From: Susan Kniep, President
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website: http://ctact.org/
email: fctopresident@ctact.org
860-524-6501
January 13, 2006
WELCOME TO THE 63rd EDITION OF
TAX TALK
*****
TONIGHT –
WATCH 20/20
From: Theresa McGrath
Family Alliance
for Children in Education
FACE0203@comcast.net
(860) 570-1203
A Special Thank You to Theresa McGrath for notifying us of ABC’s 20/20
which will aire tonight as John Stossel presents Are
American Kids Stupid? Are
kids in the United States
being cheated out of a quality education? In a special report airing this
Friday on ABC's "20/20", John Stossel
reveals the surprising truth. American
high school students fizzle in international comparisons, placing well behind
other countries, even poorer countries like Poland,
the Czech Republic
and South Korea. American kids do pretty well when they enter public school, but as
time goes on, the worse they do. Why? Continued at this website: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/7/150122.shtml
*****
Former
state senator tried to help mob, prosecutors allege, By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated
Press Writer, January 13, 2006, 2:02 AM EST - STAMFORD, Conn.
-- Former state Sen. Ernest Newton worked with a reputed mobster and his
associate to try to stop police raids on businesses and advance their business
interests, federal prosecutors alleged in court documents filed Thursday. In return, Newton received help bailing his son out of
prison and campaign contributions from the reputed mobster and his associate,
authorities said. "I told you I
know the underworld," Newton said in a
conversation intercepted by investigators, according to the documents submitted
in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport. "Their
strip joint got raided last night, took about 20 girls out, cash ... I am
supposed to meet with them today."
In another call, Newton
allegedly said, "I gotta meet these (expletive)
people from the mob. When they do favors for you, you gotta
be there." Continued … http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--newton-sentencing0113jan12,0,1080873.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut
*****
Connecticut Municipal Budget Adoptions
Provided by the State’s
Office of Policy and Management
http://www.opm.state.ct.us/igp/acir/munbud06.doc
http://www.opm.state.ct.us/igp/acir/budgadop.htm
*****
Department of Justice
National Sex Offender Public Registry
http://www.nsopr.gov/
*****
DOT arrests attack lower-level corruption, By:
Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press, 01/12/2006
The bid-rigging investigation
that led to the arrests Tuesday of five state Department of Transportation
employees and a contractor is the latest effort to root out corruption from
former Gov. John G. Rowland's administration, prosecutors say. Robert Marino, 60, of Peabody, Mass., and
his company, Marino Brothers of New England Inc., were accused of bribing state
employees and colluding with DOT Maintenance Manager Joseph A. Misbach to make Marino the sole contractor for the cold
sealing of cracks on Connecticut highways between 1997 and 2004. Continued at the following website: http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15914580&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=569380&rfi=8
*****
The Two Connecticuts
New Study
Finds Big Gap in Pay, Benefits Between Government and Private-Sector Workers, Think Tank Documents the Disparities of ‘The Two Connecticuts’. On January 10, 2006 the Yankee
Institute for Public Policy released “The Two Connecticuts,” a study that examines wages and
benefits in the Nutmeg
State’s public and
private sectors. The report written by
Philip Gressel Fellow for Tax and Budget Policy D.
Dowd Muska, DowdMuska@cox.net
can be accessed at http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/main/article.php?article_id=110
*****
Based on the aforementioned, it is interesting
to recap that which I had written as an oped for the Waterbury Republican in
2005…
TOUGH CHOICES ON LABOR COSTS AWAIT
BUDGET MAKERS
Governor Rell and
Legislators Must Fix the Widening Divide
They Have Created Between "At-Will"
Private-Sector Employees
and Government -Sector
Union Employees
By Susan Kniep,
President,
The Federation
of Connecticut Taxpayer Organiations, Inc.
With Budget Season upon us and taxpayers
facing a $1.3 billion State budget deficit, Governor Rell
and all State legislators would be wise to freeze the salaries of all state
employees, to include their own. They
should also extend the legal authority to freeze salaries to municipal leaders,
while instituting changes to the state’s Binding
Arbitration laws.
