July 13, 2009
From:
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep,
President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
TAX TALK JULY 13, 2009
Breaking News: Hartford Mayor Perez Case Continues, Courant Seeks To Intervene … A state court judge
did not rule on whether to release the long-awaited findings in the grand jury
investigation of Mayor Eddie A. Perez, apparently deciding in New Britain Superior Court to postpone Monday
morning's hearing for a week. Meanwhile, the Courant filed a motion to
intervene - and argue in favor of disclosing grand juror's final report.
A hearing on that motion, in front of a different state court judge, is
scheduled for Wednesday. Continued at ….
http://blogs.courant.com/cityline/2009/07/perez-case-continues-courant-s.html
*********************
From Susan Kniep: Is Governor Rell the only one in State Government who gets it????
Governor Rell initially proposed a state budget with No Tax
Increase. When doing so, she knew that
the only way to control costs at the State and local level was through Binding Arbitration reform.
She asked the State’s Democrat-controlled state legislature to suspend binding arbitration requirements
for two years and to limit mandatory subjects of binding arbitration to salaries and benefits. Her proposal would return the
management of government to those whom we elect to serve us.
To date,
Ø The
State legislature gave State employee unions an $86 million contract,
giving some state employees wage increases of 6%.
Ø Governor Rell rejected the Democrat’s State Budget with a $2.5
Billion Tax Increase.
Ø State employee
unions are running $100,000 plus ads promoting state tax increases.
Ø The State
Legislature has refused to suspend binding arbitration requirements for two
years or to limit mandatory subjects of binding arbitration to salaries and benefits.
Headlines now read…. Few Teachers’ Unions Agree to Givebacks,
Republican American, July 13, 2009. (refer to article
below)
John Yrchik, executive director of
the Connecticut Education Association, is quoted stating “Teachers aren't
responsible for the current budget troubles, and they shouldn't be expected to
plug holes in town and city budgets.”
In Connecticut, 85% of
local budgets pay for government employee salaries, benefits and
healthcare.
If Mr. Yrchik picked up a newspaper he might discover that
nationally our economy is in crisis as unemployment in the private sector is
skyrocketing thereby directly impacting the tax collection rates of states and
towns throughout the country to include Connecticut.
It
appears Governor Rell is the only one at the State
who realizes the only way to control the cost of government now and in the
future is through the ability to control personnel and associated costs.
If you
support reforms to State Binding Arbitration Laws to give your state and local
town officials the tools they need to control your taxes, then call your State
Legislators and tell them to support Governor Rell’s
proposed reforms to State Binding Arbitration Laws.
To Find Your
State Legislator ….. http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/CGAFindLeg.asp
I
suggest that if Towns and States throughout our country cannot control
government sector employee costs, they face bankruptcy. http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=States%20in%20Crisis.htm%20%20&location=Home&buttonname=Home
*************************
Few teachers' unions agree to
givebacks , By Paul
Hughes | Republican-American, July 13, 2009
The small Colebrook Teachers
Association stands out among the state's
teachers' unions. Its members agreed to take a pay cut this year. Only a handful of teachers' unions in Connecticut have agreed
to contract concessions to help towns and cities manage local budgets amid the
worst recession in years. In Colebrook, the one-school town's 13 teachers
agreed to reduce their contracted wage increases from 2.9 percent to 1.4
percent to spare programs and avoid layoffs. With the reduced increases, this
year's payroll is slightly more than $746,900. According to the Connecticut Conference
of Municipalities, school spending statewide topped $9 billion for the fiscal
year that ended on June 30. Much of that money went to pay the more than 50,000
teachers working in the state's 166 public school districts.
Towns and cities looked to the second-highest-paid teachers in the nation to
make concessions because grand lists are appreciating little and the
legislature and Gov. M. Jodi Rell aren't increasing
state education grants. Teachers' unions have shown little inclination to make
contract concessions, said Kelly Balser, a staff
attorney for the Connecticut
Association of Boards of Education, who follows labor relations for the
organization. Teachers aren't responsible for the current budget troubles, and
they shouldn't be expected to plug holes in town and city budgets, said John Yrchik, executive director of the Connecticut Education Association. He said
teachers are being used as scapegoats by local politicians. Continued at … http://www.rep-am.com/news/doc4a5b3430128ed380328686.txt
***************************
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
To Receive
a free daily e-mail update from Rasmussen
*********************
Contained in this edition of
Tax Talk….
