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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

 

August 9, 2015

 

 

From:  The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact:  Susan Kniep, President
Website:
http://ctact.org/
Email:
fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032

 

 

 

Election agency files suit against Democrats

By Ken Dixon,  Stamford Advocate, August 8, 2015

 HARTFORD — The State Elections Enforcement Commission filed a lawsuit against the Democratic State Central Committee on Thursday in an attempt to force the party to surrender records on its use of a federal account that helped fund the endgame of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s 2014 re-election campaign. Continue reading at ….. http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Election-agency-files-suit-against-Democrats-6432440.php

 

 

 

GOP Senate leader: Malloy, unions ducked legislature on pensions 

 

By: KEITH M. PHANEUF | August 7, 2015  CTMirror.org

 

The top Republican in the state Senate charged Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state employee unions Friday with making an end run around the legislature to resolve a disability pension controversy that the state auditors said may have cost Connecticut millions of dollars in improper payments.
View as "Clean Read"

 

 

Seven countries near bankruptcy

 

USA TODAY‎ - 18 hours ago

 

 

 

Cities with the widest gap between rich, poor - USA Today

 

USAToday

 

The nation's wealthiest residents have controlled a disproportionately large share of all income for many decades. In 2001, however, that proportion became a majority share. Since 2007, the shares of income controlled by the wealthiest and poorest 20% of households have steadily diverged. In other words, income inequality has been on the rise.

 

Based on the Gini coefficient, a measure that captures the level of income distribution in a given area, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 20 metropolitan areas with the most uneven income distribution, or the highest Gini coefficients. A Gini coefficient of 1 means all income belongs to a single individual, while a coefficient of 0 reflects a perfectly even distribution. The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut, metro area leads the nation with the worst income distribution.

Continue reading at ….. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/07/11/24-7-wall-st-worst-gap-rich-poor/29933687/

 

 

 

US State Pension Plans Putting Politics Above Retirement Returns (James Saft / South China Morning Post)

 

State public pension funds love buying shares in local companies, but it is not so much a matter of "buying what you know" as "buying shares of companies with political clout."

 

A new study of equity holdings of self-managed state public pension funds finds that they have not only a bias towards in-state companies, but in particular towards those with political connections and influence.

 

What’s more, these investments aren’t winners; this bias towards in-state politically connected firms costs the typical state pension fund about US$225 million in annual decline in fund performance, according to estimates in the study, which is slated to be published in an upcoming Journal of Financial Economics. Continue reading at ….. http://www.scmp.com/business/money/markets-investing/article/1846349/us-state-pension-plans-putting-politics-above

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Also Read Below….. State Comptroller Reports $70.9 Million Deficit, Federal Data Bursts CT Economic Bubble,  As Some State Employees are Laid Off -  $93 Thousand in Bonuses Awarded to Some State Employees Earning as High as $247,755.47, Scathing Reports from  State Auditors to Include UConn Burdening Taxpayers with $77 Million in “Unnecessary Interest” a deal approved by Governor Malloy, and more, much more…..! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We should be concerned for what is on the horizon for Connecticut’s fiscal future as noted within New federal data bursts CT's economic bubble - The CT Mirror in which Keith M. Phaneuf reports….The University of Connecticut’s economic think-tank predicted Thursday that the state’s job growth this year and next probably will stall or even decline — a dramatic reversal of its forecast of robust job growth issued just four months ago. The Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, which had estimated in February that the state could add a whopping 44,000 jobs in 2015 and 2016 combined, now says that forecast was based on federal data that recently was “massively revised” for the worse.  View as "Clean Read"

 

 

 

Recently, we learned the state bestowed $93 Thousand in bonuses on some state employees (see below) while others are not so lucky.  Today,  Keith M. Phaneuf reports State gives pink slips to 95 labor department workers whose positions no longer are supported by federal funding. View as "Clean Read"

 

 

Hospitals are also cutting back as Bristol Hospital eliminates 43 positions, citing cuts in payments for Medicaid and Medicare. Continue Reading →

 

 

On  August 3, 2015, we learned that State COMPTROLLER LEMBO PROJECTS $70.9-MILLION DEFICIT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015  while a $927 million deficit is built into the 2017-18 fiscal year budget.

