From: Susan Kniep, President
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website: http://ctact.org/
email: fctopresident@ctact.org
860-524-6501
February 25, 2005
Connecticut
Municipal Profiles by CPEC
Compare your town to others in this valuable
report. Click below…
http://www.town.avon.ct.us/Public_Documents/AvonCT_WebDocs/Municipal%20Profiles.pdf
WELCOME TO THE 45th EDITION OF
TAX TALK
Review
Previous Tax Talk Issues on our Website at http://ctact.org/
OUR
HOME IS OUR CASTLE! YET OTHERS SEEK TO
DESTROY IT!
HISTORY IS BEING MADE WITH THE ANTICIPATED
SUPREME COURT RULING WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY IMPACT EMINENT DOMAIN ISSUES
THROUGHOUT THIS COUNTRY. IF YOU HAVE
EVER BEEN IN FEAR OF THE GOVERNMENT TAKING YOUR HOME – READ THIS! IF YOU HAVE NOT, READ IT – THE GOVERNMENT
COULD BE ON YOUR DOORSTEP TOMORROW! THE
FOLLOWING IS PROVIDED BY BOB YOUNG OF WETHERSFIELD….
Bob Young, ryoung0@snet.net
Wethersfield Taxpayers
Association
Subject: Three of the
many letters received on the Eminent Domain Issue
Susette wrote me this letter and I wanted to share
it with you. A heartfelt letter. My reply
to her is below her letter. Angela
In a message dated 2/24/2005 6:07:37 AM Pacific
Standard Time, susettekelo@netzero.com writes:
Even after being there, and listening to it all, some of
them appeared to be on our side, some appeared to be on the other side, but I
don't feel very confident that we will prevail, The reporter from the Christian
Science Monitor said that when they write the descion
it will be written in such away that it will benefit us, but how is anybody
guess. The transcripts will be available in 2 weeks so you can downlaod them and read them and then let me know your take
on what they are thinking. This whole thing is truley
pathetic I beleive they actually think that by
standing in the court that we are supposed to be pacified by that, I just
want to keep my house Susette
Susette.....my heart really grieved
when I read this. It seems to be such a long journey of never being able
to wake up from such a very bad dark dream. We are held in the
bondage of not knowing what is real or not real in the society of freedom and
liberty as we know it, as we have been taught and programmed to believe. I don't feel that such a decision like this
should be left up to these justices who most likely, I am sure, have never had
the travesty of having their home "taken" from them simply
because someone wants to benefit someone else more. How can they base a decision on something that has "yet"
to happen to them nor can they even begin to conceive. It should be noted
that every time someone says: my home was "taken from me to give to
another" what they really are saying is that "everything
was taken from me" In the interim of them violating your property
rights, they are violating your personal rights as well, as rights are all
intertwined with each other.
We all share a dream, a
dream that will never die, that someday everyone will hold their heads up high
and be given what should never be denied...our Liberty.
Together we will be
forever, proud and free. Angela PS...yes
please send me the transcripts. I would like to study it. Thank you
for writing to me.
Letter by Leigh
Standish of Wethersfield
To the Honorable United States Supreme Court Justices
The Supreme Court of The United States of America
One First Street, Northeast, Washington, D.C. 20543
When my antecedents forced Jared Ingersoll, the
King's Stamp Act
Collector, to resign his commission as such, the townspeople of
Wethersfield surrounded him on the Commons with the cry: "Liberty and
property!". We fought a revolution over the right to hold private
property without continued dispensation from the Monarch. Property
rights are so intertwined with every form of liberty described in our
founding documents, that eminent domain should only be exercised as the
exceptional need rather than the convenient option. When commoners, the little people, no longer
have a stake in the protections afforded by the State, they no longer have a
stake in the State itself. Should property rights only accrue to the more
successful, such will follow. Let not history repeat itself through
this abuse of power. We chose to form a more perfect union.
Letter from Liz Moser Outreach Coordinator Institute for
Justice
emoser@ij.org Website:
http://www.ij.org/
Friends,
Since many of you have called and emailed, inquiring on how the Kelo hearing went today - below are a few resources that
offer a good "snapshot" view and summary of the arguments and events
today. Also included is a must-see video and news story from Minnesota, just one of
hundreds of moving stories around the country this week on vigils/rallies and
local property rights battles.
Visit http://www.ij.org/private_property/connecticut/nl-argument_photo.html for
a few photos from the hearing, and check back often to IJ's
web site and http://www.castlecoalition.org/ for
more photos, the latest on IJ's property rights
cases, and information on property rights efforts in your state.
