From: Susan Kniep, President
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website: http://ctact.org/
email: fctopresident@ctact.org
860-524-6501
January 16, 2006
WELCOME TO THE 64th EDITION OF
TAX TALK
FCTO
MEETING
Saturday, January 28, 2006
8:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Chatfield Retirement Community
1 Chatfield Drive, West Hartford, CT
Tickets $10.00 for Continental Breakfast
2006 – THE YEAR OF THE
TAXPAYER
United we can force the change of Binding Arbitration
Laws and other State Mandates, instill ethical standards in local and state
government, and ultimately control taxes.
We can also force the change of Eminent Domain laws and stop government
from taking possession of our homes.
Come and meet Mike Guarco of the
Connecticut Municipal Consortium for Fiscal Responsibility
Learn how you can help Mike bring town officials on board
with his organization and challenge the state mandates which are driving up our
property taxes. Refer to Tax Talk 60 for
further information on Mike’s success.
Also, read below of the Town of Somers
joining Mike’s organization. If you wish
to be put on the Jan 28 Agenda or plan to attend, please contact me at
841-8032. Susan Kniep
*****
Somers to join consortium in fight for
greater local budget control
By:Tracy
E. Gilchrist, Journal Inquirer, 01/12/2006, SOMERS - Three town boards by
consensus Monday decided to join a statewide consortium whose goal is to
petition the legislature to give towns greater control over their own
budgets. The Board of Selectmen and
Board of Education voted to join the Connecticut
Municipal Consortium for Fiscal Responsibility, which currently has a
membership of 77 towns. Although the
Board of Finance lacked a quorum to officially vote Monday, Finance Board
member George F. Warner said Wednesday that, based on discussions with other
board members, there exists an unofficial consensus to join. The Finance Board will take a formal vote at
its Jan. 23 meeting. Warner said in a
news release that the consortium was formed in response to taxpayer discontent
and local budget defeats, adding that the rate of budget rejections remains
high, while local property taxes increase at about 5 percent each year. First Selectmen David Pinney
said today that it's tough for small towns to maintain a presence regarding
critical decisions made by the legislature.
He added that the consortium provides towns the opportunity to
consolidate in voicing their concerns.
"There's strength in numbers," Warner said of towns banding
together to petition legislators.
Continued at http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15915140&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=569430&rfi=6
*****
LET’S TALK ETHICS
Thursday, January 26, 2006 from 7 PM to 9
PM at
First Church, 81
High Street, Suffield
A Meeting Hosted by Common Cause to Discuss
The Enactment of Municipal Ethics Laws
The following is a message
from Common Cause as provided by John Kane, info@johnkanephoto.com of New
Milford.
Greetings, on Thursday, Jan. 26, from 7
to 9 PM Connecticut Common Cause will be hosting a meeting to discuss a
multi-year strategy for the enactment of a broad and comprehensive municipal
ethics reform package at the First Church, 81 High Street, Suffield. Over
the years, Connecticut
Common Cause has tried to compel state leaders to acknowledge the wisdom of
implementing such things as a uniform model code of state ethics and a code of
ethics for municipal lobbyists. With the silent defeat (it was never called for
a vote) of H.B. 6616 last year – a bill that had the support of Gov. Rell and prominent legislators, It has become apparent that
a new strategy to implement change is necessary. I’m writing you and other municipal ethics
proponents for your help in developing and executing a strategy that can help
us achieve meaningful municipal ethics reforms.
In the next week or two I will be sending general announcements,
but I wanted to send a quick message to bring the meeting to your attention. I know Suffield is out of the way for many,
but I hope you can make it. Give me a call if you have any questions. Thanks,
Andy Sauer, Executive Director, Connecticut
Common Cause, 55 Oak St., Hartford, CT 06106, 860.549.1220, 860.549.5131 (fax),
860.539.6846 (cell) www.commoncause-ct.org
*****
Wal-Mart Mulls Legal Challenge to New Maryland Law That
Targets Health Spending January
13, 7:00 pm ET, By Tom Stuckey, Associated Press
Writer, ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,
faced with a new Maryland law designed to pressure the retail chain into
spending more money on health insurance for its employees, is considering a
challenge to the groundbreaking legislation. Continued at this website: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060113/wal_mart_law.html?.v=2
*****
Fraud trial charts high roller Anthony Autorino's
wild ride
By:Alex
Wood, Journal Inquirer, 01/13/2006, A federal jury this week
began to hear the story of the roller-coaster business fortunes of Anthony D. Autorino, a onetime president of what was then known as
Hamilton Standard, a partner of the powerful in Hartford-area realty and
business dealings, and the owner of a Somers horse farm. Autorino's affairs
as an entrepreneur since the mid-1980s have embroiled him in controversy and a
federal criminal case, which is being tried in U.S.
District Court in New Haven.
The jury heard about only a small segment of Autorino's
business history on the first day of the fraud trial on Wednesday, delivered
through the low-key testimony of a former credit analyst for the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp., Charles Pryce of Glastonbury.
