From The
Federation of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations
Contact Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
May 13, 2011
MALLOY CUTS
TENTATIVE DEAL WITH UNIONS!
UNIONS: 2 YEAR WAGE
FREEZE,
3% ANNUAL WAGE
INCREASE FOR 3 YEARS,
4 YEAR NO LAY-OFF
CLAUSE!
TAXPAYERS: $1.5
BILLION NEW TAXES
And maybe more!
State employees are being
handed a lucrative contract while Connecticut
is mired in $72 billion of debt and many private sector workers are faced with
unemployment which has climbed to 9%.
With no guarantee of a secure revenue stream, the Governor has limited
his ability to manage our state and its finances by locking the State into
contracts with state unions under a four year no layoff clause. As a result, taxpayers
could be burdened with taxes exceeding the $1.5 billion already factored into
the Governor’s Budget.
The following is an excerpt
from the article by CTMirror.org captioned:
Next challenge for Malloy: Can he hang
on to his fiscal cushion?
With over $19
billion in bonded debt, Connecticut ranks among the top three states in the
nation in terms of debt per capita, and debt as a percentage of the taxpayers'
personal income.
The state's
received an actuarial report last
November showing its employee pension fund in its worst shape since the state
began saving for pension obligations in the mid-1980s. That account held less
than 45 percent of the funds needed to meet its obligation to workers.
Further
complicating matters, Connecticut
shifted the pension contribution system in 1995 from a level-funded 30 year
schedule to a backloaded
system that will force dramatic increases over the next few decades. The
required annual contribution is projected to grow by 50
percent by 2017, double by 2026 and triple by 2038
Also, as the Federation
reported a few weeks ago,
Ø Overtime can be
lucrative for some state employees as a Supervisory Nurse with a Base
Pay at $103,239 and Overtime at $231,190 receives a Total Pay of $334,429.
Ø Hundreds of state
employees who accepted a retirement-incentive package in 2009 remain on the
state's payroll. At least 38 rehired
retirees are collecting six-figure pensions in addition to a paycheck http://articles.courant.com/2011-04-24/news/hc-retire-rehire-0424-20110424_1_highest-paid-retiree-retirement-package-state-retirees
Ø
As of
April, 2011, 411 Retirees Receive Pensions
From $100,000 to $266,295; 2,592 receive $75,000 to $100,000; and 6,181 receive
$50,000 to $75,000 in addition to taxpayer funded healthcare. http://www.ctact.org\upload\home\20112.xls
Ø 911 State
employees who are collecting salaries from $62,000 TO $202,000 are union
stewards allowed to conduct business on state time.
Ø In October of
2010, Connecticut's
3,582 non-union employees and 28,175 union employees each received a longevity
payment costing the state $19.7 million.
Ø The average state
employee's annual compensation, including salary and benefits, is $105,498,
compared with $74,174 for the average worker in the private sector, according
to a December report produced by the state Commission on Enhancing Agency
Outcomes, a task force formed under the former administration to streamline
state government.
Ø About 14,000 state
employees make no contributions to their pension plans, according to the
benefits commission. Another 18,315 make a 2 percent contribution.
Ø Connecticut had $26 billion
in liabilities related to retiree health benefits in fiscal year 2009.
Ø
The state is required to make payments exceeding $5.4 billion a
year to compensate state employees and retirees, a figure that represents about
25 percent of the state's general fund budget.
**************************************
Two union negotiators earn as much as CT Gov. Malloy, 27 earn six
figures May 9, 2011 By Zachary Janowski It is well
known that Gov. Dannel
Malloy makes $150,000 in salary. In fact, the salaries of most state employees
are public
information. But what do the
union negotiators who represent state employees make? The federal government collects information
on four of the 13 unions that make up the State Employee Bargaining Agent
Coalition. The remaining unions don’t file or claim exemptions from
the requirement. http://watchdog.org/9308/two-union-negotiators-earn-as-much-as-ct-gov-malloy-27-earn-six-figures/
At CVH, $346,077 In
Pay To Answer 'Primarily False Alarms' May 7, 2011 Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown has a
largely volunteer fire brigade with three full-time state employees who were
paid $346,077 in the past fiscal year: $134,441 for Chief David Quinn, $131,268
for Assistant Chief Martin Leachman,
and $80,368 for firefighter Joe Fragoso.
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-lender-column-cvh-fire-fighters-0520110507,0,327592.column
O.C.’s $200K lifeguards spark international shock May 12th, 2011, by Jeff Overley
Writers worldwide are chatting about Newport Beach’s year-round
lifeguards getting compensation packages that sometimes top $200,000, the
latest spit-coffee-on-the-computer-monitor revelation concerning
public-employee pay. Discussion of the six-figure salary-and-benefit packages
– which include $400 a year for sunglasses and “sun-protection materials” – is all over Twitter, and has even made its way
across the Atlantic. http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/05/12/o-c-s-200k-lifeguards-spark-international-shock/82891/
Malloy: Deal worth $1.6 billion; unions get no-layoff
assurance By Mark
Pazniokas and Keith M. Phaneuf
May 13, 2011 http://ctmirror.org/story/12590/unions-malloy-reach-dea
Opinion: An illuminating look at public vs. private wages By Daniel Borenstein Special to the Mercury News Updated: 05/11/2011 "The current public compensation systems
are overcommitted to large vested pension rights, which do not provide state
and local governments with adequate flexibility to manage their budgets."