Ø Governor Rell Executive Orders
Ø The Rasmussen Consumer Index
Ø The serious business
of Washington
happens in the shadows, out of sight, off the record
Ø Education
Secretary Treads Where Teachers Unions Don't Want to Go
Ø Rell Limits
Double-Dipping State Retirees
Ø State Budget Talks
Continue Behind Closed Doors
Ø State Budget Talks
Will Resume Monday At Governor's Mansion
Ø Is the state
sweeping its budget problems where they won’t be seen?
Ø Big raise set for top
pension fund official between $275,000 and $350,000 annually
Ø Big Bankers
Mounting Sneak Attack on Consumers
Ø Please No More
Stimulus
Ø Point
Counterpoint: Stimulus 2.0
Ø Oil Gas Market
Speculation May Face Restrictions
Ø When Will The Recovery Begin? Never
Ø Financial Lobby
Gears Up Effort Against Obama
Plan
Ø VANITY FAIR: Wall Street's Toxic Message
Ø The Man Who Crashed
the World
Ø House
Overwhelmingly Rejects Signing Statement
The Rasmussen Consumer Index shows that consumer confidence is down again on Friday.
That’s the sixth straight daily decline and confidence is now at the lowest
level since mid-March. Just 9% rate the economy as good or excellent while 60%
say it’s in poor shape. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/indexes/rasmussen_consumer_index
**************************
GOVERNOR RELL EXECUTIVE ORDERS
http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/browse.asp?a=1719&bc=0&c=18433
***************************
RECOMMENDED READING……
Some Choice Words for "The Select Few" by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, July
12, 2009, Truthout: "If you want to know what
really matters in Washington,
don't go to Capitol Hill for one of those hearings, or pay attention to those
staged White House 'town meetings.' They're just for show. What really happens - the serious business of Washington - happens in
the shadows, out of sight, off the record. Only
occasionally - and usually only because someone high up stumbles - do we get a
glimpse of just how pervasive the corruption has become." http://www.truthout.org/071209A?n
**************************
Education Secretary Treads
Where Teachers Unions Don't Want to Go, July 7, 2009, Jason
Song, The Los Angeles Times: "The country's top education official
challenged teachers unions Thursday to embrace historically controversial ways
of promoting teacher effectiveness, including offering merit pay and evaluating
instructors based on student test scores. 'You must become full partners and
leaders in education reform. You must be willing to change,' US Education
Secretary Arne Duncan told the National Education Association at its annual
meeting in San Diego." http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers3-2009jul03,0,2383447.story
**************************
Rell Limits 'Double-Dipping' State Retirees, Jon Lender, Courant…. Gov. M. Jodi Rell issued an
executive order Thursday intended to "sharply curtail" double-dipping
by state employees who would retire July 1, then immediately return to their
old jobs under high-paying, 120-day employment contracts while collecting their
pensions. The governor's order came in
response to fears that too many of the 3,500 employees who are expected to take
advantage of the state's new "retirement incentive program" will come
back under temporary, 120-day contracts and undo the intended savings. The order limits executive-branch retirees to
two 120-day contracts each, and it limits their pay rates to a maximum of 75
percent of their previous salary. However, it does not apply to state
universities, the judicial branch, the legislature, and
"quasi-public" institutions such as development authorities.
Continued at ….
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-rell-double-dip-0626.artjun26,0,3486266.story
**************************
State Budget Talks Continue
Behind Closed Doors, July 10, 2009, Hartford
Courant, Christopher Keating,
For more than four months, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Democratic legislators clashed over
the state budget constantly — questioning deficit projections, battling over
raising taxes, and wrangling over how deeply to cut social programs. Continued at …. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-state-budget-talks-0710.artjul10,0,390013.story
**************************
Is the state sweeping its
budget problems where they won’t be seen? An Analysis on the State Budget by By Keith M. Phaneuf of the Journal Inquirer, Published: Saturday, July
4, 2009 2:07 PM EDT
http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=Under%20the%20rug.htm%20%20%20&location=State_-_Budget&buttonname=State%20-%20Budget
********************
Big raise set for top pension
fund official By Don Michak Journal Inquirer
Published: Thursday, July 2, 2009 10:08 AM EDT
The next chief investment officer for the state pension fund
will be paid between $275,000 and $350,000
annually under a change an independent
oversight panel approved this week.