But one of the things Pryce told the jurors about was a stunning reversal in Autorino's fortunes. On June 30, 1990, Autorino's
adjusted net worth - the sum of his assets less his liabilities - was well over
$25 million. But just 18 months later, on Dec. 31, 1991, he had a negative net
worth of more than $13 million.
Continued at the following website: http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15924597&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6
*****
Murray Renshaw, murraytheeye@snet.net
New
London
Subject:
Appreciation to FCTO for Informative Material and Website
January 14, 2006
Susan and Associates,
Thanks for the 63'rd edition of Tax
Talk. The information certainly is far reaching and very
informative. The ABC segment on Charter Schools and our educational system was a
gem. What are we going to do??? ]High taxes, increasing fuel,
electric and soaring cost of living costs are becoming more and more
difficult to fund by working men and women and especially unfair to senior's and
people on fixed incomes- For once in my life I am afraid. Please
keep the information coming- Your web site is
the best of all. Regards from New London Murray
*****
Doug
Schwartz, thedougschwartz@gmail.com
New London
Newton Lawyers Seek To Ease Sentence, By EDMUND H. MAHONY
And CHRISTOPHER KEATING Courant Staff Writers, January 14 2006
Ex-Sen. Ernest Newton's lawyers filed a plea for a
light sentence for their client Friday. The 28-page document delves extensively
into the legal technicalities of federal sentencing guidelines but ignores
assertions by prosecutors that Newton
was a corrupt hustler who took campaign cash for favors to mobsters and
demanded a raise for a no-show job. The
sentencing memorandum also sets the stage for plea for leniency based on claims
that Newton has had a long career in public
service, first as a member of the Bridgeport
City Council and later as
a state representative and state senator.
Attached to the legal arguments were 19 letters from political
colleagues, friends and relatives attesting to Newton's good character, his struggle against
drug addiction and his history of work in behalf of the public. Newton is
trying to persuade Senior U.S.
District Judge Alan H. Nevas to give him a sentence
below the 57- to 71-month range recommended by the U.S. Probation Office. Federal
prosecutors, in a sentencing memo filed Thursday, accused Newton of engaging in a remarkable pattern of
criminal behavior while in office - a pattern the prosecutors hope will
persuade Nevas to impose a long sentence. Nevas on Friday
postponed Newton's sentencing hearing from next
week to Feb. 3 at the U.S.
District Court in Bridgeport.
Newton pleaded
guilty in September to bribery, tax evasion and mail fraud.
Newton's lawyers argue among other things that
the probation department is recommending an improperly lengthy sentence based
on the erroneous conclusion that an FBI wiretap recorded Newton attempting to obstruct justice. The wiretap captured Newton
speaking by telephone with Warren Godbolt, the
operator of a Bridgeport jobs training agency,
who had paid Newton
$5,000 for his help in getting the agency a state construction grant. During the recorded conversation, Newton attempts to
persuade Godbolt to lie to the FBI by claiming that
the $5,000 wasn't a bribe, but a consulting fee. During the same conversation, Newton instructs Godbolt to prepare a federal tax form belatedly in a
further attempt to disguise the payment. Newton's
lawyers contend the wiretap recording was made after Godbolt
had begun cooperating with FBI agents. In a leap of legal logic, they contend Newton could not have obstructed justice because Godbolt was acting with FBI agents, who knew Newton was trying to
induce a lie. "Putting the
guidelines aside, it is extremely hard to imagine how anything Mr. Newton said
or did, then or later, could possibly obstruct justice when the FBI was sitting
there with Godbolt, and in possession of evidence
[from Godbolt, wiretaps and other sources] showing
that Godbolt did indeed pay Mr. Newton," the
defense sentencing memo says. Godbolt was just one of several small business owners in Bridgeport who federal prosecutors say paid bribes to Newton in return for
legislative assistance he promised them.
The prosecutors also say Newton
obtained a no-show job through now-imprisoned former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P.
Ganim, and then demanded a raise. And the prosecutors
say Newton attempted to intervene with Bridgeport city officials
on behalf of a mobster who wanted the police to stop raiding his strip clubs.
The mobster later contributed to Newton's 2004
campaign and bailed Newton's
son out of jail after a 2004 arrest.
One of those who wrote character letters for Newton
was state Rep. Robert Keeley, probably Newton's closest friend
in the legislature. Keeley often drove Newton to the
state Capitol from their hometown of Bridgeport, including during the years
when Newton has
disclosed he was fighting a cocaine addiction. Keeley
was the only lawmaker who attended Newton's
guilty plea in September. "I have
known Ernest since the 70's and I know him to be a good person who has
dedicated his life to public service," Keeley
wrote. Letters also were written by Sen. Bill Finch,
elected as a Bridgeport senator in November
2000, and Rep. Reginald Beamon of Waterbury,
with whom Newton
served as a member of the legislature's Black and Latino Caucus. All three legislators are Democrats, as is Newton. None of the senior lawmakers with whom Newton served during 17
years in the legislature provided letters.
*****
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