Understanding that leadership must come
from the top, Governor Rell, in her continued effort
to bring Connecticut out from under the cloud of corruption, should
concurrently dismiss many Rowland political appointees making unjustifiable
salaries who will soon be ready to retire at the taxpayer’s expense. These durational hires, some of whom were
moved into permanent positions, include Rowland loyalists Kathleen Mengacci, paid $85,000 a year as assistant to the director
of the Office of Workforce Competitiveness; Regina Gianni, paid $52,000 who
answers phones for the Department of Motor Vehicles; Michael Doyle, paid
$60,000 as an executive assistant in the Department of Correction; and Martin Zito, paid $104,000 as chief of staff in the Department of
Mental Retardation.
Next, Governor Rell
would do well to purge the State’s quasi-public agencies of appointees who are
managing these agencies as political fiefdoms.
CRRA’s loss of $220 million is history. What’s new is the revelation of the Lottery Corp’s
double-digit "incentive payments" totaling $160,926 to 17 lottery
officials.
This should then be followed by Governor
Rell’s termination of gubernatorial appointees to the MDC
Commission who supported William DiBella’s hand
picked political operative to a $110,000 MDC job without posting the job, while
creating for his friend an assistant position at over $70,000. The Governor and all State elected officials
should join former Democrat State
Chairman George Jepsen’s call for DiBella
to step down from his position as Chairman of the MDC to avoid, as Jepsen stated, “the
appearance of impropriety, after allegations by federal authorities that he
accepted nearly $375,000 in a deal involving now imprisoned former Treasurer
Paul Sylvester.”
And, finally, Governor Rell and all State legislators must fix the widening divide
they have created between “at-will” private sector employees and government
sector union employees. We have a two
tiered employment system
in Connecticut
between the haves and have nots. Government sector unions who have the elected
officials wrapped around their finger, and as such, they refuse to change state
Binding Arbitration laws
versus “at-will” employees who are trying to pry the fingers of
their elected officials from their wallets as more of their tax dollars are
channeled to fund union contracts, which account for 70% to 90% of local
budgets.
The majority of Connecticut residents work in the private
sector under “at-will” conditions wherein they can be terminated at any time,
for any legal reason, or for no reason at all by their employer. They work in a state of flux knowing that
their employer on any given day can demand that they pay a greater share of
their health care premium, take on a greater workload, receive a minimal salary
increase, no salary increase or have their pay cut. There will be no debate, no bargaining, no
arbitration, and no elected official waiting to defend them. The words “out-sourcing” and “visas” have
become a part of the Connecticut
worker’s vocabulary as the agenda of many corporations is to put their stock at
the top of the portfolios of Wall Street analysts.
The “at-will” employee is an unprotected
class. They are losing their jobs, their
homes and their health insurance. They
are being forced into jobs which are below their educational and skill levels
and at salaries which are a fraction of what their previous jobs paid.
Yet, the American dream is alive and
well for those whom the “at-will” employee is forced by elected government
officials to financially support. They
are the state and municipal government workers.
In contrast to the “at–will” employee, government workers don’t have to accept
what their employer tells them.
Taxpayers are their employer.
Whether it is working conditions or salary, healthcare or pension issues
they exercise their State given right to force negotiations and push their
agendas, behind closed doors, under state Binding Arbitration laws, which leave
taxpayers powerless. Unions vote to
accept or reject their contracts.
Taxpayers do not. Instead,
taxpayers are simply presented with the bill for these lucrative union
contracts, through their property taxes.
State elected officials like Edith
Prague, Chairperson of the State’s Labor Committee, and her Democrat
colleagues, work to protect the interests of
government employees to the detriment of “at-will” private sector
employees. She opposes any changes to
State Binding Arbitration Laws. She
refuses to support proposed changes being brought before the full General
Assembly.
Throughout the 169 Connecticut towns, 70% to 90% of municipal
budgets pay for salaries, health care and pensions of municipal employees.
