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Please note that if you have received more than one copy of this email publication, wish to be removed from FCTO's email list, or add a friend, please notify FCTO at fctopresident@aol
 
 

 

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

 

Malloy Revives Rosy Budget Scenario

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. 

 

 

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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%

 

 

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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

 

 

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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 OrgDec 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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