 

Recently, Keith M. Phaneuf of CTMirror.org reported New CT budget gets mixed reviews from Wall Street noting “Connecticut is a frequent borrower, and the state’s debt per capita and debt-to-personal income ranked first and second, respectively, among the 50 states" Moody’s wrote.   And Connecticut’s net taxpayer support debt of $5,491 per person, or 9 percent of personal income, is well over the national median of $1,054 per capita and 2.6 percent of personal income, according to Moody’s.

 

And much of that debt is due to the promises made to Connecticut State employees/unions by former and current state elected officials as state employee pensions grow to unsustainable levels.  And those pensions increase with every negotiated wage increase and randomly bestowed bonus.  And recently those bonuses took center stage as reported by CTMirror.org noting Auditors criticize UConn’s award of $93K in bonuses without criteria noting that The University of Connecticut doled out more than $93,000 in one-time performance bonuses to six employees to recognize their work implementing a new financial reporting system, the state auditors reported Wednesday. Continue Reading →

 

 

 

As noted within the May, 2015 publication by the Yankee Institute captioned Connecticut's Pension Debt and the Spending Cap

 

Yankee writes …… the state will pay almost $2 billion – one-tenth of the total budget – into its three major pension funds in fiscal year 2015.2 After years of not making the annual required contributions, the state is now trying to fund its annual pension obligations, to the credit of the current administration. Despite this, moving the pension debt needle has proven difficult. According to the 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, issued by the state’s comptroller, accrued liabilities in the three major funds totaled $26.3 billion, up from $24.5 billion in 2012, which means the pension funds are now only 41.5 percent funded. Connecticut’s pension funds are extremely underfunded. On most lists, the state is in the top three of the most underfunded state pension systems in the nation. 

 

As taxpayers are burdened with high state and local public sector wages and pensions driven by State mandates to include Binding Arbitration and Collective Bargaining,  more wasteful spending of Connecticut taxpayer dollars is being exposed by State auditors. 

 

Keith M. Phaneuf of CTMirror.org is reporting that the  Malloy administration approved costly financing for UConn outpatient facility when it secured financing 19 months ago for a new ambulatory services center in Farmington which included an estimated $77 million in “unnecessary interest costs as noted within the article captioned Auditors: UConn ‘burdened’ CT with $77M in ‘unnecessary interest costs’. “This transaction will burden the state with significant unnecessary interest costs,” the auditors wrote, referring to financing secured in December 2012 for an ambulatory services center on the UConn Health Center campus.

 

According to records obtained by The Mirror, the recipients, their positions and their respective bonuses were:

  • Charles Eaton II, controller, $17,782.26;
  • Robin Graves-Hoagland, director of accounting, $18,116.44;
  • Matthew Larson, director of procurement services, $18,755.15;
  • Lori-Ann Hansen-Roy, manager of financial systems and cost analysis, $12,134.33;
  • Brett Paulson, interim manager of financial systems, $13,588.34;
  • Lynn Hallarin, director of the business services center, $12,891.23.

 

 

The Federation notes that when referring to the State’s website Transparency Connecticut these employees are already the benefactors of impressive taxpayer funded salaries as offered below.

 

 

Earnings

Fringe

Total

Charles Eaton II

203,441.30

44,314.17

247,755.47

Robin Graves-Hoagland

149,399.54

28,984.02

178,383.50

Matthew Larson,

160,495.89

49,276.12

209,772.01

Lori-Ann Hansen-Roy

123,710.27

37,106.24

160,816.51

Brett Paulson

131,867.98

32,266.91

164,134.89

Lynn Hallarin

122,092.37

42,854.21

164,946.58

 

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