Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

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

FROM FCTO - INVITATION TO THE

SEPTEMBER 26 BREAKFAST FORUM

Reserve your tickets today for the Federation�s September 26th Breakfast Forum at the Chatfield in West Hartford.�� We will begin at 8:30 AM and end at 12 Noon.� You will have an opportunity to network with taxpayers through out the State and listen to the message of speakers whom we will be announcing this week.� Reserve your ticket by email at fctopresident@aol.com or call 860-841-8032 or 860-528-0323.� Suggested donation of $10 includes continental breakfast.�

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"I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty." --President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)

TAX TALK SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

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�� The following is contained in today�s Tax Talk:

� In school speech, Obama says education key to country's future��

� Towns, Cities Confront Stagnant Grand Lists

� Jones' resignation puts focus on criticism of Obama's 'czars'

� White House Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy Over Past Activism

� New York Teachers Paid To Do Nothing: 700 Of Them

� Millions of government dollars sent to group in ACORN offices, then sent to ACORN

� On This Labor Day, Unemployment Remains High, Workplace Security Stays Low

� Many will not be celebrating Labor Day this year � Unemployment figures and More

� New G20 capital rules could fuel further bank bailouts

� The CEO Pay Debate: Why Reform is Going Nowhere

� FreedomWorks Taxpayer March on Washington Scheduled for September 12, 2009

� From Carl Vassar of Trumbull re CEO Pay

� Get Ready for 'Son' of Stimulus Plan�

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In school speech, Obama says education key to country's future�� Click to Read text of Obama's speech to students (pdf)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House released the text Monday of a controversial back-to-school speech to students from President Obama. Many conservatives have expressed a fear that the address would be used to push a partisan political agenda. In the text of the speech, however, Obama avoids any mention of controversial political initiatives. He repeatedly urges students to work hard and stay in school.� "No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it," he says.� "This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country."� The text of the 18-minute speech was posted on the White House Web site so people can read it before its scheduled Internet broadcast to schoolchildren Tuesday.� Continued at �. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/07/obama.school.speech/index.html?iref=nextin

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Towns, Cities Confront Stagnant Grand Lists By JESSE LEAVENWORTH The Hartford Courant , September 7, 2009 �.. Real estate values are flattening, new construction has slowed and towns and cities must deal with a $44 million cut in state aid this fiscal year, said Kevin Maloney, a spokesman for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. As budget preparation begins for the 2010-11 fiscal year, Maloney said, municipal leaders and residents will face the old equation of raising taxes or cutting services. Continued at �.. http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-ct-taxbases-0907.artsep07,0,47376.story

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On This Labor Day, Unemployment Remains High, Workplace Security Stays Low, Hartford Courant, Sept 7, 2009, Ken Gosselin� http://www.courant.com/business/hc-labor-day-jobs.artsep07,0,4206085.story

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�Jones' resignation puts focus on criticism of Obama's 'czars'� From Ed Hornick, CNN, August 7, 2009� By some accounts, Obama has nearly 30 czars, who are officially called special advisers. The czars cover issues from AIDS and health care to Middle East peace.� Czars are nothing new. They date back to early presidents, including Franklin Roosevelt. Republicans also had czars: Richard Nixon had an energy czar, and George H.W. Bush appointed the first drug czar.� But the positions are not subject to congressional oversight or Senate confirmation, which rankles critics of the administration.� Continued at �. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/07/obama.czars/index.html?iref=nextin

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White House Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy Over Past Activism Updated 2:52 p.m. 9/6/09, Washington Post, By Scott Wilson and Garance Franke-Ruta:� White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned late Saturday after a simmering controversy over his past statements and activism erupted into calls for his ouster from Republican leaders on Friday. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Sunday explained the resignation on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," saying, "Van Jones decided was that the agenda of this president was bigger than any one individual." The president does not endorse Jones's past statements and actions, "but he thanks him for his service," Gibbs said. A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Jones's past was not studied as intensively as other advisers because of his relatively low rank. Jones's position did not require Senate confirmation, so he avoided the kind of vetting Cabinet officials were subjected to. In addition, as an adviser to the Council on Environmental Quality, rather than to Obama directly, his past was not reviewed to the same degree as the more senior "assistants to the president" and other top advisers inside inside the West Wing. The result was the revelation of a controversial past that, administration officials acknowledge, caught the White House off guard.

"He was not as thoroughly vetted as other administration officials," the official said. "It's fair to say there were unknowns." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/06/van_jones_resigns.html

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New York Teachers Paid To Do Nothing: 700 Of Them, Huffington Post, Karen Matthews, June, 2009, NEW YORK � Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do. Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its "rubber rooms" _ off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings. Continued at �. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/22/new-york-teachers-paid-to_n_219336.html

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Millions of government dollars sent to group in ACORN offices, then sent to ACORN Sal Gentile Sept 8, 2009:� A non-profit organization which has affiliates providing campaign-related services for political candidates has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money in recent years, allocated in many cases by some of the same lawmakers on whose campaigns the group worked.� The earmarks have been directed to the New York Agency for Community Affairs (NYACA), which is located at the same office as ACORN and its various political arms. NYACA received $175,000 from eight state senators this year, $240,500 from 10 Assembly members and $85,000 from four Council members.�� Several of those legislators received backing from ACORN in current or previous political campaigns in the form of canvassing and other field work when facing contested races.�� According to a mission statement provided on request, NYACA was founded �to provide a vehicle for grassroots community organizations to increase their capacity to meet the needs of low- and moderate-income communities.� Officially, the money was allocated to deal with foreclosures and other housing issues. http://www.cityhallnews.com/content/?page=13

By City Hall which publishes twice monthly, targeting the politicians, lobbyists, unions, staffers and issues which shape New York City and State.

