Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

Your update on what others are thinking, doing, and planning.� Send your comments or questions to me, at fctopresident@ctact.org� and I will include in next week�s publication.��

Review previous Tax Talk issues on our website at http://www.ctact.org/

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TODAY�S NEWS: A brief summary is offered below.� FCTO encourages you to read the entire news articles at the websites referenced.

Legacy Of Pals On The Payroll
Many Rowland Appointees Remain
December 20, 2004
By JON LENDER, Hartford Courant Staff Writer

Hartford Courant - Gov. M. Jodi Rell's first public spat with a legislative leader erupted last week over an unexpected issue: Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. complained that Rell had not sufficiently purged her administration of the taint of John G. Rowland, and he urged her to demand resignations from all of her predecessor's commissioners. Please find a continuation of this article at the following website:� http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-rell1220.artdec20,1,5000293.story?coll=hc-headlines-local

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Budget Survey Is A Warning To State
National Group Calls Connecticut's Fiscal Health Precarious

Hartford Courant

December 17, 2004
By DAVID LIGHTMAN And CHRISTOPHER KEATING, Courant Staff Writers

WASHINGTON -- While the economy is boosting most states' fiscal pictures, Connecticut's budget health is precarious, a national survey of the states reported Thursday.

The 2004 Fiscal Survey of the States found that Connecticut's year-end budget balance is well below what's considered adequate to withstand an economic downturn or runaway spending. Please find a continuation of this article at the following website:� http://www.ctnow.com/hc-states1217.artdec17,0,751693.story

Please refer to the following website for further information on this subject:� http://www.nga.org/nga/newsRoom/1,1169,C_PRESS_RELEASE^D_7688,00.html

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This is a must read.� Could we get a law similar to this passed in Connecticut to keep track of our public officials violating FOI?�� A special thank you to Bob Young of Wethersfield for forwarding this article.�

State finds town clerk violated records act -�

Complaint dropped, but state to monitor Piscataway worker

STAR-LEDGER, by Rosa Cirianni

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 �

The state Government Records Council found that the Piscataway Township clerk violated the state's Open Public Records Act, but dismissed a complaint against her with conditions attached.� Ann Nolan will be placed on the state records council's so-called matrix, which allows the five-member, governor-appointed panel to periodically check for repeat offenders. She is the second public official to be put on the list, which is still being compiled. Please find a continuation of this article at the following website:� http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1103095098132340.xml?starledger?nmx

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For those who did not see this program,� the issue is taxpayers paying for this trip and corporations financing perks as they hope to land� government contracts.

Homeland Conference Circuit Hits Hawaii� -� Despite Homeland Budget Woes, Summit Offers Fun in the Sun

ABC News Original Report� Seen on 20/20, By Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz ��

Dec. 17, 2004 � At the same time agents of the budget-strapped Department of Homeland Security worried about being able to afford gas for government cars, top department officials, including outgoing DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, could be found basking in the warm Hawaiian sun for a meeting they said was essential government business. While officials reported a continuing freeze on hiring new agents and a halt to non-essential spending in a chilly Washington, D.C., buffet lines, lavish luaus, and a short walk to the beach awaited top officials at a sumptuous resort and spa on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. Please find a continuation of this article at the following website: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=340420&page=1

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Donna McCalla, CTJodi146@aol.com

Hebron Dollars and Sense

Towns That Went to Referendum This Year

December 14, 2004

A sincere thank you to Donna McCalla who offered the following to Tim White�s inquiry in the 40^th Edition of Tax Talk.� You may wish to access the website referenced.

Hi, Tim. My name is Donna McCalla, with Hebron Dollars and Sense. You can download the information (which is still accurate, although dated October 2004) from http://www.opm.state.ct.us/igp/acir/budgadop.htm. Make sure you look at the tables toward the end of the document.

As you can see, 62 municipalities went to referendum, and with multiple referenda, there have been a total of 112 referenda to date for FY 2004-05. Two municipalities, Watertown and Winsted (Winchester) have still not passed a budget. As a matter of fact, Winsted V went down just last week by a huge margin.

Hope that answers your question. Let me know; I track all municipal budget processes every year, and can add you to my blind list. Many subscribe to it, including finance directors in some of the towns.

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A special thank you to Bob Young.� The outcome of this case will be precedent setting in eminent domain cases and can affect each one of us and our property rights.�

Robert Young, ryoung0@snet.net

Wethersfield Taxpayers Association

Subject:� Arguments Set In New London Case

NEW LONDON -- Associated Press � Dec 17, 2004 - The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Feb. 22 in a New London eminent domain case that could clarify when governments may seize people's property for economic development projects.

