June 30, 2009
From:
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
TAX TALK JUNE 30, 2009
BREAKING
NEWS … Rell Ready With Executive Order To Pay State
Bills
http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/06/rell-ready-with-executive-orde.html
*********************
Also In this edition of Tax
Talk…..
Ø PACER: Great website to access court cases http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/ - Example: GM
Bankruptcy Filing
Ø Did William DiBella,
the current Chairman of the MDC Commission, Pay the Court Ordered
$791,000?
Ø Hastings concerned about
pace of government spending
Ø Commentary: Sotomayor reversal not a first
Ø STATE
DEMOCRATS PASS BUDGET WITH A $2.5 BILLION TAX INCREASE
Ø The Journal
Inquirer Reports: Democrats’ budget
riddled with holes
Ø Connecticut State Marshals Reporting Net Income of $1.1 Million
Ø CAP AND TRADE
Passes House 219 to 212 (see how they voted)
Ø Court Deal Strips
Madoff Wealth
Ø How Congress Will
Steal the Recovery
Ø Bankrupt Banking
System Bailouts & Stimulus , You Can't Borrow Your
Way Out of Debt
Ø Iraq Set to Seek
Foreign Oil Bids
Ø Congress Members
Grabbed or Dumped Stocks as Market Crashed
Ø Retirement
Incentives Likely To Mean More 'Double Dipping'
Ø Thousands
Demonstrate Silently in Tehran
Ø Lawmakers Vote To Bail Out
UConn Health
Center
Ø Chrysler won’t
pick up taxes tab
Ø Analysis: Obama faces balancing act on economy
Ø How the bailout
bashed the banks
********************************
GET PACER
For inquiring minds who want to keep current on court cases,
sign up for Pacer today. The process is
simple and the cost is minimal. You can
access Pacer at the following website http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/
or contact them as follows….
PACER Service Center, P.O. Box 780549, San
Antonio, TX 78278
(800) 676-6856, (210) 301-6440
********************************
By
Susan Kniep …… Re U. S. District Court Case
04-1342
DID WILLIAM DIBELLA, CHAIR OF THE MDC
COMMISSION,
PAY THE $791,625 JUDGEMENT?
William DiBella is Chairman of the MDC Commission. http://www.themdc.com/
The Commission has initiated a $2 Billion, publicly funded,
Clean Water Project. http://www.themdc.com/mdcfeb08.pdf
In March of 2008, the SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
released the following:
Litigation Release No. 20498 / March 14, 2008
SEC v. William A. DiBella, et al, Civil Action
No. 3:04 CV 1342 (EBB) (D. Conn.)
Court Orders
William DiBella, Former Majority Leader of the Connecticut State
Senate, to Pay Over $791,000 in Connection with Fraud
Relating to State Pension Fund
The Securities and Exchange Commission
announced today that on March 13, 2008, the Honorable Ellen Bree Burns, United States
District Judge for the District of Connecticut, entered a judgment imposing
sanctions against William A. DiBella, the former Majority Leader of the
Connecticut State Senate, and his consulting firm, North Cove Ventures, L.L.C.
for their roles in aiding and abetting then Treasurer of the State of
Connecticut, Paul J. Silvester in a fraudulent investment scheme. Pursuant to
the scheme, Silvester had invested $75 million in state pension funds with
Thayer Capital Partners, a Washington, DC-based private equity firm, and
arranged for Thayer to pay DiBella a percentage of the investment, though he
did not do work to justify the payment.
The announcement is continued at the following
web link http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20498.htm
Many to include myself called
for Mr. DiBella to step down from the MDC.
http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/local_politics/dibella_survives_ouster_attemp.php
Per Court records, in January,
2009, the SEC issued a subpoena to Guilford Savings Bank seeking records
related to an account held by DiBella’s wife.
In February, 2009, Ms. DiBella
filed an Affidavit in support of a Motion of Quash the subpoena and on March 5
filed the Motion to Quash.
The SEC countered Ms. DiBella by
disputing her application of The Right to Financial Privacy Act.
It appears Judge Ellen Burns
agreed. The following are excerpts from the May 30, 2009 findings of
Judge Burns:
Ø For the
reasons stated below, DiBella’s motion to quash subpoena duces
tecum [Doc.
