January, 2003 Editorial
Waterbury Republican
Newspaper
By Susan Kniep, President of FCTO
CONNECTICUT'S SHELL
GAME WITH TAXPAYER MONEY
The "cook the books" scheme by Enron and the accounting firm of
Arthur Andersen went undetected by government officials who had been blinded to
the company's meltdown by Enron's glitzy campaign money machine.
Who knew that clandestine conspiracies were running amuck among the corporate
elite who were inflating profits and siphoning of millions? Who knew that
lost jobs, lost pensions, and lost savings would be thrown into the boiling pot
of stew as the books were being cooked? Not the Enron
employees! Not the Enron stockholders! Not the Connecticut
taxpayers who lost $220 million in the Enron-CRRA deal because Connecticut
elected officials failed to provide oversight or worse.
Yet, the Enron debacle of yesterday is not unlike what's going on in your State
government today.
A stew is definitely brewing on the hill in Hartford.
Our Governor and State Reps may not be cooking the books, but they certainly
kept the lid on the pot until after the November election. State
politicos were very careful not to rattle the media grapevine until they were
guaranteed a safe return to their taxpayer financed luxury chairs on the hill
in Hartford.
Then and only then did they disclose that the State was in such fiscal chaos
that they intended to pepper the stew with hard-to-swallow taxes and force it
down the taxpayers' throats. But again, who knew? After all, the
Governor and our State Reps had been promoting every multi million dollar
taxpayer funded project in the State. The Uconn
Stadium in East Hartford, Adrieans Landing in
Hartford and projects in Waterbury and Bridgeport, all carried a hefty price
tag and have contributed to giving Connecticut the distinction of having
the highest bonded debt and paying the highest taxes in the
nation. This year we paid $600 million in interest on our $13
billion debt, which is almost equal to our State budget of $13.2 billion.
In the year 2000, the state's Office of Fiscal Analysis advised that
"state government could be facing an $88 million general fund deficit two
fiscal years from now". Instead of heeding this message, State elected
officials went on a spending spree with taxpayer money and failed to impose
greater oversight on government spending. The result included lucrative union
contracts, greater costs for State Commissioners and Project Managers, a loss
of $220 million in the CRRA-Enron debacle, and the disbursement of millions of
taxpayer dollars in unlimited corporate welfare to companies with no
responsibility of public disclosure of their financial stability.
Heads of taxpayer financed State quasi-public agencies took bonuses which
resulted in their salaries jumping in one year from $131,465 to $228,123 and
another from $127,019 to $197,912. Of 28 major State agencies, the
total cost of salaries and fringe benefits for politically appointed commissioners,
deputy commissioners, executive assistants, and durational project managers
jumped from $7.2 million in 1994 to $16.3 million in 2002.
The concern for State employee job loss by the Governor and State Reps is
admirable. Yet, private sector employees hold the record for
longevity in the unemployment line. We have yet to see the Governor or
State Reps standing outside the doors of Aetna or
Cigna or any private company and expressing their sympathy to laid off employees or attempting to provide a safety
net.
During the past few weeks, The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer
Organizations, Inc. has directed letters to Governor Rowland and State
Representatives telling them not to balance the budget on the backs of the
taxpayers. We asked for changes in State Binding Arbitration
Laws. If they will not abolish Binding Arbitration, then we expect
them to bring the negotiation tables in all local and State union contracts out
from behind the closed doors of secrecy and into the light of public
debate. Locally, 70% to 90% of taxpayer financed municipal budgets
pay for government personnel related salary expenses. Government
salaries, healthcare and pensions are disproportionate to the private
sector. Where some private pension plans have been infected with Enronitis, some government employees are retiring with
hefty pensions.
In East Hartford, police officers can assume retirement status for five
years prior to full retirement. While working they collect their full
paycheck while concurrently having 96% of their pension deposited into a
savings account. With police pensions at
$50,000, $60,000 or $70,000 a year, at the end of five years, they could walk
away with a check for $350,000.
Connecticut
taxpayers pay approximately $4 billion annually for State taxpayer financed
healthcare for a select few. This includes $297 million for State
Employees healthcare and $155 million for State retirees. Of
course, we also pay for the healthcare of our part-time State Reps. But we apparently are not paying enough. This year, state
unions took taxpayers to court to get control of a $100 million stock
distribution. Many Connecticut
taxpayers have no health insurance.
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. is working to convince
our government officials that the only special interest they should be
listening to is the one from whom they draw their financial resources…THE
TAXPAYERS! And we, the taxpayers, cannot afford a tax increase!