Twenty-five groups with assorted political views have filed briefs in support of the Fort Trumbull residents who are resisting the city's effort to take their houses to make way for offices and a hotel that will strengthen the city's tax base.� Please find a continuation of this article at the following website:� http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-apdomain1217.artdec17,0,5687954.story

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Again, another excellent editorial in the Waterbury Republican by Tom Durso who made reference to FCTO.� Thank you Tom.�

Tom Durso, TDurso8217@aol.com

Watertown Taxpayers Association

Subject:� Economic Advice to CT from Toyota?

December 16, 2004

Toyota will build at least one new plant in North America and it's a safe bet it won't be in Connecticut.�� Japan's number one automaker operates eleven plants with two more under construction in Texas and Tennessee according to Dan Sieger, Toyota's Manager of Media Relations who told me Toyota looks for "business-friendly" states in which to invest and is now considering sites for its hybrid Prius factory. At least ten state governors are courting Toyota for the thousands of high-end jobs and millions in tax revenue such a plant would bring. Sieger wouldn't name the states in the running but considering the fact that automakers have been closing plants in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey for more efficient southern locales, high-cost Connecticut is probably not a serious contender. Where did we go wrong?

Stephen Moore , director of fiscal policy studies at the Cato Institute in the December 1997 issue of The American Spectator asked "Is the Northeast Necessary?". Moore wrote: "While the rest of America chooses freedom and prosperity, from Washington D.C. to Maine we see blight, depression, and chronic leftism that would do Western Europe proud. The surprise is that the (national) Republican Party hasn't written off this dying region once and for all". But is there a need to write off a region which seems intent on committing economic and political suicide? The Republican Party, often labeled the "Stupid Party needlessly concedes the public policy war of ideas to liberal Democrats and a few Republican turncoats. Toyota's Sieger added that "energy supplies figure heavily in plant location". So why would Toyota or any other big manufacturer risk moving to Connecticut where the attorney general, both U.S. senators and the legislative leadership worship at the enviro-altar at the expense of the state's much needed energy production and delivery?

Notwithstanding an apparent death wish, there remains a living Republican Party in Connecticut. The GOP did hold three of the state's five House seats and did elect former governor John Rowland three times since 1994. CATO's Moore explains " There is a free lunch quality to the sentiments of contemporary northeastern voters. They gripe about over-taxation but they're quick to condemn any effort at even modest budget restraint and join with the media, unions, and poverty industry in invoking visions of the apocalypse." Conditions are naturally worse now, but in 1997 when Moore wrote his TAS piece, he cited the fact that governments in New England are already nearly one-third more expensive than the rest of America---$3226 versus $2483 per resident. In Connecticut, the after-tax value of all welfare benefits exceeded a $12-per-hour, 40-hour-a-week job and labor costs are about 30 percent above the national average. In the April 8, 2004 Wall Street Journal, Washington's Tax Foundation calculated that Connecticut extracts 10.6 percent of taxpayers' earnings, based on income, property and other state and local tax collections ranking us number nine behind first place New York, which gobbles up 12.9 percent of its producers' income. The Pacific Research Institute's "U.S. Economic Freedom Index", using five categories -fiscal, regulatory, judicial, government size and welfare- ranks Connecticut third to last behind California and New York . Moore noted "Of the nation's twenty-two right-to-work states, not one is Northeastern. Other than taxes, this may be the single greatest impediment to the region's economic competitiveness. A Southern governor told (Moore) that his state closed its economic development offices in Europe. 'Why search for factories overseas when we can plunder high tax areas like Connecticut?' Toyota can read.

Governor Rell is still somewhat of a mystery as to her views on taxation and growth and more ominously she lacks any strong record of fighting the forces of centralization which infect state government.The emerging taxpayers group movement is a direct result of the state Republican Party abdicating its traditional role as defender of individual liberty, limited government and the marketplace of goods and ideas. The GOP's only hope for meaningful survival would be to emulate the blazing electoral successes of free market, pro-growth Republicans such as Watertown's Rep. Sean Williams, R-68, who has handily won two elections against well-funded Democrats. The idea of low taxes, less intrusive government , market competition and choice, sell. Just as Ronald Reagan sold his ideas of tax cuts and economic freedom directly to the people in 1981, completely by-passing a liberal-Democratic Congress, Rep. Williams and any other economic savvy legislators can elevate and win the statewide war of ideas. Dan Gerstein, Sen. Lieberman's former communications director, writing in the November 11,2004 WSJ, advised his party that "to break out of our stale political grooves...means declaring our independence from the sclerotic influence of progress-blocking interest groups like the teachers unions."

The Connecticut Republican Party may appear comatose but by taking a hint from Toyota and reaching out to the Federation of Connecticut Taxpayers Organizations (http://www.ctact.org/) and its vast local not-so-silent majority such as our Watertown-Oakville Taxpayers Association (WOTA) and Thomaston's Taxpayer Advocacy Group, (TTAG), the GOP can do a Lazarus and come roaring back.

Thomas P. Durso, Former VP Waterbury Regional Chamber of Commerce

Writes on business and economics from Watertown CT