No. 150] is DENIED, and Plaintiff’s motion to strike
affidavit of
Donna Dibella [Doc. No. 154] is GRANTED.
Ø On
March 20, 2008, a judgment was issued against William DiBella in the amount of
$791,625.45, pursuant to a jury trial and this court’s order [Doc. No. 134].
Ø The
SEC claims that William DiBella has not paid any money toward the order to
date.
Ø The
SEC has engaged in post-judgment discovery and claims to have uncovered
evidence that William DiBella has transferred interest in at least one asset to
his wife, Donna DiBella. The evidence suggests that Donna DiBella
received two wire transfers totaling $352,698.28 from 1000 Main Parking, LLC
into her Guilford Savings Bank account.
Ø
Plaintiff further claims that the evidence
shows that DiBella owned no interest in 1000 Main
Parking, LLC prior to the transfers but that William DiBella did.
As President of the Federation
of CT Taxpayer Organizations, I suggest that both Mr. DiBella’s interests and
the public’s interests would best be served if he were to remove himself from
the MDC Commission and dedicate his time to working in cooperation with the SEC
to resolve his outstanding issues.
*******************************
Subsequent to the aforementioned on William DiBella, Don
Michak of the Journal Inquirer provided additional information on this subject
in his article captioned -
SEC: DiBella transferred
asset to wife and won’t pay up
By Don Michak, Journal Inquirer
Published: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 9:37 AM EDT
Metropolitan District Commission Chairman William A. DiBella
has yet to pay any of the $791,500 in fines imposed by a federal judge 15
months ago after the longtime Democratic powerbroker lost a civil fraud lawsuit
filed by federal regulators, court records show.
Moreover, the documents reveal that lawyers for the Securities and Exchange
Commission have charged that after losing the lawsuit, DiBella transferred his
interest in “at least one asset” to his wife, Donna DiBella.
They say Donna DiBella has claimed that she was due a
$352,698 payment from her husband in connection with a loan she had made in
1999 to a company in which he held a 19.6 percent stake, but in which they say
she never owned an interest.
Don Michak’s article is continued at ….. http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=DiBella.htm%20%20%20&location=Hall_of_Shame&buttonname=Hall%20of%20Shame
******************************
Hastings concerned about pace
of government spending By Michelle Dupler,
Herald staff writer , Published: 06/30/09 KENNEWICK -- Rep. Doc Hastings has been doing
some math lately, and he doesn't like the way the numbers are adding up.
Federal spending, the national debt and the budget deficit all are rising to
unprecedented levels, and that's cause for concern or at least debate, said the
Republican congressman from Pasco.
"Man, we are spending money," Hastings
told the Herald's editorial board Monday. The first number Hastings crunched was the ratio of federal
spending to the gross domestic product. Since World War II, spending has been
slowly increasing, but mostly hovering around 20 percent of GDP. Continued at
…. http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/story/795398.html
*******************************
Commentary: Sotomayor
reversal not a first By Lucas A. Powe, a professor of constitutional law at The
University of Texas and the author of the recently published book, "The
Supreme Court and the American Elite, 1789-2008." He clerked
for Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas….. AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- Monday,
in the much anticipated New Haven, Connecticut, firefighters' case, the Supreme
Court reversed an opinion joined by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's
Supreme Court nominee. The reversal was expected and is not the first time an
appointee has been reversed by the court he was about to join. Indeed, two of
Chief Justice Warren Burger's opinions for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals
were reversed in 1969, the year he joined the court. One was Watts v. United States,
in which the defendant had been convicted for threatening the life of the president.
Continued at …. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/29/powe.new.haven/index.html
Sotomayer Discrimination Case Reversed…. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529409,00.html
*******************************
STATE DEMOCRATS
PASS BUDGET WITH A $2.5 BILLION TAX INCREASE
As Governor Rell denounces a
State Tax Increase, the Democrat-controlled state legislature passed a budget
with $2.5 billion in new taxes after giving state employees an $86 million
contract with some receiving 6% wage increases. http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=Democrats%20send%20budget%20to%20Rell.htm%20%20%20&location=State_-_Budget&buttonname=State%20-%20Budget
The Journal Inquirer
Reports:
Democrats’
budget riddled with holes
http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=ANALYSISJI.htm%20%20%20&location=State_-_Budget&buttonname=State%20-%20Budget
**********************
Connecticut State Marshals Reporting Net
Income of $1.1 Million
Legislator: State Marshal
Double-Billing Is Illegal By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN
The Hartford Courant June 23, 2009 Late last month, state Marshal John T.