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Laura Bush Praises Obama. Defends Back-To-School Speech http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/07/laura.bush/index.html?eref=rss_politics

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Many will not be celebrating Labor Day this year��

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 9.7%

� Number unemployed: 14.9 million (up from 7.5 million in December 2007)��

� Underemployment rate: 16.8%; Share of workers un- or underemployed: roughly 1 in 6��

� Under- and unemployed, marginally attached and involuntary part-time workers: 26.4 million��

� For additional information refer to : ��http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/labor_day_by_the_numbers/

From the Economic Policy Institute

Workers have less to celebrate this Labor Day, September 4, 2009

The U.S. unemployment rate reached 9.7% in August and millions of workers who have kept their jobs have seen hours, wages, or some other form of compensation such as retirement plan contributions, cut. In a new Briefing Paper published ahead of the Labor Day weekend, EPI President Lawrence Mishel and Economist Heidi Shierholz discuss how what�s bad for the worker is bad for the overall economy. These lost wages, the authors note, do not just lower living standards, they threaten to further delay an economic recovery.�� It will be a drag on the economy,� Mishel and Shierholz write in the paper, The Recession�s Hidden Costs. �Wage growth is central to the growth of household consumption. That consumption is required if we are going to lift the demand of goods and services, a demand that is essential for a robust economy.�� As the paper outlines, even as the pace of job loss has slowed in recent months, wage growth has fallen dramatically. Wages, which grew at an annualized rate of 4.0% between 2006 and 2008, fell to just 0.7% over the past three months. This wage deceleration has occurred for both high school and college graduates; among women with a college degree, wages grew by just 0.3% over the past year.� �..Between 2000 and 2007, the average American worker�s productivity rose 19.2%, yet more of those gains are going to top managers. Adjusted for inflation, average wages have grown just 0.7% per year since June 2000. In 1979, the ratio between the average CEO�s pay and the typical workers pay was 27 to 1. By 2007, it had widened to 275 to 1. Continued at �. http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/workers_have_less_to_celebrate_this_labor_day/

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New G20 capital rules could fuel further bank bailouts, By Michelle McGagh , 07 September 2009, Banks could receive further taxpayer bailouts after ministers at the G20 insisted that banks must raise more capital to shore up their balance sheets. G20 insiders told The Sunday Telegraph that only the highest quality of capital, such as shareholder equity, will be counted on the balance sheet, which implies that further bailouts of European banks would be needed.�� Continued at �. http://www.citywire.co.uk/Adviser/-/news/other/content.aspx?ID=356239

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The CEO Pay Debate: Why Reform is Going Nowhere, September 4, 2009 � By Chuck Collins and Sam Pizzigati , Would you let shareholders regulate their CEOs' reckless behavior? Continued at �. http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/the_ceo_pay_debate_why_reform_is_going_nowhere

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FreedomWorks Taxpayer March on Washington Scheduled for September 12, 2009, Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS101223+07-Sep-2009+BW20090907

For News from the Tea Party: Click here

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From Carl Vassar of Trumbull:

CEO pay should only be a concern of taxpayers when they have (illegitimately) gained from corporate welfare and/or favorable regulation. In those cases, what should be criticized is the welfare or the regulation, not the pay. In a free market, rewards will be unequal. If someone makes tons of money ON HIS OWN MERITS, that's great. We needn't care because it doesn't come out of our pockets. The focus should be on state worker (or government-protected union) pay, those who earn above-market sums for not doing anything productive, or, often, for being counterproductive.� The Illinois Taxpayers group has done a good job publishing the pension payouts to the top predators in their state. It's quite an eye-opener. See page 2:�� http://www.ntui.org/NTUI/stop_income_tax_top_100.pdf��

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Get Ready for 'Son' of Stimulus Plan� Huffington Post, Sept 4, 2009:� So, where are the jobs? Even as the fog seems to be lifting over housing, manufacturing and the financial sector, the unemployment rate continues to float ever higher.

Despite the largest economic bailout in America history, the jobless rate soared to 9.7 percent in August. All told, nearly 7 million jobs have been lost since December 2007. Wasn't that $787 billion stimulus package supposed to make this awful number go down? The stimulus plan is like trying to weld a plate onto the hull gash in the Titanic after it hit an iceberg. Once you set aside the money spent on economic triage - more than a half a trillion dollars - you have a long-term investment in social and physical capital. As I discovered in researching my new book The Audacity of Help: Obama's Economic Plan and the Remaking of the America (www.audacityofhelp.net), much of the legislation was a combination economic band-aid and long-term therapy.�� While it may not be reflected in the unemployment numbers, there is visible progress from the stimulus spending. About $60 billion of the $288 billion in promised tax cuts has flowed into the pockets of most middle- and lower-class Americans. Another $84 billion of a nearly half-trillion dollars in capital improvements spending has been doled out. Roads are being repaved, bridges are being rebuilt and thousands of public works projects are underway, resulting in about 2 million jobs, reports IHS Global Insight, a consulting firm.� Continued at �. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-f-wasik/get-ready-for-son-of-stim_b_277416.html

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