Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

Join with FCTO TODAY to stop the abuse of our tax dollars being channeled to slush funds for Governor Rell, Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams and House Speaker James A. Amann.�

Call, write, or email Governor Rell and your State Legislators and tell them to end this practice.

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An In-depth Look at Slush Funds�. Read on�..

A Message to Connecticut Taxpayers from FCTO:

FCTO ended 2007 with the following headlines in Ct Newspapers and the Boston Globe:� STATE TAXPAYERS GROUP RAISES QUESTIONS ON DISCRETIONARY SPENDING -� A statewide watchdog group is raising questions about millions of dollars in discretionary funds controlled by Gov. M. Jodi Rell and leaders of the state Senate and House of Representatives.�

Unfortunately, the issue continues with no resolve.

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The following editorial as written by the Waterbury Republican on August 3, 2008 provides further information on this subject.�� Also included below are August, 2008 �editorials by Marvin Edelman, Board Member of FCTO, and Tim White a concerned Connecticut taxpayer.� Also included are the comments of Flo Stahl, another FCTO Board Member, who wrote on this subject in Dec 2007.

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Slush funds unacceptable

Waterbury Republican, August 3, 2008

Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams and House Speaker James A. Amann bristle at the suggestion the "discretionary funds" they give themselves every year are slush funds.

The way Gov. Rell � Connecticut's patron saint of ethics � tells it, these funds, each with $2 million in cash and a $10 million credit line, allow them to "contribute" to worthy causes, as if it's their money to give away. This is called "changing the subject." It's a favorite tactic among leftists because it allows them to frame their immoral and unethical behavior as moral and ethical so they may continue to rob hard-working taxpayers with impunity and still sleep at night.

But the issue is not whether the Anna LoPresti School PTA in Seymour or neighborhood associations in Waterbury are worthy causes. They are.

The issue is whether three of the state's highest-ranked elected officials have the right to confiscate, through their own collusion, $36 million a year from the most overtaxed people in America for the purpose of raising their own poll numbers, buying votes and soliciting campaign donations.

As we said the last time we wrote about this: "No one knows where the governor et al. get the right to operate slush funds; their 'gentlemen's agreement' certainly isn't in the state Constitution." That all the slush-fund spending is vetted through the governor's budget office and that governors and legislative leaders have had slush funds for years � there they go changing the subject again � is immaterial. They have no right to spend the money, and having the budget office sign off on everything doesn't make this illegal spending any less arbitrary or capricious.

What Gov. Rell, Sen. Williams and Speaker Amann fail to understand is that tainted money diminishes the reputations of more than just the slush-fund proprietors. Recipients naturally feel compelled to reciprocate by donating to their benefactor's campaigns, and thus unwittingly are drawn into quid pro quos.

Slush funds create conflicts of interest, as when Speaker Amann gave money to the charity where his wife volunteers and when Gov. Rell threw $300,000 at a school project in her chief of staff's hometown.

And slush funds subvert democracy. Let's say Gov. Rell has a critic whose favorite cause needs a cash infusion. What better way to coerce his silence than to "contribute" other people's money in her name to that cause? That quickly, slush funds dispense hush money.

Without an uprising from taxpayers, early next year, Gov. Rell, Sen. Williams and new Speaker Christopher Donovan will set new limits for their personal slush funds; with the next gubernatorial election on the horizon, they will be inclined to up the ante. If someone objects, they'll change the subject; if their critics persist, they will buy them off or respond arrogantly as Speaker Amann did recently: "It is not a slush fund."

By the end of the fiscal year, they will have bought more support, votes, campaign cash and silence, and Connecticut will be poorer, financially, morally and ethically, for it.

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COMMENTARY BY MARVIN EDELMAN

Windham Center, CT 06280

marvined@sbcglobal.net

5� August 2008

Following� the publication� by Paul Hughes of the Waterbury Republican-American that Governor M. Jodi Rell, House Speaker James Amann, and Senate President Donald Williams had colluded in a wholesale distribution of $6 million of public tax money to special� people and special projects, I assume that all the newspapers in the state have been bombarded with a torrent of letters from an outraged citizenry.

With this unholy pre-Christmas gift-giving, Speaker Amann had the shamelessness to say that this was �not a slush fund.�� Williams topped that audacity to state that the money was vetted through the Governor�s budget office, as if this perfumed out the political odor.� This was certainly a bi-partisan endeavor by the state�s three chief politicians.� That $6 million could have gone a long way to reduce the state�s huge gas tax or to supply senior citizens and other needy people with money to pay� their winter fuel heating bill.�� Had only these three leader been as cooperative in getting the state legislature to use the hundreds of millions of dollars collected in windfall gas taxes as the price escalated, or to reduce the state�s gas tax itself, or to eliminate the state income tax or the state sales tax, or the state property conveyance tax, or to reduce� the state�s $55 billion bonded indebtedness a little.

Taxpayers should not be worried that special interest groups bring undue influence on these three politicians.�� Their generosity in allocating public money to pet persons and projects will no doubt gain them the votes and financial support they seek in the next election.

Among Speaker Amann�s recipients are three religious institutions in Milford, his hometown.� The principle of� �separation of church and state� in the appropriation of public money does not appear to have any relevance for him.�� The taxpayers in Williams� eight towns in northeastern Connecticut, from where he was elected to office, will be pleased to learn that he found it meaningful to make a number of his donations to organizations far from his district.� Governor Rell had no compunction in empowering her chief of staff Lisa Moody to reward particular favorites in her hometown of Vernon from a $300,000 basket full of public money.

People are struggling to survive while our government leaders use hard-earned tax dollars like Monopoly money.

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Recent Comments on this subject by concerned citizen TIM WHITE were recently posted on his website �.� http://timwhitelistens.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-slush-funds-in-hartford.html

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Flo Stahl of Avon in 2007 wrote:�� �Let me understand this - Gov. M. Jodi Rell, House Speaker James Amann and Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams each get $2 million in discretionary funds to play with every year of their term [Connecticut section, Dec. 17, "Group Questions Budget Items"]. They are free to determine who's been naughty or nice, dole out favors and magically turn pork into filet mignon for a few lucky recipients. All this while the state auditors and General Assembly stand idly by. No oversight? No accountability? Come on, Connecticut, not again. Please say it isn't so.� What else will ooze out of that scandal-ridden place on the hill? Amann is gearing up for a possible gubernatorial run. Our governor will undoubtedly seek another term.�� Well, Santa Baby, that's our money you're handing out and you can bet we're making a list and checking it twice. On it are candidates who understand the meaning of ethical behavior. Stop this travesty now.� Florence Stahl flostahl@snet.net