Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

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From The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations�
Contact Susan Kniep

Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032

May 29, 2011

The Federation Calls Upon The State Legislature to Hold A Public Hearing and Vote on the State Labor Union Contracts!��

Read the Federation�s Position on the

State Budget

Taxpayers:

$1.5 Billion Dollars in New Taxes

State Employee Unions:

9% Wage Increase and 4 Year Job Guarantee

Park Police Slam Dancers at Jefferson Memorial� Sunday, May 29, 2011 www.nbcwashington.com/news A handful of dancers got cuffed on Saturday for doing what they say the Founding Fathers would have wanted them to do - expressive dancing in National Parks. A court recently ruled that expressive dancing was in a category with picketing, speech making, and marching - a banned activity at national memorials. Read complete article at http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DC-Park-Police-Slam-Dancers-at-Jefferson-Memorial-122778309.html?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150209467191069_16837966_10150209595841069

Video of the Park Police wrestling some of the dancers to the ground has appeared on YouTube. �

Read the Opinion jeffersondecision.pdf.

Banks to pay $22 million for military foreclosures - Mortgage ... Bank of America and Morgan Stanley units will pay more than $22 million to settle charges of wrongful foreclosures on active-duty members of the U.S. military, the U.S. Justice Department has announced. Read article at http://mortgage.ocregister.com/2011/05/26/banks-to-pay-22-million-for-military-foreclosures/45411/

PUBLIC PENSION WOES and THE IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS WHO FINANCE THEM �

CalPERS' Top Pensioner ($500,000/year) Pleads Guilty to Illegally Using Public Money (Hector Becerra and Sam Allen / Los Angeles Times)�� http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-05-26-vernon-20110527,0,1402481.story

Fed Gave Banks Crisis Gains on $80 Billion Secretive Loans as Low as 0.01% �http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-26/fed-gave-banks-crisis-gains-on-secretive-loans-as-low-as-0-01-.html

Judge strikes ban on corporations donating directly to candidates

Jordy Yager 05/27/11 01:44 PM ET� In a case involving two Virginia men accused of illegally donating money to Hillary Clinton�s Senate and presidential campaigns, Judge James Cacheris of the U.S. District for the Eastern District of Virginia delivered a ruling on Thursday that dismissed a charge against two men by finding that if corporations are entitled to the same freedom of speech rights as individuals -- as was ruled by the Supreme Court -- then corporations should have the same rights as individuals when donating money to political campaigns. Continue reading�

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/fundraising/163731-judge-ban-on-corporations-donating-directly-to-candidates-unconstitutional

Unions Release Language of Tentative Labor Agreement

by Hugh McQuaid� May 27, 2011 Follow the link to the 20-page document released Friday by the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition.� http://inthistogetherct.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DEL_SEBAC_05_27_11_2.pdf

Inmate early release credits sparks partisan Senate battle May 27, 2011� By Keith M. Phaneuf� Majority Democratic lawmakers tried unsuccessfully Friday to avert a partisan battle in the Senate over a new policy designed to shrink the prison population by allowing inmates to earn credits for early release. http://ctmirror.org/story/12747/inmate-early-release-credits-sparks-partisan-senate-battle

SustiNet compromise passes House with both sides declaring victory� May 27, 2011�� By Arielle Levin Becker� A compromise bill on the controversial SustiNet state-run health plan passed the House Friday, and it drew praise from both supporters and opponents of the original proposal--albeit for different reasons. http://ctmirror.org/story/12743/sustinet-compromise-bill-passes-house

$400 Million Budget Gap to be Filled Primarily With Surplus Funds by Christine Stuart and Hugh McQuaid | May 27, 2011 8:52pm http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/400_million_budget_gap_to_be_filled_primarily_with_surplus_funds/

Third round of Race to the Top: Early childhood education By Jacqueline Rabe on May 25, 2011 With Wednesday's announcement of a new round of federal Race to the Top grants, this one aimed at early childhood education, Connecticut education officials say they plan to pitch a new package of reforms and hope they have better luck this time around in landing the money. Read more http://www.ctmirror.org/story/12716/race-top-redux-last-year-high-school...

House adopts budget measure designed to shrink inmate population

By Keith M. Phaneuf on May 24, 2011 The state House of Representatives adopted the first in a series of measures Tuesday designed to implement the new $40.11 billion biennial budget, ordering new policies to drive down prison populations, ordering several agency mergers and passing several costs onto cities and towns.

Senate passes first state mandate for paid sick days http://www.ctmirror.org/story/12717/senate-passes-mandate-paid-sick-days

AMERICANS TRY TO OUTRUN STATE, LOCAL TAX HIKES | TAX POLITICS Alan Dlugash is a New York accountant who specializes in high net worth Manhattanites, but lately he�s been fielding a lot of calls from clients in neighboring states � Connecticut and New Jersey.

�The big deal right now is �how do I change my residency?�� he said. And the reason is almost always the same: High local taxes� http://www.taxpolitics.com/2011/05/americans-try-to-outrun-state-local-tax-hikes/

Justices Uphold Immigrant Law �A divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law that imposes sanctions against businesses that hire illegal immigrants.� http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304520804576347281385119722.html?mod=ITP_pageone_0

Wisconsin Court Voids Changes to Public Employee Collective-Bargaining Law Bloomberg, May 26, 2011 A Wisconsin judge voided a law that would limit public employees� collective-bargaining rights because the legislation was passed in violation of state open- meetings requirements. In her decision today, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi didn�t rule on the merits of the law championed by first- term Republican Governor Scott Walker. She said lawmakers could still pass the measure if they abide by public-notice rules.�

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-26/wisconsin-court-voids-changes-to-public-employee-collective-bargaining-law.html

