Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

WELCOME TO THE 24th EDITION OF

TAX TALK

Your update on what others are thinking, doing, and planning
Send your comments or questions to me, and
I will include in next week's publication.

Please note that TAX TALK is now on our Website

Robert Young, ryoung0@snet.net
Wethersfield Taxpayers Association
Subject: Homes Should Trump Hotels
March 20, 2004
On March 16, Robert Ward, Republican leader in the state House of Representatives issued a statement declaring he will attempt to protect the public from the recent state Supreme Court ruling which would allow private development to usurp the rights of property owners. Please refer to FCTO's website ctact.org for Mr. Ward's comments.
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Susan Kniep, fctopresident@ctact.org
East Hartford Taxpayers Association
Subject: Website Lets You See Neighbors' Donations
March 20, 2004

Website Lets You See Neighbors' Donations
Public Disclosure Is Election Law
Associated Press:   It costs you nothing to discover how much your neighbors are contributing to candidates for president. Just visit the website fundrace.org and type your address and ZIP code into the "Neighbor Search" tool. You will get a list of what those who live closest to you gave to any of the candidates last year, provided the amount was at least $200. Your nearest neighbors are listed first, thanks to a technology called geocoding, which matches street addresses with longitude and latitude data. Visitors could also search by names. Federal election law makes the snooping possible. Presidential candidates are required to disclose contributions of $200 or more, and the Federal Election Commission makes databases available for download. Campaign contribution data through Dec. 31 are available, and the site's developer, Michael Frumin, plans to add more information as it becomes available. Frumin said Friday that 30,000 to 40,000 people have conducted some 100,000 searches since the feature began Wednesday. Fundrace.org is a project of Eyebeam, a New York organization that explores the intersection of arts and sciences. Other sites have more extensive databases and search capabilities. Opensecrets.org, run by the Center for Responsive Politics, lets you search by state, occupation or employer and has data since 1989. It also permits searching of so-called soft money donations to party organizations, in addition to direct contributions to candidates. The FEC site, www.fec.gov, also lets you do that using its "advanced search."
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Robert Young, ryoung0@snet.net
Wethersfield Taxpayers Association
Subject: Citizens Launch "PPWN, People for the Preservation of
Wethersfield Neighborhoods"to Protect Town Neighborhoods
March 14, 2004
A group of energetic neighbors in the vicinity of Wethersfield High School has organized to confront what they see as a growing trend in town - the sacrifice of quality neighborhoods to the whims of the Town Council, its boards, commissions and advisory committees. PPWN went public on Friday, March 12, 2004, following an announcement made on Rick Garrey's "Wethersfield LIVE" program on the local Cox Cable channel 14. PPWN president Ronald Rodd called in to the show to confirm that announcement. He also emphasized that his group was concerned about the Town of Wethersfield's apparent lack of interest in providing the affected neighborhoods meaningful input into the WHS athletic fields redevelopment plans. People for the Preservation of Wethersfield Neighborhoods - PPWN - is the brainchild of the neighbors in the Westway and Church Street Extension area. Mr. Rodd's home and others there are within easy earshot and sight of Wethersfield High School's athletic fields. They are deeply concerned about what they see to be as an imminent threat to the quiet enjoyment of their homes and properties by the anticipated high intensity use of those fields once completed. Prompted by the Town Council's rush to rebuild Cottone Field with artificial turf and stadium lighting, the neighbors have felt compelled to help, not only themselves, but other individuals and neighborhoods in town who are suffering similar treatment by the Town government. Rodd sees this organization as a framework for more effective civic actions by town residents if they will join in. PPWN will be reaching out and encouraging other challenged neighborhoods to join forces with PPWN so that the overall quality of life in town is protected, enhanced and restored where already damaged. PPWN points to several actions by the Town government which the group sees as having callously degraded the, until recently, high quality of life in Town. They point to the 180-foot tall communications tower forced upon a prime residential neighborhood on Ridge Road near the WVFD fire station there. In the Town's rush to get a job done, the wishes of the neighbors were Rodd sees this organization as a framework for more effective civic actions by town residents if they will join in. PPWN will be reaching out and encouraging other challenged neighborhoods to join forces with PPWN so that the overall quality of life in town is protected, enhanced and restored where already damaged. PPWN points to several actions by the Town government which the group sees as having callously degraded the, until recently, high quality of life in Town. They point to the 180-foot tall communications tower forced upon a prime residential neighborhood on Ridge Road near the WVFD fire station there. In the Town's rush to get a job done, the wishes of the neighbors were circumvented and ignored. Effective alternative sites were not considered, they point out. PPWN sympathizes with the neighborhood near Ridge Road and Nott Street where high explosive blasting is about to commence. The Town intends to alter a road for "safety" purposes when no need for that alteration has been substantiated and the firm responsible for the ballistics has been banned from working in other towns. The group supports the efforts of an Old Wethersfield group and individuals who are forcing the Town, the MDC and the DEP to confront, via litigation and threat of further litigation, the intolerable and unhealthful pollution by the MDC of the Wethersfield Cove. Rodd takes encouragement from these actions which shows that polite persuasion must sometimes be replaced with effective organization by citizens and the confrontation of the powers that be. People for the Preservation of Wethersfield Neighborhoods feels that there is and will be greater power in numbers behind a well organized and
financed group.   When neighborhoods work together for the concerns of each other, all will benefit, Rodd points out. When efforts to meaningfully participate in "discussions" about plans which will impact a neighborhood are thwarted, rebuffed or undermined by the Town, we have no choice but to take action on our own and confront the Town leadership, he stresses. Mr. Rodd and PPWN look forward to working with all challenged neighborhoods in an effort to preserve the quality of life in Wethersfield. Concerned individuals are encouraged to contract PPWN via email at PPWN@hotmail.com . Contacts:William Amo: (860) 563-5010; Ronald Rodd: (860) 529-2796 Wethersfield, CT
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Roland Fisher, rolandfisher@comcast.net
East Hartford Taxpayers Association
Subject:   Enough Talking about Fiscal Responsibility -- Let's Cut Spending
March 22, 2004