In several Connecticut towns, pensions for personnel
are determined by what they earned in three of their final five years on the
job, with overtime factored in. In Hartford, a wage earner
took home $131,706.46, or $71,533.14 more than his
base salary. In East
Hartford, police can elected a program which will allow them to
work 5 years prior to full retirement.
While collecting their pay, 96% of their pension is deposited into a
savings account up to 5 years. With
pensions at $50,000 and greater, they can leave the town with $250,000 and more
if they elect this program, and then begin collecting their full pension.
The Wall Street Journal on January 13 in
their article “No Teacher Left Behind” labeled the Teachers Union
as the most powerful in the country contending they promote their own interests
to the detriment of public school systems.”
Yet, our State and local elected officials continue to oppose any form
of competition in education to include vouchers.
Volunteerism, once a noble cause, has
been trampled on by union leadership, whose power is cemented in State law. Firefighters working in towns and cities
throughout the State were forced to incorporate a provision in their labor
contracts which prohibited them from volunteering for fire fighter duties in the
towns in which they lived.
State taxpayers pay approximately $300
million for State employee healthcare and $155 million for State retiree
healthcare. Some state and local
retirees pay little to nothing. Locally,
property taxes are increasing to pay the 85% to 95% of healthcare premiums for
municipal employees. This equates to
taxpayers paying between $12,750 to $14,250 for each union
member’s family healthcare policy . But
that wasn’t enough for the unions. They
wanted more and went to court to get it.
They sued the taxpayers to take possession of the $100 million in stock
received by the State from the Anthem demutualization, as well as the Anthem
stock distributed to individual towns.
Many “at-will” workers in Connecticut
who pay taxes have no health insurance.
In summary, the increasing divide
between “at-will” employees in the private sector versus government sector
unions must be immediately addressed through changes to State Binding
Arbitration Laws. The cost of union
contracts has helped Connecticut to attain our status as the highest
taxed state per capita in the nation, with the highest bonded debt. Out debt is $12.4 billion, which taxpayers
pay $1.3 million in interest annually.
State costs can be brought under
control. If our elected officials don’t
have the wisdom or courage to do so, then we, the taxpayers, are at fault for
electing them.
*****
See how Connecticut measurers up in Car Insurance
Rate comparisons
http://money.aol.com/insurancecom/insurance/canvas3?id=20060111151209990001
*****
Will You Get Hit By the
AMT?
New IRS Web Tool Helps
Quickly Determine Who Will Be Subject to the Onerous Tax
By Robert Guy Matthews
of THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL, January 5, 2006
Taxpayers worried
about getting hit by the alternative minimum tax this year now have a new,
quick way to determine their exposure.
Last year thousands of taxpayers were shocked when they discovered that
they were subject to the tax, which disallows a number of common deductions and
exemptions. But as the new tax-filing season gets under way, the Internal
Revenue Service is launching an online tool that will help eliminate the
surprise factor. It takes your financial information -- which you enter
anonymously -- and calculates whether the tax applies to you for your 2005
income. Instead of spending an hour working through a paper worksheet, most
people can complete the whole process in about five to 10 minutes, the IRS
says. Dubbed "AMT Assistant,"
the program can be found at apps.irs.gov/app/amt/. In order to complete it, taxpayers must
answer several questions and copy data from their Form 1040. The program will
tell you only if you definitively do not have to fill out the AMT form, not how
much tax you owe. The AMT is a
controversial parallel tax that was designed in 1969 to ensure that the 155
wealthiest citizens couldn't avoid paying income taxes by taking multiple
exemptions and deductions. But because the AMT isn't indexed for inflation, it
affects a larger group of people with every passing year. This
year four million taxpayers are expected to be hit with the AMT for their 2005
income, up from 3.5 million in 2004.
