Obama's
year of missteps
December 27, 2013
From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer
Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
Hartford Courant Editorial Dec 20,
2013
…….Budget deficit? "There is no deficit," he declared.
"There is not going to be a deficit." There is a projected surplus
this fiscal year and next, and the economy's growth will wipe out any deficit
in the fiscal years after the 2014 gubernatorial election.
How different Mr. Malloy's outlook is from the projections
forecast for out-years by his own Office of Policy and Management and the
legislature's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis. The former is projecting a
deficit of $515 million for fiscal 2015-16 and the latter $1.1 billion. Read entire article
at http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-malloy-rosy-economic-scenario-20131220,0,4191765.story
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Obama
signs bipartisan budget deal, annual defense bill
Reuters, Dec 26, 5PM…….the pact omits an extension of
long-term unemployment benefits favored by Obama. A projected 1.3 million
people will lose extended unemployment benefits when they expire on
Saturday. It also leaves for lawmakers
to work out an increase in the federal debt ceiling, which, if left unchanged
at its current $16.7 trillion level, could again put the United States
at risk of default. The deal was seen by
conservative Republicans as a missed opportunity to make a significant cuts to
the federal budget deficit, which was $680.3 billion in the fiscal year ending
September 30. It has since narrowed in absolute terms and as a percentage of
the economy as employment rises.
Congress now has the task of slicing the more than $1.012 trillion pie
to determine funding levels for individual government programs. Read entire article at http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/26/us-usa-obama-idUSBRE9BP0HK20131226
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Connecticut Now
Pays Pensions as
High as $276,000!!!!
In Calendar Year 2012, the State of Connecticut paid 44,216 Retirees pensions totaling
$1.4 BILLION!!! The following link illustrates those who received from
$50,000 to the highest pension at $276,364.
Click to View…… http://www.ctact.org\upload\home\StatePensionFinalFinal.xls
To learn more about State of CT Employee Pensions
click http://transparency.ct.gov/html/searchPensions.asp.
Connecticut Now
Pays Salaries as
High as
$2.9 Million!!!!
In Fiscal Year 2013, the State of Connecticut paid 94,919 Salaries
Totaling $5.6 BILLION!!!
The following link illustrates those who
received from $250,000 to $2.9 Million.
Click to View…… http://www.ctact.org\upload\home\2013Salaries.xls
To learn more about State of CT Employee Salaries and Benefits
Click to View… http://transparency.ct.gov/html/searchPayroll.asp
Of
the 10 Most Threatened State Pension Plans Connecticut Ranks Number 2
Now One State
Retiree Wants a Pension of $367,000
In July, 2010 CTMirror.org reported that
Former Governor
Rell asks CSU to reduce raises for chancellor and ... - The CT Mirror.
The article noted that “Gov. M. Jodi Rell asked Connecticut State University
officials Friday to reduce pay raises granted this month to top managers,
calling the raises "excessive" and "intolerable" in light of the state’s fiscal crisis”. “The governor took the action a day after the
Mirror disclosed that raises,
some as large as 10 percent, had been granted to non-union managers, including
high-ranking officials such as Chancellor David
G. Carter and the presidents of CSU's four
campuses.” The article continues http://www.ctmirror.org/story/2010/07/23/rell-asks-csu-reduce-raises-chancellor-and-top-officials.
********************
On December 21, 2013, the Hartford Courant is reported…..
Jon Lender: Six-Figure State
University Retiree Wants More In Pension
State Board Considering Pension Request from
David Carter
The retired chancellor of the Connecticut State
University System, David G. Carter, is receiving
a lifetime pension of nearly $200,000 a year -- but he has filed an appeal
saying that he deserves $367,000 annually.
Continue reading at ….. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-lender-chancellor-pension-1222-20131221,0,1750926.column
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As a Taxpayer Paying State
Employee Pensions, you may be asking what do the State Employees Pay toward
their pensions and how many more of these high pensions can I be expected to
fund through my tax dollars? The
following will provide some insight into those questions….
The following Publications by
the State of Connecticut’s
Office of Legislative Research Lend Insight into
STATE EMPLOYEE BENEFITS IN
NORTHEASTERN STATES
Feb 20, 2013
Check out Connecticut below
and then Click
on the following web link for information on Other States
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/rpt/pdf/2013-R-0139.pdf
CT State
Employee
|
|
Contribution
as Percent of Salary
|
|
|
|
Tier I (hired before July 2, 1984)
|
2%
|
Tier II (hired July 2, 1984 - June 30, 1997)
|
0%
|
Tier IIA (hired July 1, 1997 - June 30, 2011)
|
2%
|
Tier III (hired after June 30, 2011)
|
2%
|
*********************
OLR BACKGROUNDER: STATE
EMPLOYEE DEMOGRAPHICS
This
report describes the age and gender demographics of state employees as of
November 15, 2013.