Enough Talking about Fiscal Responsibility -- Let's Cut Spending
by Veronique de Rugy who is a fiscal policy analyst at the Cato Institute.
Thomas Jefferson once warned, "When all government shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as oppressive as the government from which we just separated." Sadly that day may have arrived. The federal government now consumes about 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product and it plans to spend at least $2.4 trillion in FY2005. Government's size and scope have reached beyond acceptable levels. If they were faithful to America's Founding Fathers, lawmakers would finance a government that focused only on the constitutional mission of national security and justice. This represents roughly $400 billion of today's $2.4 trillion federal outlays. It's time to walk the walk and cut federal spending! It's not as if we have a choice. For the last four years, Washington should have been pruning the budget. Social Security and Medicare costs will explode when the baby boomers retire. Longer life spans and rising health care costs will exacerbate the tax-burden on our children if entitlement programs are not reformed. The coming fiscal crunch from entitlements requires a radical reform. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles (R-Okla.) wants billions of dollars of reductions in entitlements. He's right. In addition, we need to move beyond Social Security to an individual savings-based system. Such a system would create the incentives to get today's workers to save capital for their retirement and prescription drugs, rather that rely on tomorrow's taxpayers. Congress should also freeze the discretionary portion of the budget. Discretionary spending has grown by 41 percent (through 2005). Some say this is for the war on terror. But nondefense spending (excluding homeland security) has increased by 32.4 percent. The easiest way to cut spending is to root out waste and fraud. Under the initiative of House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), committees have identified federal waste totaling $100 billion over 10 years. However, this waste has not been cut. And there are still cuts to be made to pare government back to its defense and justice functions. Next: At minimum, abolish the Departments of Education, Commerce, and Energy. In May 1995, the House approved ending some of these departments but the legislation went no further. Meanwhile, domestic agencies that Republicans slated for elimination almost 10 years ago are now some of the most bloated parts of the federal government. Education's budget grew by 80.1 percent under President Bush's watch while Energy and Commerce grew, respectively, 37 percent and 23 percent. Another issue that Republicans pushed with the "Contract With America" was the need to shift programs back to the states. In FY 2004, the federal government will pay out over $400 billion in grants to state and local governments for transportation, education, housing, environment and other programs. This is ridiculous. Why should taxpayers send money to Washington, which takes its slice and then sends it back to the states? Congress should transfer all these programs back to state and local governments and reduce the federal taxes that go with them. End corporate welfare. As former Budget Director Mitch Daniels noted: "It was not the federal government's role to subsidize, sometime deeply subsidize, private interests." He's right. Unfortunately, there is at least $90 billion of corporate welfare in this year's budget. Farmers get a large share of subsidies, with over $30 billion in 2004 in the form of crop subsidies and loans. With the federal government in deficit, corporate welfare is the perfect place to curtail spending. All levels of government contain pork. According to Citizens Against Government Waste, in FY 2003, the GOP-controlled Congress porked-out a record $22.5 billion. Two examples: $100,000 renovation of the historic Coca-Cola building in Macon, Georgia, and $350,000 for construction of a folk cultural center in Pinellas County in Florida. Finally, the feds should privatize businesses such as NASA, air traffic controllers, the U.S. Postal Service, Amtrak and other agencies. These operations should not be publicly run, especially given their poor performances. Even welfare states in Europe have learned this lesson. For instance, Germany's postal service is private. Canada's private air traffic control operates well. And private space exploration is on its way in Russia. Those industries ought to be private in America too. Government is too big and it spends too much. Equally important, it spends money foolishly. It subsidizes the wrong things and penalizes the right things. Politicians create programs to solve problems, which invariably make things worse and lead to more spending. America need not creep into stagnant, bureaucratic wasteland. Yet we will become like France if Congress continues to spend like French politicians.