Continued at …. http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=Big%20raise%20set.htm%20%20%20&location=State_-_Budget&buttonname=State%20-%20Budget
**************************
Big Bankers Mounting Sneak
Attack on Consumers, Jim Hightower, AlterNet,
July 12, 2009: "More than a year into the Wall Street bailout, I've yet to
get any sort of 'thank you' from even a single one of the big banks that you
and I propped up with $12 trillion in direct giveaways, indirect giveaways,
government guarantees and sweetheart loans. You'd think their mommas would've
taught them better. But I've begun to think that waiting on a simple gesture of
banker gratitude is like waiting on Donald Trump to have a good hair day - ain't gonna happen." http://www.truthout.org/071109D?n
**************************
Forbes Magazine: Please, No More Stimulus!, David Serchuk, 07.13.09, 06:00 AM EDT , Before
the government taxes us for billions more in stimulus funds let's spend the
money we have, say our observers. Even
as the first stimulus plan continues to unfurl there is new talk, from some
high places, that yet another round of stimulus could come. Would it work? No
one knows. One thing our panel of industry observers agrees upon, though, is
that we should spend the stimulus money we already have before trying to raise
hundreds of billions more in taxpayer-backed bailout funds. Speaking before a conference in Singapore on
July 7 Laura D'Andrea Tyson, an economic adviser to President
Obama, said "we should be planning on a
contingency basis for a second round of stimulus." Tyson said she was
speaking for herself, and not for Obama, but it's
hard to imagine a team as on-message as the president's has rogue advisers
shooting from the lip. So, it's entirely possible that more stimulus
could be asked for, even if it is not granted.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/10/stimulus-taxes-banks-intelligent-investing-insurance.html
**************************
Point, Counterpoint: Stimulus
2.0, Sunday, July 12, 2009 
I'm Jennifer Griffin, in for Greta Van Susteren.
$787 billion later, some Democrats say we need another one to save the economy.
Republicans see it as a mid-term election rallying cry. So who's right?
We have both sides covered. First, Senator Richard Shelby is
here with me in Washington.
He's the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. He opposes any
talk of any more stimulus. Continued at …. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,531779,00.html
**************************
Oil, Gas Market Speculation
May Face Restrictions, July 7, 2009, Bloomberg,
U.S. regulators say they may clamp down on oil and gas price
speculators by limiting the holdings of energy futures traders, including index
and exchange-traded funds. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will hold
hearings this month and next to explore the need for government-imposed restrictions
on speculative trading in oil, gas and other energy markets, Chairman Gary Gensler said today in a statement. The
hearings come amid increased scrutiny of the impact of speculators on oil
prices. Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and
Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, blame
speculators for last year’s surge in crude-oil prices to a record $147.27 a
barrel and called for CFTC action to avert a repeat. Oil has climbed 41 percent
this year in New York
trading, while demand has dropped and inventories climbed. Continued at … http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adrp0JTQiJG8
**************************
Robert
Reich's Blog
Robert Reich was the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor and is
a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
His latest book is "Supercapitalism." This
is his personal journal.
When Will The Recovery Begin?
Never, July 10, 2009,
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "In a
recession this deep, recovery doesn't depend on investors. It depends on
consumers who, after all, are 70 percent of the US economy. And this time consumers
got really whacked. Until consumers start spending again, you can forget any
recovery, V or U shaped."
http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/07/when-will-recovery-begin-never.html
**************************
Financial Lobby Gears Up
Effort Against Obama Plan
Silla Brush, July 6, 2009, The Hill: "A
coalition of financial services interests is in the process of organizing a
major lobbying campaign against the Obama
administration's plan for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.... The budget
could be as high as several millions of dollars to organize grassroots
opposition to the plan, launch an advertising campaign and contact
congressional offices, according to one source." http://thehill.com/business--lobby/financial-groups-mount-lobbying-effort-against-obama-plan-2009-07-02.html
**************************
VANITY FAIR: Wall Street's Toxic Message, July 6, 2009, Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Vanity Fair: "Every crisis comes to an end - and, bleak as things seem
now, the current economic crisis too shall pass. But no crisis, especially one
of this severity, recedes without leaving a legacy.
And among this one's legacies will be a worldwide battle over ideas - over what
kind of economic system is likely to deliver the greatest benefit to the most
people." http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/07/third-world-debt200907
**************************
The Man Who Crashed the World, July 8, 2009, Michael Lewis, Vanity
Fair: "Almost a year after A.I.G.'s collapse,
despite a tidal wave of outrage, there still has been no clear explanation of
what toppled the insurance giant. The author decides to ask the people involved
- the silent, shell-shocked traders of the A.I.G. Financial Products unit - and
finds that the story may have a villain, whose reign of terror over 400
employees brought the company, the US economy, and the global financial system
to their knees." http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/aig200908
**************************
House Overwhelmingly Rejects
Signing Statement, July 10, 2009,
Walter Alarkon, The Hill: "The House rebuked
President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to
international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the
administration to abide by its constraints." http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-overwhelming-rebukes-obama-signing-statement-2009-07-09.html