Based on data we received from the comptroller’s office, there are 54,903 full time
state employees, of which 26,452 (48.2%) are male and 28,438 (51.8%) are female
(the data does not identify the gender of 13 employees).
Roughly 28% of the employees are under 40 years old; 60% are
between 40 and 60; and 12% are at least 60 years old. Female state employees age 50 - 54 outnumber
males in the same age group by 971, the largest gender differential
among any age group. Over 53% of employees age 65 and
over are male. Continue reading at …. http://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/rpt/pdf/2013-R-0458.pdf
*********************
When
getting Medicaid now means repaying the state later By Arielle Levin Becker CTMirror.org, December 27, 2013 Thousands of Connecticut residents
will become eligible for Medicaid Jan. 1, and for some, the coverage will come
with an often-overlooked trade-off: When they die, the state could dock their
estates to repay the medical costs it covered.
So-called “recovery” of the assets of Medicaid recipients applies to
only some people in Connecticut’s
program. It’s long been one of the strings attached to the public health care
coverage. But in some places, it’s
getting new attention as Medicaid grows to cover millions more Americans as
part of the federal health law commonly known as Obamacare.
In Washington state, officials recently announced they would scale back the scope of
its recovery efforts, according to The Seattle Times, which had reported on the concerns
of a woman who was newly eligible for Medicaid but wanted to avoid the program
so she could leave her home to her two sons when she died. Continue reading at ….. http://www.ctmirror.org/story/2013/12/26/when-getting-medicaid-now-means-repaying-state-later
CT
jobless rate: near 11% had 60,000 not left workforce By Keith M. Phaneuf
December 23, 2013 The
state’s unemployment rate would approach a gloomy 11 percent if more than
64,000 people hadn't left the workforce since mid-2010, the University of Connecticut’s
economic think-tank reported Monday.
And while the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis recognized Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s efforts to grow the economy, it said the
budget deficits that have been projected after the next election, coupled with
a failure to invest enough in the state's infrastructure, remain big
obstacles. Continue reading at ….. http://www.ctmirror.org/story/2013/12/22/ct-jobless-rate-near-11-had-60000-not-left-workforce
State of our State
|
1 Bil Dlr Deficit Awaits Next
Governor Also CT Worst Performing Economy and More News on the State of our
State
The Federation of - CT Taxpayer
Org - Dec 2013
|
PENSION CRISIS IN CHICAGO
|
19.5 BILLION
DOLLARS SHORT, IS IT TIME TO END COLLECTIVE BARGAINING....
The Federation of - Ct Taxpayer
Org - Dec 2013
|
'Let the
Crime Spree Begin': How Fraud Flourishes in Medicare’s Drug Plan ProPublica, Dec. 19,
10:57 p.m. by Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein This story was co-produced with NPR. Tune into Morning
Edition Friday morning for more on this
story. With just a handful of
prescriptions to his name, psychiatrist Ernest Bagner
III was barely a blip in Medicare's vast drug program in 2009.
But the next year he began churning them out at a furious
rate. Not just the psych drugs expected in his specialty, but expensive pills
for asthma and high cholesterol, heartburn and blood clots. By the end of 2010, Medicare had paid $3.8
million for Bagner's drugs — one of the highest
tallies in the country. His prescriptions cost the program another $2.6 million the following year, records analyzed by ProPublica
show. Continue reading at ….. http://www.propublica.org/article/how-fraud-flourishes-in-medicares-drug-plan
The Prescribers
Inside the Government's Drug
Data
ObamaCare
approval drops to record low By Peter Sullivan Dec 23, 2013 The
drop in support indicated in the poll could be particularly troubling to the
Obama administration because almost all of it came from women, whose opposition
rose from 54 to 60 percent in a month. The administration has tried to
highlight advantages for women, such as free preventative care that covers
mammograms. Continue reading at …. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/193853-obamacare-approval-drops-to-record-low-in-cnn-poll
New
Health Law Frustrates Many in Middle Class New York
Times By KATIE THOMAS, REED ABELSON and JO CRAVEN
McGINTY December 20, 2013 The cheapest insurance plan they can find
through the new federal marketplace in New Hampshire will cost their family of
four about $1,000 a month, 12 percent of their annual income of around $100,000
and more than they have ever paid before. Even more striking, for the Chapmans, is this fact: If they made just a few thousand
dollars less a year — below $94,200 — their costs would be cut in half, because
a family like theirs could qualify for federal subsidies. Continue reading at
…. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/business/new-health-law-frustrates-many-in-middle-class.html?partner=yahoofinance&_r=0
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