Excerpts from the following Hartford Courant article
captioned:
Senate Approves Driver's Licenses For
Undocumented Immigrants
“Undocumented
immigrants are already driving, but in many cases, they lack the proper
training”
Connecticut is home to 120,000 undocumented immigrants,
according to the Pew
Hispanic Center;
roughly 54,000 could qualify for a driver's license under the bill.
Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury….characterized the
legislation as "a feel-good" proposal that was filled with
opportunities for abuse and chastised his colleagues for trying to use state
laws to set federal immigration
policy.
Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton,
cited a poll that shows the public disapproves of the idea. She also questioned
the fairness of granting a new right to those here illegally. "The
concerns raised by many immigrants that have had to wait their turn and go
through proper channels that took years to navigate are very real and very
compelling,'' she said.
It is
expected to cost the state $1.3 million in 2015 to hire 18 DMV workers to
handle the new license applications.
Wealthy
win lion's share of major tax breaks
Audit finds $500,000 missing from Winsted - Newsday
In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the House
approved a bill requiring the state to develop a searchable database of tax
credits and forgivable loan programs the state has offered to companies
promising to create jobs in Connecticut.
Malloy, GOP Clash Over Latest Budget
Deal
May 31, 2013
From: The Federation of
Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep,
President
Website:
http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
TAXPAYER ALERT!
Public Sector Pensions are Driving Governments to Bankruptcy.
CT State Legislators are proposing a State Run Retirement Plan for
Private Sector Workers!
If It Fails This Year, Expect it to Come up
Again!
The Current
State Managed Pension
Plan for State Employees is Funded at only 48%.
According to the State's Latest Fiscal Accountability Report
CT Taxpayer Long Term Debt Obligations are
$66.1 Billion, Which Equates to $18,500 per Capita http://www.ct.gov/opm/lib/opm/budget/fiscalaccountability/fa_report_final.pdf
See the Breakdown Below
As the article
captioned
PD Editorial: The elephant in bankruptcy case — pensions ... notes:
A federal
judge has now cleared the way for Stockton
to become the largest city in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection. It’s a dubious distinction but one with potentially far-reaching
impacts for other cities seeking relief from the debt — including pension
obligations — that threatens to drive them under.
For Years to Come, Connecticut Taxpayers and their Children will be
Paying Down the Following Long Term Debt Obligations Which Our Elected State
Officials Have Incurred and Expect Taxpayers to Pay!
|
Bonded Indebtedness: As of
8/31/2012
|
$19.3 Billion
|
|
State Employee Pensions:
Unfunded as of 6/30/2012
|
$13.3 Billion
|
|
Teachers' Pension: Unfunded as
of 6/30/2012
|
$11.1 Billion
|
|
State Employee Post Retirement
Health/Life: Unfunded
|
$17.9 Billion
|
|
Teachers' Post Retirement
Health and Life: Unfunded
|
$3.0 Billion
|
|
Cumulative GAAP Deficit
|
$1.5 Billion
|
|
TOTAL
|
$66.1 Billion
|
Check Out the
Proposed Legislation at
SB-54 - Connecticut General Assembly - CT.gov
Read Comments by The Connecticut Business & Industry Association
at 02/26/2013 Eric Gjede-CBIA
In a May, 2013 article, captioned State Aims to Compete for Retirement
Plan Business - ..., CBIA notes:
Businesses that offer retirement savings plans to private-sector employees will
have to compete with a taxpayer-subsidized state plan under a proposal (SB 54) now in the
Senate. Ironically, as Connecticut struggles to create jobs, SB 54
would pit the state directly against its own businesses and economy. There
already is an excellent marketplace in the state for low-cost retirement
planning products. The proposal also is
likely to be costly and financially risky to the state and could negatively
impact Connecticut’s
small businesses. Continue reading at
….. http://gov.cbia.com/issues_policies/article/state-aims-to-compete-for-retirement-plan-business
In January, 2013, CBIA, in an article
captioned Modify State Employee Retiree Benefits
- CBIA Government Affairs noted: Connecticut and many other states face a wide gap between the
retirement promises made to employees and the money put aside to pay those
bills. As the Hartford
Courant has urged, “The state’s Cadillac benefits have to be retooled to put
them in line with what the state can afford.” Negotiating retiree health and
pension benefits to make them more sustainable also would go a long way to
renewing private-sector confidence in Connecticut. Changes to healthcare and pension benefits negotiated with state employee unions
in 2011 included an increased penalty for early retirement, increased years of
service to be eligible for regular retirement, mandatory contributions to the
retirement healthcare trust fund, and a decrease in the minimum cost of living
adjustment (COLA) from 2.5% to 2% for retirements after Oct. 1, 2011. There are
more steps Connecticut
could take.
