs of various municipalities across the state, to come to the Capitol and testify before the labor committee to reform binding arbitration.

Bonnie Stewart of Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) spoke about business taxes, and also stated that binding arbitration needs to be reformed.� She said that we need to control state and municipal spending.� She also said that towns and businesses usually have to pick up the shortfalls for state and federal costs.�� Ms. Stewart also said that spending is the key and that we have to look into fairer taxing methods.� Millions of dollars are sent to municipalities without controls and that we should be looking to see if money is being spent correctly by looking at the outcomes.

Another featured speaker was State Representative Sean Williams.� He spoke about CT�s income tax , conveyance taxes and energy taxes.� The thrust of his talk was about the income tax and the conveyance taxes which were supposed to be temporary taxes.� They have become permanent in nature as we continue to rely on the income.� The conveyance was supposed to have been sunset years ago and it is a hidden tax that people do not pay until they sell their homes.� He believes strongly that the state should keep its promises when it says that taxes will be temporary and that these taxes should be eliminated.� He also felt strongly that the key to our tax issues is in controlling spending.

Waterbury Independent Mike Telesca presented his plan about reforming the car tax. He believes that a central repository for car tax collection and administration could be in the Department of Motor vehicle instead of having each town collect car taxes. He said we need state solutions to tax issues because what is happening now is that we are pitting town against town for funding.� He said it is important to remove waste in government.

The last speaker was State Representative Lile Gibbons of Greenwich, who spoke about the Estate tax.� She presented her ideas about how over taxing businesses, like hedge companies, which are portable as well as wealthy homeowners only hurts CT because they can easily declare residency elsewhere or move their operations out of state all together.� CT ultimately loses revenue and jobs when that happens. We should not be over taxing businesses and successful business owners because they are the economic engines of the state and if they leave then we have much to lose.�

Most participants came to the conclusion that we cannot continue on the current spending spree.� People and businesses are leaving the state.� We are unable to retain young people who we spend much money to educate, and many seniors are also leaving.� Our population has been dwindling.� As a result of losing population we will ultimately lose representation in Washington DC.

There were many comments from taxpayers who were in attendance and it was a very productive and informative day.� The FCTO plans to do this type of forum again next year.

FCTO serves its members through research and advocacy on significant tax and spending issues on the local, state, and national levels. FCTO�s goal is to promote fiscal austerity in all levels of government thereby constraining the tax burden on local and state taxpayers. As a government watchdog, FCTO provides a system of checks and balances with the intent of protecting taxpayers from unnecessary taxation and government mismanagement or corruption. Their belief is that the only Special Interest in government should be the taxpayers from whom government draws its resources.��

For additional information, visit the organization�s website at http://ctact.org� or contact Susan Kniep at 860-524-6501, 860-841-8032 or via email fctopresident@ctact.org.