March 21, 2012

 

From The Federation of Connecticut

Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. 
Contact Susan Kniep, President

Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com

Telephone: 860-841-8032

 

 

 

Gas Tax Relief Just A Week Away  by CTNewsjunkie Staff
Posted: Mar 21, 2012 5:54pm   Democratic lawmakers announced Wednesday, hours after a Republican rally to cap the gas tax, that they will fast track a bill through the General Assembly as early as next week to cap the gross receipts tax and prevent profiteering.  “We have ordered our legislative staff to immediately begin drafting language for a bill that will cap the gross receipt tax and protect consumers for profiteering by large oil companies,” Senate President Donald E. Williams, D-Brooklyn, said Wednesday in a statement. “The price of gasoline continues to rise and families need us to take immediate action. We expect a vote on our proposal to occur as early as next week.”  House Speaker Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, added that “By taking immediate action, we send a clear message: help is here for consumers and we’re not going to tolerate gouging by the big oil companies.”  Capping the wholesale price of gas at $3 will save consumers about 1.3 cents per gallon, according to the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association.  Continued at ….. http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/gas_tax_relief_just_a_week_away/

 

State Senator Suzio provides insight into the high cost of gas in Connecticut…..http://ctsenaterepublicans.com/2011/10/test/

 

 

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IRS policies help fuel tax refund fraud, officials say

 

By Scott Zamost and Randi Kaye, CNN Special Investigations Unit

 

March 20, 2012

 

Last year, the IRS reported 938,664 fraudulent returns related to identity theft, totaling $6.5 billion!

 

 

For more on this story, watch "Refund Robbery"

on CNN Presents at 8 and 11 p.m. ET Sunday.

 

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Florida state workers face random drug tests …  March 21, 2012 (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott has signed a law allowing state employees to be randomly tested for drugs, a measure likely to draw a legal challenge over its constitutionality.  The Republican governor signed the Drug-free Workplace Act, which will permit state agencies to randomly test up to 10 percent of their employees, his office said on Monday.  Tests could be conducted once every 90 days under the measure, which takes effect July 1. It would allow agencies to fire or discipline employees the first time they test positive for drugs.  Employers could choose to refer such employees to an alcohol and drug rehabilitation program. Continued at …..

http://news.yahoo.com/florida-state-workers-face-random-drug-tests-under-001300892.html

 

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The Expanding Wealth Of Washington - Forbes Joel Kotkin, Contributor, Forbes, March 19, 2012 Joel Kotkin Covers demographic, social and economic trends around the world.  Throughout the brutal and agonizingly long recession, only one large metropolitan area escaped largely unscathed: Washington, D.C. The city that wreaked economic disasters under two administrations last year grew faster in population than any major region in the country, up a remarkable 2.7 percent. The continued steady growth of the Texas cities, which dominated the growth charts over the past decade, pales by comparison. Boom times in the capital — particularly amid a weak recovery elsewhere — are driving this growth. Since 2007, notes Stephen Fuller at George Mason University, the D.C. region’s economy has expanded 14 percent compared with a mere 3 percent for the rest of the country. Washington’s unemployment never scaled over 7 percent, well below the national average, and is now down to around 5.5 percent, about the lowest of any major metropolitan area. Unemployment of course is much higher, reaching 25 percent, in some of the district’s poorer neighborhoods. Move up Move down

This prosperity is rooted largely in the steady growth of the federal workforce, as federal spending accounts for one-third of the region’s economy. Over the past decade 50,000 bureaucratic jobs have been added in the area while local federal spending grew 166 percent. The D.C. region, with 5 percent of the nation’s population, garners more than three times that percentage in payroll and more than four times that percentage in procurement dollars. Continued at ….. http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2012/03/19/the-expanding-wealth-of-washington/

 

 

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Another Hidden Bailout: Helping Wall Street Collect Your Rent

March 19, 2012  Rolling Stone  Here's yet another form of hidden bailout the federal government doles out to our big banks, without the public having much of a clue.

This is from the WSJ this morning: Some of the biggest names on Wall Street are lining up to become landlords to cash-strapped Americans by bidding on pools of foreclosed properties being sold by Fannie Mae...While the current approach of selling homes one-by-one has its own high costs and is sometimes inefficient, selling properties in bulk to large investors could require Fannie Mae to sell at a big discount, leading to larger initial costs. Read the complete report at
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/another-hidden-bailout-helping-wall-street-collect-your-rent-20120319

 

 

 

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