Congress has been working to amend the law to reduce the number of people
who have to pay the tax, and the leadership of both
parties embraces the effort. But if lawmakers fail to act, 21.6 million people
will have to pay the AMT next year on their 2006 income. Continued at the following website http://money.aol.com/wsj/investing/3canvas?id=20060105104009990001
*****
Robert Young, ryoung0@snet.net
Wethersfield
Taxpayers Association
January 10, 2006
Subject:
Not one of the following taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was
the most prosperous in the world
TAXES: Accounts Receivable Tax, Building
Permit Tax, Capital Gains Tax, CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax, Corporate Income
Tax, Court Fines, (indirect taxes), Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax, Federal
Unemployment Tax, (FUTA) , Fishing License Tax , Food License Tax, Fuel permit
tax, Gasoline Tax, (42 cents per gallon) , Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax
Interest expense, (tax on the money), Inventory tax IRS Interest charges, (tax
on top of tax), IRS Penalties, (tax on top of tax), Liquor Tax, Local Income
Tax, Luxury Taxes, Marriage License Tax, Medicare Tax, Property Tax, Real
Estate Tax, Septic Permit Tax, Service Charge Taxes, Social Security Tax, Road
Usage Taxes, (Truckers) Sales Taxes, Recreational Vehicle Tax, Road Toll Booth
Taxes, School Tax, State Income Tax, State Unemployment Tax, (SUTA), Telephone:
federal excise tax, Telephone: federal universal service fee tax, federal, state and local surcharge
taxes, minimum usage surcharge tax, recurring and non-recurring charges tax, state and local tax, standard usage charge tax, Toll Bridge Taxes,
Toll Tunnel Taxes, Traffic Fines, (indirect taxation) , Trailer registration
tax, Utility Taxes, Vehicle License Registration Tax, Vehicle Sales Tax,
Watercraft registration Tax, Well Permit Tax, Workers Compensation Tax!
COMMENTS:
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was
the
most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest
middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What
the hell happened???
*****
John Kane, newmilfordcitizen@earthlink.net
New
Milford Taxpayers
Subject: Interesting Link
Bush removal ended Guam
investigation, US attorney's demotion halted probe of
lobbyist
By Walter F. Roche Jr., Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of
controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years
ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the
probe ended soon after. The previously undisclosed Guam inquiry is separate
from a federal grand jury in the District
of Columbia that is investigating allegations that Abramoff bilked Indian tribes out of millions of
dollars. In Guam, a US territory in
the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's
secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court
reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the
Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior
Court. In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior
Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency. The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Abramoff
was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna
Beach, Calif., lawyer to disguise
the lobbyist's role working for the Guam
court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's
work. Continued at the following
website http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/08/bush_removal_ended_guam_investigation/?p1=email_to_a_friend
*****
Bob Green, rgreen619@snet.net
Chairman, Salem Republican
Town Committee
Member, Salem Board of Education
January 9, 2006
Governor Rell
Announces First Meeting Of Education Finance Commission,
Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that the
Governor’s Commission on Education Finance will begin meeting Tuesday, with the
goal of bringing more fairness and equity to the distribution of school funding
to cities and towns. To be chaired by Policy and Management Secretary
Robert Genuario, the commission has the “vital and
monumental” responsibility to address disparities in aid to municipalities and
recommend ways to provide additional resources to hard-pressed cities, Governor
Rell said.
Continued at the following website:
http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/view.asp?Q=308410&A=2425
Statements by
Governor Rell and Representative Simmons
on EB Contract Award
Governor M. Jodi Rell
today issued the following statement on the awarding of an $85 million contract
to Electric Boat in Groton: “Today’s $85 million contract award is
terrific news for Electric Boat and underscores the value of this company and
the talent of its workers in the Connecticut
economy. The Navy found that EB is uniquely qualified for this work, and that
is a testament to the vision EB’s management and the
ingenuity of its workers. This award is also another validation of the wisdom
of keeping the Navy sub base open in Groton, and
offers Connecticut
another opportunity to serve the nation.”
Continued at the following website: http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/view.asp?Q=308412&A=2425
*****
Insurance agency collected commissions on state business, By:
Don Michak, Journal Inquirer, 12/29/2005
- The state apparently paid more than it should have for insurance because a
firm that acts as the state's agent didn't reduce its fees to account for
privately arranged commissions it collected from insurance companies, according
to the state auditors. Continued http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15834336&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=569380&rfi=8
*****