Read complete article at ….. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_18035506?nclick_check=1
Governments Consider Cuts to
Once-Untouchable Pensions Officials
in strapped states have begun looking for loopholes to cut retirement benefits
for current employees.April
26, 2011 - By MICHAEL COOPER and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH - U.S. Read full report at ….. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/us/26pensions.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=pensions&st=cse
Federal Workers Making Big Bucks, Study
Finds A new analysis by USA Today shows as of last fall
there are nearly 18,000 Federal employees who make over $180,000 a year. That's
up from about 800 workers in 2005. http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/05/03/federal-workers-making-big-bucks-study-finds/
Gas and Food Push Up U.S. Inflation
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PENSION
CHANGES IN OTHER STATES http://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/rpt/2010-R-0433.htm
Panel Backs New Storage Site for
Nuclear Waste WASHINGTON (AP) — A commission created to
find a safe way to dispose of the nation's nuclear waste is considering a plan
to build one or more storage sites to replace a long-planned nuclear waste dump
in Nevada.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/05/13/us/politics/AP-US-Nuclear-Waste.html?hp
EDITORIAL: Big Labor’s attack on democracy Administration launches
strike on Boeing and right-to-work states By THE WASHINGTON TIMES- The Washington Times 7:43 p.m., Tuesday, May
3, 2011 President Obama’s hand-picked
appointees at the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) are delivering favors
to the administration’s Big Labor backers. In just the past two weeks, the board has taken steps to
overturn the will of voters in two states and chill the speech of corporate
chieftains who spoke out against the labor movement’s thuggish tactics. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/3/big-labors-attack-on-democracy/?sms_ss=hotmail&at_xt=4dc20acc94353ef6%2C0
Bills Would Worsen State's Climate For Business CEOs Polled New legislation won't help Connecticut improve its ranking May
08, 2011
On top of higher
taxes and everything else that makes Connecticut a hard place to do business,
Democratic lawmakers at the state Capitol have introduced legislation to make
it even harder. They are pushing bills
that would prevent employers from communicating with their employees and that
would mandate paid sick leave even for struggling businesses that can't afford
it. Either bill would further distress the business climate in a state that
desperately looks for fair weather http://articles.courant.com/2011-05-08/news/hc-ed-bills-bad-for-business-20110508_1_business-climate-business-leaders-employers
U.S. States Pension Fund Deficits Widen by 26%, Pew Center Study
Says By William Selway – Bloomberg The deficits, or the difference
between the retirement and health-care benefits states have promised their
employees and the assets set aside to fund them, grew to $1.26 trillion by the
end of the 2009 budget year from $1 trillion a year earlier, the Pew Center on
the States said in a report released today. The fiscal year ends in June for
all but four states. The gaps are straining governments that have yet to fully recover from the recession and are
stoking political fights in states such as New Jersey,
Ohio and Wisconsin over the workers’ benefits. They have
also drawn scrutiny in Congress, where Republicans have held hearings into the
risks posed by underfunded
pensions and backed legislation that would bar the federal government from
bailing out any ailing funds. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-26/u-s-states-pension-fund-deficits-widen-by-26-pew-center-study-says.html
Home prices plummet CNNMoney
Special CNN Report today ….. State May Close one of the Best
Performing Schools in Hartford……
Learn Why…..
The battle over school integration http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/05/10/obrien.ct.school.integration.cnn?hpt=T2
The American people understand the
campaign money-corruption ... By Rachel Lewis May 4,
2011 The below statement was delivered at a press conference on the Hill today.
Does anyone in America
really think it’s a stretch to suggest that corporate campaign spending might
affect decisions about what the government spends money on –and to which
companies it gives contracts? Isn’t that a huge part of why corporations spend
money on campaigns? Public Citizen strongly urges the Obama administration to adopt a draft executive
order that would require companies that bid for government contracts to
disclose their campaign spending, in order to diminish the likelihood that
contracts are a payoff for political expenditures.
http://www.citizenvox.org/2011/05/04/obama-executive-order-government-contractor-disclosure-public-citizen-press-conference/
100 of the Top Delinquent
Income Taxpayer Accounts
Deficient in Excess of 90 Days as of April 1, 2011 http://www.ct.gov/DRs/cwp/view.asp?a=1453&q=296114
Squeezed Cities Ask Nonprofits for More
Money New York Times By MICHAEL COOPER May 11,
2011 As recession-racked cities
struggle to balance their budgets with everything short of feeling behind sofa
cushions for loose change, a growing number are seeking more money — just don’t
use the word taxes — from nonprofit institutions that occupy valuable land but
by law do not pay property taxes. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/us/12nonprofits.html