Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

A message from Susan Kniep:� The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. extends its CONGRATULATIONS to the many Connecticut taxpayers who are challenging property tax increases and defeating budgets in their home towns to include:

Andover

�Beacon Falls

Berlin

Bethany

Bethel

Bolton

Brookfield

Canterbury

Canton

Chaplin

Colchester

East Hampton

Easton

Ellington

Farmington

Franklin

Killingly

Ledyard

Monroe

Morris

Newtown

Oxford

Plainville

Plymouth

Preston

Region #10 (Harwinton/Burlington)

Region 13 (Durham/Middlefield)

Seymour

Sherman

Sprague

Stafford

Stonington

Suffield

Tolland

Vernon

Windsor

Winsted

Woodbury

We extend our appreciation to Donna McCalla for providing this information.� If we have missed your town, please notify us.

Throughout the 169 towns in Connecticut, taxpayers are speaking out against increased property taxes which are being driven by State mandates, union contracts, revaluation, and a failure by state and local elected officials to restrain government spending.��

Connecticut property taxes are determined either by a final vote of local legislative bodies following public hearings on Town and Board of Education Budgets or by the voters themselves.�

Regrettably, in towns where the budget is decided by the Legislative body of the town, taxpayers can only state their case against increased budgets and property taxes.� Frequently their pleas to reduce taxes fall on deaf ears.� FCTO commends the efforts of these taxpayers because their battles are the hardest to win.� Taxpayers in these towns should work diligently to revise their Town Charters to give themselves the right to take their budget to the voting booth and in turn control their property taxes.��

In those towns, where voters have a direct impact on their budget either at Town Meetings or at the voting booth, budgets are being resoundingly defeated .�

With 70% to 90% of municipal budgets dedicated to personnel related expenses,�� Binding Arbitration has had a direct impact upon property tax increases.��

USA Today recently reported that �State and local governments have set aside $2.5 trillion to help pay pension benefits for 19 million civil servants and 7 million retirees. But they have set aside almost nothing to pay for retiree medical benefits� which they anticipate to reach $1 trillion.� http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-05-18-retiree-health_x.htm?csp=34

The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. has been at the forefront of challenging State mandates such as Binding Arbitration and Prevailing Wage.��

In addition to the Federation�s efforts, Mike Guarco, Chairman of Granby�s Finance Board, initiated the formation of

The Connecticut Municipal Consortium for

Fiscal Responsibility

To date, 159 elected or appointed municipal boards and board chairmen (refer to the attached) representing 98 of the 169 towns across Connecticut have joined in endorsing the Consortium in its grassroots and bipartisan efforts to seek State legislative reforms that will give municipal officials the ability to manage their budgets.� Below we offer Mike�s comments on the current status of the Connecticut Municipal Consortium for Fiscal Responsibility.�� We invite all concerned taxpayers to review the attached list of town officials who have signed on with the Consortium.�

If your town is not on this list, we ask that you contact either FCTO at fctopresident@aol.com or Mike Guarco at� budgetguru06035@aol.com and provide the name(s) of� local government official(s) in your town whom you believe would be receptive to learning more about the Consortium.

Property taxes can only be controlled when the State legislature reforms its mandates and allows elected officials to have direct control over their budgets.� It is important to note that any and all reforms proposed to Binding Arbitration and Prevailing Wage statutes in this legislative session were either defeated by the State legislature or allowed to die in committee.�

Taxpayers on a local level can reverse this trend by bringing their message to control property taxes directly to their State legislators where true reform must be initiated.�

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Again, The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. commends taxpayers in all towns who are working to control their property taxes and to Mike Guarco and all elected and appointed municipal officials who have joined the Consortium in an effort to reform State mandates.� FCTO also extends its sincere appreciation to Donna McCalla who has dedicated many hours to providing the taxpayers of our State with a wealth of information on the status of budgets and taxes.�� Please read Mike Guarco�s and Donna McCalla�s messages below.� Please also visit Donna�s website at http://www.hebrondollarsandsense.com/ .

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A Message From Mike Guarco, BudgetGuru06035@aol.com:�

To FCTO President Sue Kniep, its Board of Directors, and members of the underlying organizations:�� This update to you comes from the Connecticut Municipal Consortium for Fiscal Responsibility, to highlight our spectacular growth this year..... and our plans for 2006. We are thankful for the rapid stream of local boards joining our ranks from across Connecticut... and for those willing to actively press legislators.... both at the Capitol and, most importantly, in the constituent towns back in the districts themselves.

The Consortium is a vast coalition of local boards - ranging from Town Councils and Boards of Selectmen to those of Finance and Education - from across our state who feel that more attention must be paid to managing the cost side of the local budget..... and the mounting negative effects of state interventions in our local budgetary affairs that effectively emasculate a town's ability to manage major components of its own fiscal affairs. Left unchecked..... these intrusions leave those with nominal local authority in essence presiding over the demise of our own local government services..... as taxpayer discontent mounts and the state reneges on its own financial commitments to the towns.