Fiorillo delivered a foreclosure lawsuit to a home in Wallingford, dropped off
duplicates of the suit at two state agencies, and put several more copies in
the mail. His take for the work: about $400. But at each stop, Fiorillo also
included a copy of a "lis pendens," a three-page lien document filed
in town hall as part of a foreclosure suit. And in keeping with the custom of
marshals, Fiorillo, who reported a net income of $1.1 million last year,
treated the delivery of those pages as an entirely distinct act, billing twice
for service charges, twice for authenticating the papers, and even twice for
round-trip mileage — moves that boosted his paycheck to nearly $700. Continued
at ….. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-marshals0623.artjun23,0,774046.story
**********************
CAP AND TRADE PASSES HOUSE
219 to 212
(click party heading below to see how they
voted)
THERE IS STILL TIME TO PROTEST
Per
CNN: Having cleared the House, the bill
now faces an unclear future in the Senate, where Democratic leaders have held
off on introducing their own version of the legislation.
Contact
Senator Dodd at
http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3128
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd
448 Russell Building
| Washington D.C.,
20510
Tel: (202) 224-2823 | Fax: (202)
224-1083
30 Lewis St Suite 101 | Hartford, CT 06103
Tel: (860) 258-6940/(800) 334-5341 —CT only
Fax: (860) 258-6958
******************
Court Deal Strips Madoff Wealth,
June 27, 2009, BBC News: "A US court has stripped disgraced
financier Bernard Madoff and his wife of their wealth. Madoff forfeited rights
to assets totalling $170bn (£103bn) - the figure prosecutors said passed
through his investment firm over the years." Continued at …. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8122085.stm
*******************************
How Congress Will Steal the
Recovery,Janet Novack and Brian Wingfield, 06.24.09, 06:00 PM EDT Forbes
Magazine dated July 13, 2009 That rebound you are counting on in corporate
profits? Washington is going to tax, mandate and regulate it away. The economy
got stimulated. That was Act I. in Act II it is going to be smothered.
Continued at ….. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0713/business-mandates-corporate-how-congress-will-steal-recovery.html
*******************************
Bankrupt Banking System
Bailouts & Stimulus , You Can't Borrow Your Way
Out of Debt Jun 24, 2009, By: James_Quinn Time is running out. The public
relations campaign being conducted by the Obama administration, Federal Reserve
and nation’s largest banks is beginning to fail. The lies, half-truths, and
cover-up regarding the solvency of the largest banks in the U.S. will be
revealed as reality interrupts their master plan. The politicians and
government bureaucrats know that 80% of the population don’t understand or care
about economic issues. The plan is insidious, systematic and deceptively
simple: Continued at ….. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article11551.html
*******************************
Iraq Set to Seek Foreign Oil
Bids, June 28, 2009, Ernesto Londono and K.I.
Ibrahim, The Washington
Post: "Iraq
is poised to open its coveted oil fields to foreign companies this week for the
first time in nearly four decades, a politically risky move in a country eager
to shake off the stigma of occupation. Iraqi politicians and some veteran oil
officials have said the deals are unduly beneficial to oil giants, which are
viewed warily by many in this deeply nationalistic but cash-strapped
country." Continued at …. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702233.html?hpid=topnews
*******************************
Congress Members Grabbed or
Dumped Stocks as Market Crashed
Stephen Koff and Sabrina Eaton, June 28,
2009: The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
"As financial markets tumbled and the government worked to stave off panic
by pumping billions of dollars into banks last fall, several members of
Congress who oversee the banking industry were grabbing up or dumping bank
stocks." http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/members_of_us_house_financial.html
******************
In Close
Vote, House Passes Climate Bill
Measure Aims to Change Energy Use, By Steven Mufson, David A. Fahrenthold and
Paul Kane Washington
Post Staff Writers, Saturday, June 27, 2009
The House narrowly passed an ambitious climate bill
yesterday that would establish national limits on greenhouse gases,
create a complex trading system for emission permits and provide incentives to
alter how individuals and corporations use energy.
