From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer
Organizations, Inc. (FCTO)
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
email: fctopresident@aol.com
860-524-6501
July 16, 2008
The numerous emails FCTO receives, reflects the fear of
local taxpayers for national issues to include the failure of financial
institutions, the economy, job loss and healthcare. For this reason, we will continue to offer
coverage on these important national issues.
Please continue to send us information as you become aware of it to
include news which is generated off the main stream, to include news through citizen
journalism.
***********
Please
forward the following to your family, friends and associates or
Refer
them to FCTO’s website at http://ctact.org/
Welcome to
Tax Talk 120
Contained in Tax Talk 120
· Special
recognition of Connecticut State Senator Sam Caligiuri
who wrote - Why Connecticut
Citizens Need the Right of Referendum and Initiative (click below to read his
comments)
· Rowland pal picked
by Rell snubbed for Connecticut
U.S.
attorney post
· Tolland Taxpayers
invite public to hear Armand Fusco today, July 16
·
Congressional
Earmarks for Higher Education, 2008
· The Secret Bailout of
J. P. Morgan: How Insider Trading Looted Bear Stearns and the American
Taxpayer
· IndyBank Failure
· The Rise and Fall of
Fannie and Freddy
· New Jersey superintendent
retires with severance worth more than $740,000
· U.S. Advised Iraqi
Ministry on Oil Deals
· House, Senate
override Bush Medicare veto
· Analysts Say More
Banks Will Fail
· Consumer prices
jump 1.1 percent in June
· Opposition, From
Both Parties, Over Bailout Plan
· Eminent Domain
Comes to China
· Cheap Loans to
Leading Senators Demonstrate Washington’s
Casual Corruption
· New York Coalition forms
in support of school tax cap
· Deepening Cycle of
Job Loss Seen Lasting Into ’09 State of Connecticut’s
· Charter Oak Health Plan
*******************************
As FCTO asks all Connecticut voters to VOTE YES on the Statewide
Ballot Question this
November which reads …. SHALL THERE BE A
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION TO AMEND OR REVISE THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE,
We pay special recognition to Connecticut State Senator Sam Caligiuri who in May, 2008 wrote
the following…
Why Connecticut Citizens Need The
Right Of Referendum & Initiative
**************************
Rowland pal picked by Rell
snubbed for Connecticut U.S. attorney
post By Don Michak,
Journal Inquirer Published: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 11:16 AM EDT
President Bush has bypassed Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s
pick to be the next U.S.
attorney for Connecticut in favor of a Stamford lawyer backed by
U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th District.
http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/07/16/news/doc487e05d93ced7123637017.txt
**************************
TOLLAND TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION
INVITES PUBLIC TO MEETING TODAY
Date:
July 16, 2008; Time: 7:30 PM
Location:
Community Room at the Back of Town Hall
GUEST SPEAKER:
ARMAND FUSCO
School System Audits … Dr. Armand Fusco
A Citizen Forensic Audit Committee: Public School Oversight to Identify and
Prevent Loss, Abuse, and Misuse of School Resources
Dr. Fusco has assisted the Enfield B.O.E. train its’ citizen audit committee
In the methodology of a forensic audit. He is very knowledgeable in how
Schools systems operate, where mismanagement and misuse of time and resources
are most commonly a cause of spending waste and excess. We are pleased to have an opportunity to hear
of his experiences and to Discuss how and what might
be applicable in Tolland.