With a perpetual inherent structural deficit built into the state budget by the legislature, they continue to debate passing feel-good ideas into law and thereby driving up the local cost to operate - read that property taxes - while failing to meet their existing financial commitments to the towns for state aid formulas and grants. Perhaps its time they put their own fiscal house in order.... and allow the towns to do the same.

The three-point Mission Statement of the Consortium group calls for: 1) modifications in binding arbitration to level the playing field away from the current imbalance, and includes sending an arbitrated settlement that is subsequently rejected by a town back into negotiations 2) raising the cost thresholds that bring a capital project under prevailing wage requirements up to $5MM ( CCM estimates that a moratorium would save state and local some half a Billion dollars per year!), and 3) prohibiting new mandates being dumped on the towns - and local taxpayers - until the state meets its financial commitments to the towns that already exist on the books.

These planks are all common elements drawn from the platforms of the Ct Council of Small Towns, the Ct Conference of Municipalities, and the CT Association of Boards of Education. Hence, that allows us to claim the high ground in saying our position is then... pro-local government... pro-taxpayer... and pro-education. This is important in our ability to draw more support from town boards and leadership across the state... and in pressing the agenda with individual legislators.

Month by month...we grow.... as boards in the towns across our state vote to join us and endorse our Mission. Since inception over a year ago.... we have mushroomed to count 159 boards in our ranks...representing 98 towns. We expect to near the goals of some 250 boards represented ...from some 125+ towns... by next spring. It takes time....but we have made steady process in filling our ranks.....which enhances our ability to deliver a message that resonates from across-the-boards....across-the-parties... and across-the-state.

We appreciate the support from FCTO and the underlying membership. While continuing the recruitment campaign this spring, we will make our concerns known to legislators, and work with both sides of the aisle to craft legislation to help towns better manage the cost side of the budgetary equation. It is simply amazing that folks continue to vote in the liberal majority that is in effect shafting most of the traditional FDR base while serving it all up to the public employee unions and their allies. The traditional proponent of the little guy is, in effect, a major cause of why local program is being choked out of budgets while tax rates soar.

As discontent spreads across the state, a new majority will take shape in order to change this great imbalance. The Consortium coalition - made up of boards of elected officials from nearly half the towns in CT - will be one of the groups in this long-term war against the special interests and their ongoing plunder of the public till. Those from all parties must recognize the danger of the current system... and be prepared to do something about it. We municipal leaders need more support... from our brethren in other towns and on other boards, and from taxpayers and groups such as FCTO... to challenge the status quo in our attempt to right the ship.

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A message from Donna McCalla, ctjodi@sbcglobal.net

Hi, all.� I am attaching the updated CT Tax Increase Comparisons Spreadsheet, updated as of today.�

Click to Down load the file (xls spreadsheet)

There is still data missing, but much has been added since the last release two weeks ago.

Based on the data collected so far, there are now 114 approved municipal and regional school budgets, and there have been 56 defeated budget proposals (that number includes multiple referenda.)� The average tax increase for the approved budgets is 4.40%; the average tax increase for all defeated budgets is 5.86%.� Several towns are skewing both numbers, as shown on Tab 3 (�06-07 By Result�.)� If we regress the data to take out the five highest and five lowest budgets (both approved and defeated), we see that the average defeated budget proposal is a 5.17% tax increase, and the average approved budget amount is a 4.33% tax increase.�

There are 104 municipalities and Regional School Districts that passed their budget the first time around (either by referendum or by a funding authority in which residents do not vote on budgets.)� This is open to interpretation, since the Waterbury budget approved by the Board of Aldermen has just been rejected by the Oversight Committee.� Seven towns passed their budget on the second try (Tolland, Farmington, Canton, Suffield, Ledyard, Preston, and Berlin.)� Two towns passed on the third try (Newtown and Plainville), and one town has passed a budget on the fourth try (Monroe.)

A number of towns are facing their third budget vote, which is the data point of most interest at this stage of the budget season:� Bolton, Bethel, Brookfield, Colchester, East Hampton, Ellington, Killingly, Plymouth, Region 10, Region 13, Seymour, Sprague, and Stonington.� This far surpasses the number of towns facing their third budget vote at this time last year.�

The state continues to trend upward in terms of increasing budget defeats, and increasingly higher numbers of referenda required to pass budgets.� In my June 3 email last year: �4 budgets have passed on the third vote, yet 10 municipalities are facing a third vote.� Even if we assume all 10 pass, that would mean 14 budgets went three rounds this year, which is significantly higher than last year�s 10 budgets that went to three votes.�� One year later, we have already have 15 towns at a minimum that could pass on Round Three, but I expect that number to go higher, probably 20 or 21, in looking at the situation in a number of town budget debates today.

As always, if you can help fill in some of the data, or provide corrections to the data I have, I would greatly appreciate it.� Thanks, Donna