The bill passed 219 to 212 (click
to see how they voted) after a furious lobbying push by the White
House and party leaders won over farm-state Democrats who had complained that
it was too costly, and liberals who wondered if it was too watered down to
work. Even after that effort, 44 Democrats voted against the legislation.
The bill, if it became law, would lead to vast
changes in the ways energy is made, sold and used in the United States --
putting new costs over time on electricity from fossil fuels and directing new
billions to "clean" power from sources such as the wind and the sun.
It would require U.S. emissions to decline 17
percent by 2020. To make that happen, the bill would create an economy that trades
in greenhouse gases. Polluters would be required to buy "credits" to
cover their emissions; Midwestern farmers, among others, could sell
"offsets" for things they didn't emit; and Wall Street could turn
those commodities into a new market.
Delaying the vote, Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) spoke
for about an hour, reading long sections of a 300-page amendment unveiled at 3
a.m. yesterday. Continued at …. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062600444_pf.html
**********************
Thousands Demonstrate
Silently in Tehran, June 29, 2009 CNN: "Watched closely by police, several
thousand protesters moved slowly down a major Tehran thoroughfare Sunday in the first
demonstration over the country's disputed presidential election that
authorities have allowed in days. About 5,000 people shuffled in silence down
Tehran's Shariati Street to the Ghoba mosque, where two of the opposition
candidates in the June 12 election were to appear to honor a slain hero of the
1979 Islamic revolution." http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/28/iran.demonstration/index.html
**********************
Retirement Incentives Likely
To Mean More 'Double Dipping'
Jon Lender | Government Watch ,
June 21, 2009 More and more prominent,
high-salaried Connecticut
officials are planning to retire July 1 under the state's newly legislated
retirement incentive program. But not all of them will be leaving their
government jobs. How is that possible? Some of them plan to return after July 1
as "120-day wonders." These "re-employed retirees," as they
are formally labeled, can work up to 120 days a year at their old salaries,
prorated per day, while also collecting pensions that either approach or exceed
$100,000 a year. So, even though the new retirement program is designed to save
the state about $110 million a year in salaries, the retirements of at least a
select few top officials won't initially result in much or any savings. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-retirement-double-dip-0621.artjun21,0,3019515.column
**********************
Lawmakers Vote To Bail Out
UConn Health Center, By CHRISTOPHER KEATING |
The Hartford Courant, June 20, 2009 With the state
facing its worst deficits in decades, the
problem got a little worse Friday. The
state legislature voted to bail out the cash-strapped University of Connecticut Health Center for the
fourth time since 2000 — helping make the overall state deficit even
larger. The health center had projected
a deficit of $11.5 million earlier in the fiscal year, but that gap has nearly
doubled to $22.2 million. With only 11 days left before the fiscal year ends on
June 30, lawmakers allocated the money to cover the deficit and keep operations
running. Continued at …. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-uconn-health-center-bailout-.artjun20,0,589003.story
**********************
Chrysler won’t pick up taxes
tab, McClatchy-Tribune News Service, June 20,
2009, KOKOMO — Taxing
units in Howard County will not receive $6.1 million in
personal property taxes owed by the former Chrysler LLC for the spring and will
be down $12.3 million for the year unless an agreement is reached. http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/statenews/local_story_171204625.html
Analysis: Obama faces balancing act on
economy
The Associated Press, June 20, 2009 Polls show people in the United States
increasingly are concerned about the government's record levels of debt, a sour
legacy for future generations. Continued
at …. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iuajkVKMNPDzLAgo3vCFHSYFNszgD98UPDPO0
*************************
How the
bailout bashed the banks, They were rescued
from a crisis of their own making, but the political thrashing has left bad
blood between business and government. An inside look at the trouble with TARP.
By Nina Easton,
Washington editor, Fortune Magazine, Last Updated: June 21, 2009: 7:14 AM
ET, http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/19/news/economy/trouble_with_tarp_bailout.fortune/?postversion=2009062106
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