A few news articles/radio spots on the hearing that give a
good summary of the arguments presented:
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45249-2005Feb22.html
NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4508927
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/02/22/scotus.eminent.domain/
ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=522629
KARE 11 (Minn.) - Great video: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=75825.
Thanks to all for helping us make
this week possible!
Cheers,Liz Moser Outreach
Coordinator Institute for Justice
emoser@ij.org
http://www.ij.org/ Website will take you
to Ohio Supreme Court
Decision
Other Interesting Articles on the Eminent
Domain Issue follow: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-edpeople0220.artfeb20,0,6670987.story?coll=hc-big-headlines-breaking
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-eminentdomain.artfeb20,0,7443845.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
http://www.courant.com/news/local/nb/hc-bridev0217.artfeb17,0,7595393.story
************
Donna McCalla, ctjodi@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Education
Budget Analysis FY 2005-2006
Feb 20, 2005
See Attached 2006 Education Budget
Hi, all. Attached is
the first version of the Education Budget Analysis for FY 2005-06. With data from almost 50% of the school
districts, the trends can now be more accurately analyzed. No regression has been done on the data; it
is early, although past history has shown that regression rarely changes the
averages more than plus/minus .5%.
The data consists of:
Superintendent’s Proposed Budget Increase; Board of Education Approved
Increase; Increase Limit Proposed by a town’s funding authority; and Grand List
Growth. The trends are almost identical
to last year’s, with the exception of Grand List Growth.
Grand List Growth, on average, is significantly higher than
last year. This year, the average grand
list growth of towns reporting is 2.17%, although this could be skewed by two
communities (Canton, at 8.98%, and Oxford at 7.6%.) Without these
two figures, Grand List Growth average in Connecticut is still at
1.98%. Last year, Grand List Growth
averaged 1.23%.
Last year, the average increase proposed by Superintendents
was 7.67%; this year, the average is currently at 7.74%. Additionally, last year the average increase
approved by Boards of Education was 6.79%; this year’s average is currently at
6.98%. Finally, some municipal funding
authorities give guidance on acceptable education increases. The average “cap” last year was 4.17%; this
year, the average “cap” is 4.05%.
As a final note, the data has shown that Boards of Education
who request a budget increase plus/minus 1.0% of the statewide average
generally do not face multiple referendums.
There are exceptions, and those exceptions are almost always budget
defeats until the percentage increase is far less than the statewide
average. In those exceptional
communities, there are a variety of overriding concerns and considerations that
have nothing to do with supporting or not supporting education increases.
With Winter Break this week, I don’t expect a significant
amount of new data to come in. However, for
those communities who delayed reporting Grand List growth until the end of
February, and with many charters requiring an approved Board of Education
budget by March 1, I expect much data to come in the week of February 28. I do not expect the averages shown in the
attached spreadsheet to vary significantly following that new data entry,
although these days in Connecticut, one never
knows… Thanks, Donna
PLEASE
OPEN THE ATTACHED WHICH IS IN EXCEL.
************
Marvin Edelman, frogpond01@earthlink.net
Windham-Willimantic Taxpayers Association
Subject: How Medical
Boards Nationalized Health Care
Dear Sue: Have you logged onto the Mises
website http://www.mises.org/
yet? Some of the articles are worth forwarding to our
membership. The following is one….How Medical Boards
Nationalized Health Care,By Henry E.
Jones, February 24, 2005… The negative impact
of high healthcare costs on the national economy may not be fully recognized.
At over $1.4 trillion a year, healthcare costs represent 15%—approximately a
seventh—of our total gross domestic product. Our annual cost per capita,
$4,662.00, is nearly double that of health care in other countries. This
excessive and constantly increasing cost prevents many businesses from hiring
as many workers as they otherwise might.
Refer to the following website for a
continuation of this article….