Tolland Taxpayers Association, John Durand, Director
Email: tollandtaxpayers@yahoo.com, porchejd@yahoo.com
JI Article on Enfield
Audit: http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/07/09/towns/enfield/doc486b93b642cd1014589266.txt
**************************
Rowland crony pays
ethics fine
A former top state economic development official who
played a prominent role in the scandals that surrounded ex-Gov. John G. Rowland
has paid $16,000 to settle a longstanding state ethics complaint. Arthur H. Diedrick, who was chairman of the Co... http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/07/15/news/doc487cc1785312e810731005.txt
**************************
Check to see what your congressman/woman
supported
Congressional Earmarks for Higher
Education, 2008
Earmarks are noncompetitive grants directed by Congress to
specific constituents, including colleges and universities, usually in
lawmakers' own districts or states. This practice -- also known as pork-barrel spending -- is
controversial because it bypasses the normal competitions for federal grants. http://chronicle.com/stats/pork/index.php?institution=&q=larson&state=&agency=
*************************
The Secret
Bailout of J. P. Morgan: How Insider Trading Looted Bear Stearns and the
American Taxpayer by Ellen
Brown,Global Research, May 14, 2008
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8974
**************************
INDY BANK FAILURE
The Fall of IndyMac by
CNNMoney.com….About 95% of the $19 billion in deposits in the bank are insured,
but that leaves $1 billion that was not covered by FDIC guarantees. According
to the agency, 10,000 IndyMac customers could lose as
much as half of that amount, or $500 million. The agency says the failure will
cost the Deposit Insurance Fund between $4 billion and $8 billion, based on
preliminary estimates. http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/12/news/companies/indymac_fdic/index.htm
IndyMac
Bank seized by federal regulators
The federal government took control of Pasadena-based IndyMac Bank on Friday in what regulators called the
second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history. Citing a massive run on deposits, regulators shut its main branch
three hours early, leaving customers stunned and upset. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-indymac12-2008jul12,0,6071779.story
Sen. Schumer defends comments on IndyMac collapse http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080713/ap_on_bi_ge/indymac_schumer
**************************
The Rise and Fall of Fannie and
Freddie
Jim Leach, a Republican former representative from Iowa, who
began arguing two decades ago in Congress that the government-chartered
mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were unfairly insulated from
the real world.
They were not subject to the same financial standards and
tax burdens as their competitors, he warned, and if they ran into trouble, an
implicit government guarantee to back them up meant taxpayers would be left
with the losses. http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20080712_the_rise_and_fall_of_fannie_and_freddie/?ln
**************************
New Jersey superintendent retires with severance worth more than
$740,000
Retirement as a Four-Letter Word
2008-23-05
…A New Jersey school superintendent who raised eyebrows two years ago
when she arrived at a hearing on state school aid in a stretch limousine will
get a severance package worth more than $740,000 when she steps down next month,
documents posted on the school district's website show. http://www.getliberty.org/blog/retirement_as_a_four-letter_word/
**************************
Eminent
Domain Comes to China….
Olympics Driving An
Eminent Domain Bulldozer In China
More than 1.25 million people in Beijing - at times as many
as 13,000 people a week - have been evicted since the city won its Olympic bid
in 2001, according to the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions. http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=ae89e348-5881-4645-b3f1-c150adac3f11
**************************
Coalition forms in support of school tax
cap
BY JAMES T. MADORE | james.madore@newsday.com
July 1, 2008
ALBANY - Laura Pandelakis, a
retired educator from Manhasset, woke up at 5 a.m. yesterday to travel here to
lobby on behalf of capping yearly increases in school property taxes.
Pandelakis was one of three from Long Islanders for
Educational Reform to attend the launch of an umbrella organization supporting
Gov. David
A. Paterson's plan to limit school levies
to 4 percent per year. The group, New
York Property Tax Cap Coalition, already
has more than 250 members with at least 21 from Nassau
and Suffolk
counties, according to its Web site, http://www.taxcapnow.org/. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-stcap015747935jul01,0,4755444.story
*******************************
Deepening Cycle of Job Loss Seen Lasting
Into ’09
By PETER S. GOODMAN` ,
Published: July 2, 2008
As automakers dropped their latest batch of awful sales
numbers on the market on Tuesday, reinforcing the gloom spreading across the
economy, the troubles confronting American workers seemed to intensify.