Bills aim to expand education options for welfare recipients

By Jacqueline Rabe May 26, 2011 A year ago Meredith Inkel faced a difficult decision: Go on working at a low-wage job so she would qualify for welfare or go back to school and be cut off from the state's cash-assistance program. The single mother of six children decided to go back to school so she could eventually get a better paying job. "I had to get us out of this hole we were in," the 38-year old mother living in Middletown said. "If I didn't get the training and education then I would never get out of this situation or a decent job."� Read complete article at http://www.ctmirror.org/story/12672/tfa-story

Just What You Needed: Higher Taxes The often-overlooked Social Security tax is expected to start rising again next year.� http://www.smartmoney.com/taxes/income/just-what-you-needed-higher-taxes-1306271420886/

The plan advanced by House Republicans to reshape Medicare was defeated, with five Republicans opposing it.� May 26, 2011 NYTimes http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/us/politics/26medicare.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=medicare&st=cse

Op-Ed: Squandering Medicare�s Money

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/opinion/26redberg.html?hp

After two-year drought, legislature restores funding for retired teacher health plan� By Jacqueline Rabe and Keith M. Phaneuf After putting it off for two years, the General Assembly has agreed to fully fund the state's share of a health plan that covers 33,000 retired teachers and their spouses, easing fears that the plan would run out of money.

Unemployment Benefit Filings Jump Up Again
Read the Article at CNN

A 62% Top Tax Rate?� Democrats have said they only intend to restore the tax rates that existed during the Clinton years. In reality they're proposing rates like those under President Carter. By STEPHEN MOORE Wall St Journal� May 26, 2011 Media reports in recent weeks say that Senate Democrats are considering a 3% surtax on income over $1 million to raise federal revenues. This would come on top of the higher income tax rates that President Obama has already proposed through the cancellation of the Bush era tax-rate reductions.� If the Democrats' millionaire surtax were to happen�and were added to other tax increases already enacted last year and other leading tax hike ideas on the table this year�this could leave the U.S. with a combined federal and state top tax rate on earnings of 62%. That's more than double the highest federal marginal rate of 28% when President Reagan left office in 1989. Welcome back to the 1970s. Continued at �. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304066504576343611464445594-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwNjEyNDYyWj.html

Nearly 3 Million Paid Hours Spent By Federal Employees on Union Activity May 23, 2011 Continued at �.. http://atr.org/nearly-million-paid-hours-spent-federal-a6177?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AmericansForTaxReformRssFULL+%28Americans+for+Tax+Reform+FULL+CONTENT+RSS%29#ixzz1N9zNhZaA

Insurance department rejects 35 percent rate hike By Arielle Levin Becker The Connecticut Insurance Department has rejected a request by The American Republic Insurance Company to raise premiums by an average of 35 percent for individual-market health plans, ruling that it would be excessive.

More US Workers in Private Sector Delay Retirement; No Delay Among Government Workers (Accounting Today) There was essentially no retirement delay among government workers. That is expected, since these workers are more likely to receive defined benefits, making them more insulated from the decline in financial asset values in their pensions. http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/More-US-Workers-Delay-Retirement-58513-1.html

Congress - Most Expensive Bill of the Week : H.R. 1532/S. 844, Race to the Top Act of 2011 Annualized Cost: Annualized Cost: $1.35 billion (first-year cost) http://action.ntu.org/site/MessageViewer?dlv_id=9742&em_id=6441.0

Vermont Gov. Shumlin signs health care reform bill� May 26, 2011 burlingtonfreepress.com. Optimistic that the rain would hold off and Vermont�s health reform bill would make history, Gov. Peter Shumlin stood on the steps outside the Statehouse Thursday and signed a law that puts Vermont on the road toward a universal health care system. �We gather here today to sign into law the first single-payer system in America,� Shumlin said. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110526/NEWS03/110526013/Gov-Shumlin-signs-health-care-reform-bill-?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|img|FRONTPAGE

Foreclosure Contractors Face New Scrutiny From States

by Marian Wang | @mariancw Federal and state officials investigating flawed foreclosures have begun targeting the more obscure middlemen of the foreclosure scandal.

Tax cap must have mandate relief, too May 23, 2011 Ithaca Journal

Although the state budget didn't include a property tax cap, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ratcheted up his rhetoric. Counties across the state oppose this cap not because we like high property taxes � we don't � but because we have become tax collectors for the state. We've had to raise property taxes year after year to pay for the ever-increasing cost of state programs we are mandated to deliver. Today, 90 percent of the average county property tax levy is attributable to state-mandated programs. These are not "excuses," as the lieutenant governor has said. They are actual bills for programs such as health care and legal defense for the poor, services for children with disabilities, welfare and pensions for employees. http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20110523/VIEWPOINTS02/105230309/Tax-cap-must-mandate-relief-too?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

�

Officials: Community college 'open door' already partly closed

By Jacqueline Rabe on May 24, 2011 A possible decision to end open enrollment at the state's community colleges might represent a philosophical change, officials said Tuesday, but in fact a lot of doors have been shut at some campuses for the last few years. Read more http://www.ctmirror.org/story/12698/malloy-community-college-open-door-a...

With budget holes to fill, will transportation fund be a target?

By Keith M. Phaneuf The Connecticut Mirror on May 24, 2011 The new state budget adopted earlier this month shifts dramatically away from the recent trend of diverting fuel tax revenue for non-transportation uses. But with a $300 million hole still to be patched in the first year of that new budget--and the potential for much larger gaps if a tentative union concession deal flops--Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and transportation advocates may be hard pressed to preserve the new funding carved out for Connecticut's aging, congested infrastructure. Read more http://www.ctmirror.org/story/12693/will-officials-try-raid-transportati...