Pension Reforms
Facing similar crises over long-term obligations, many
states have modified their pension programs:
Most frequently, says the Connecticut Institute for the 21st
Century, states have either raised employee contribution rates or
adjusted state contributions. The changes mostly affect newly hired state
workers, but some states are exploring higher contributions and benefit changes
from current employees.
Many states have changed the income-averaging period from a
three-year average to a five-year average. Some states have also raised threshold retirement ages and frozen cost-of-living
adjustments.
Other states have moved away from a defined benefit plan
(which provides a monthly benefit to participants at retirement) to a defined
contribution plan similar to 401(k) plans offered by private-sector employers.
The state plans are either replacing or co-existing with traditional defined
benefit plans. Continue reading at …. http://gov.cbia.com/issues_policies/article/modify-state-employee-benefits
*****************************************
Attorney General Holder on the ropes
By Jordy Yager, The Hill, May 29, 2013
The battle-scarred head of the Justice
Department (DOJ) weathered a House vote placing him in contempt of Congress in
President Obama’s first term, but is now facing
mounting criticism from figures in both parties as well as scornful scrutiny
from the media. Continue reading at ….. http://thehill.com/homenews/news/302471-holder-on-the-ropes
Media groups decline Holder invite to discuss DOJ subpoena
policy
Fox News undecided on attending leaks meeting with Holder
CT Senate Passes GMO Labeling
Legislation
*************************************
Crony Capitalism Crime Spree continues: Blum/Feinstein get
... get California Highspeed Rail Contract? Can this be
happening? How is it that Richard Blum, Diane Feinstein's husband, gets
all these government contracts? First he gets them for the wars in the Middle East when Feinstein is on an appropriations
subcommittee. Many more contracts after that, he gets another contract to
buy up the nation's closed historical Post Office buildings. And now Blum
is evidently on the inside track for California's
highspeed rail contract? This Crony Capitalism
is pure corruption no matter what party is involved. Disgusting.
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2013/04/26/se-diane-feinsteins-husband-wins-ca-rail-contract/
Sen. Diane Feinstein's husband wins CA rail contract | CalWatchDog April 26, 2013 By Katy Grimes U.S.
Sen. Diane Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum, won the first phase
construction contract for California’s
high-speed rail. I’m shocked, shocked I
tell you. If I didn’t witness the
insanity and corruption in politics every day, I wouldn’t have believed this. “The Perini-Zachary-Parsons bid was the
lowest received from the five consortia participating in the bidding process,
but “low” is a relative term,” the Laer Pearce, author of Crazifornia
wrote. ”The firms bid
$985,142,530 to build the wildly anticipated first section of high speed rail
track that will tie the megopolis of Madera to the
global finance center of Fresno. Do the division, and
you find that the low bid came in at a mere $35 million per mile.” “As this fiasco progress, remember that this
$35 million per mile represents the best California can do on the section of
track the High on Crack Speed Rail Authority selected to go first because it
will be the cheapest,” Pearce said. Read Pearce’s story here. And stop staring dumfounded at the computer screen. Yes,
this is true.
Post
Office properties to be privatized by crony
capitalists; Sen ... Feinstein's husband
profiteers again
Feb 11, 2013 – [Talk about just some crony capitalist hijinks? No! This is not good clean fun. It is
absolutely disgusting. This proves that the
Feinstein-Blum public trough irregularities uncovered in the past decade should
have been investigated and prosecuted, because these predatory profiteering
types are always repeat offenders! If you are unfamiliar with the previous
Feinstein-Blum scams -- wherein Senator Feinstein was on a Military
Appropriations sub-committee and apparently funneled insider government
contract tips to her hubbie -- you can read about
their profiteering scams here:
http://www.bohemian.com/northbay/the-byrne-report/Content?oid=2171069
And here for access to the
full expose reportage of Peter Byrne available at:
http://www.peterbyrne.info/feinstein_files/index.htm
]
Back to today's latest
Feinstein-Blum profitstream with the Post Office real
estate:
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/Grim-outlook-for-post-...
*****************************
Refer to http://ctact.org/
for Previous FCTO Publications
***************************