Plummeting home prices have in recent months eliminated jobs for hundreds of
thousands of people, from bankers and real estate agents to construction
workers and furniture manufacturers. Tighter lending standards imposed by banks
in the wake of huge mortgage losses have made it hard for many Americans to
secure credit — the lifeblood of expansion in recent years — crimping the
appetite of consumers, whose spending amounts to 70 percent of the
economy. Continued… http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/business/02jobs.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1215097125-Ew+VGA6B0s6C4cAXlvDjfQ
*******************************
U.S.
Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Deals
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: June 30, 2008New York Times
A group of American advisers led by a small State Department
team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi
government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest
fields in Iraq, American officials say. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/world/middleeast/30contract.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&oref=slogin
*******************************
House, Senate override Bush Medicare veto
Posted: 06:30 PM ET 7/15/2008 President Bush says he
objects to the bill because it takes 'choices away from seniors to pay
physicians.' WASHINGTON (CNN) —
Overriding President Bush's veto, both houses of Congress voted Tuesday to halt
planned cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/15/house-senate-override-bush-medicare-veto/
*******************************
Analysts Say More Banks Will Fail
By LOUISE STORY
Published: July 14, 2008
As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount,
federal regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the
next year. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/business/14bank.html
*******************************
Consumer prices jump 1.1 percent in June
Jul. 16, 2008, By
MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON -- Consumer
prices shot up in June at the fastest pace in 26 years with two-thirds of the
surge blamed on soaring energy prices. http://www.miamiherald.com/business/AP/story/605217.html
*******************************
On the Freddie and
Fannie Bailout….
Opposition, From Both Parties, Over Bailout
Plan
July 16, 2008, 8:06 am
The Bush administration’s plan to rescue the nation’s two
largest mortgage finance companies ran into sharp criticism in Congress on
Tuesday as some lawmakers questioned the open-ended request for money that
could be used to help the companies. ….
The strongest criticism came from Republicans. “When I picked up my newspaper yesterday, I
thought I woke up in France,”
Senator Jim Bunning, Republican
of Kentucky,
said at the hearing. “But no, it turns out socialism is alive and well in America.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/business/16fannie.html?dbk
*******************************
Atlanta, GA --
Countrywide Financial’s preferential loans to
Senators Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad represent “the cozy corruption that
has come to dominate Washington,”
notes Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president. Sen. Dodd
and Sen. Conrad chair the Finance and Budget Committees, respectively.
“Amazingly, Sen. Dodd continues to develop a multi-billion bail-out for the
mortgage lending industry of which Countrywide is a leading member,” observes
Barr.
What makes
the relationship between the industry and the Senators so disturbing is that it
seems so natural. Apparently Senators Dodd and Conrad thought nothing of
seeking preferential treatment—even while claiming that they didn’t believe
they were receiving a preferential interest rate on the mortgages they
received. “As government grows ever bigger, the opportunities for such
abuse grow more frequent,” Barr explains.
Of course,
it isn’t just a problem with the mortgage industry. Two decades ago
Republican and Democratic legislators, including Senator McCain, had close ties
to failing Savings & Loans in the midst of another financial crisis.
“Throughout U.S.
history businesses have sought favors from politicians, with the public almost
always the loser,” notes Barr.
The best
strategy to reduce influence peddling and political corruption is not so-called
reform that simply changes the rules smart attorneys have to get around, but
cutting the size, scope, and cost of government. “As long as more than $3
trillion worth of hard earned taxpayer money is available for the taking along
the Potomac, individuals and groups will spend lavishly and work feverishly to
get their share and then some,” says Barr. “Ultimately, the only way to
end the petty corruption that fills Washington
is to eliminate the profit from the political game by dramatically shrinking
government.”
Barr
represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives
from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary
Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member
of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr
was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United
States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and
also served as an official with the CIA.
Since
leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups
ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizens’ right to privacy and other civil liberties
guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping
elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant
individual freedom. http://www.bobbarr2008.com/press/press-releases/31/bob-barr-says-cheap-loans-to-leading-senators-demonstrate-washington%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Ccasual-corruption%E2%80%9D/
**************************
State of Connecticut’s Charter Oak Health Plan
http://www.charteroakhealthplan.com/coh/site/default.asp