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1749
************
Jack
Morris, morrisjd1@earthlink.net
Subject: At-Will Employees Versus Government
Union Employees Susan, well put. But what will most likely happen, as it
already is, is that people will vote with their feet. Everyone who I know is retiring has left or
is planning to leave the state. At some
point there won’t be enough revenue coming from business and the residents to
feed the cancer festering on the Connecticut Legislature and state
and municipal governments. Jack
************
Marvin Edelman, frogpond01@earthlink.net
Willimantic Taxpayers Association
Subject: The Innocent Are Dead or
Bankrupt
Dear Sue: I don't know if you subscribe to the Mises Foundation but here is an article for your
consideration. How did your presentation
to the legislative committee go? Marvin
The Innocent Are Dead or Bankrupt, By Ted Roberts
[Posted February 18, 2005]
The concept of
taxation well deserves its partnership with death. Death and taxes, you know. Two vultures. Both, to say the least,
deadly. Continued at the
following website: http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1745
************
From: Theresa McGrath
Executive Director,
Family Alliance for Children in Education
FACE0203@Comcast.net
860-570-1203
Email: face0203@comcast.net
Attention: Parents Raising Children
with Special Needs March 1 Jeane Milstein
Presentation
Connecticut Child Advocate
Jeanne Milstein will speak in Stamford on
Tuesday, March 1 from 10:00 a.m. -noon at the Harry Bennett
Branch,
Ferguson Library, 115 Vine Road. Jeanne will be sharing tools for success
in contacting legislators
and be available to answer personal questions related to child-
specific issues about advocacy. To
register, or for more info, contact Caroline Smit,
203-321-1949 or
via email at csmit@optonline.net. This event is sponsored by the CT
Family Support Network. Please help
spread the word about this event!
************
Provided
by: newmilfordcitizen@earthlink.net
Re: Ethics Commission head steps down
By John Pirro 2/16/2005
THE NEWS-TIMES,
NEW MILFORD — The head of the
Ethics Commission has resigned, questioning whether town officials are willing
to do what's needed to
conclude one of the board's longest-running cases. Wallie Jahn submitted a letter of resignation earlier this month,
after waiting in vain since October for the town to hire an attorney to conduct
a public hearing into allegations that finance board member John Spatola improperly benefited from a vote he cast in
2002. Article continued at the
following website: http://news.newstimes.com/story.php?id=69087
************
Jack Field, jfield150@earthlink.net
Washington CT Town Council
Subject: Binding
Arbitration Resolution
Susan -- A year or so ago, we completed and
I sent to you a Resolution re Reform of Binding Arbitration signed by
the chairs of our regional Bd of Ed chair, the First
Selectmen and
Chairs of Bds of Fin of each of the three towns in
the region. We sent this resolution to our legislative reps -- Maybe the initiative of Mike Guarco
et al with pry open the door. The need we saw 2 years ago when we worked
on the Resolution grows every year. One positive development is that the
school Boards and Admins are now saying the same
thing we are.Hope to meet you some day.Jack
************
Tom Durso, TDurso8217
Watertown Taxpayers
Association
Editorial appeared in Waterbury Republican Newspaper
Connecticut's
Spending Binge: Look West Governor Rell
Connecticut's latest budget mess, not unlike similar
botches in New York City
and during the Carter presidency, once again demonstrates how
professional politicians will put off the inevitable until we taxpayers are up
against the wall. A rubber ball doesn't bounce back until it hits
bottom. In 1965 when former New York Mayor John V. Lindsay was elected on a
liberal-Republican line, he immediately began a series of cave-ins to the
City's unions and welfare lobbies which set the pace for New York's ongoing
fiscal mess. Lindsay's eight year
administration was an unrelenting disaster for New Yorkers
where services declined, private sector jobs and the middle
class fled. The City's filth level soared. It's notable that the Great Society was also launched in
1965, a point from which socio-economic indicators trace the
decline of many post-industrial cities such as Waterbury. New York City arguably hit
bottom in 1975 when it couldn't pay bondholders and banks slammed the credit
windows shut. New York Governor Hugh Carey and Mayor Abe Beame convinced the City's unions to help out by
buying its bonds. World class financier Felix Rohayton
was put in charge of the Municipal Assistance Corporation while the
state's Emergency Financial Control Board (read:oversight)
guaranteed these "Big Mac" bonds. New York averted
default but when Ed Koch won the Mayor's seat in 1977, he continued to struggle
with the City's culture of dependency and decline . In
1980, Koch stood down the transit unions and personally helped commuters
cross the Brooklyn Bridge. Today, New York City continues to
operate on the fiscal edge with high taxes ,
strangling regulations and a crumbling infrastructure. Mayor Bloomberg's plan
is more taxes and regulations. 1975 may have been a false bottom for Gotham. Jimmy
Carter took office in 1977 beating incumbent Gerald Ford by a slim margin. The
economy was rebounding from the Yom Kippur war "oil shocks";
inflation was dropping to about 4%; and the nation was recovering from
recession. Carter's incompetence surfaced almost immediately
. Abetted by a liberal-Democratic Congress, his
administration launched expensive make-work programs such as the
Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) which accomplished little
except to crowd-out productive private investment which would have created
millions of real jobs. Further, when we were hit with another oil embargo
Carter's malleable Federal Reserve Chairman G. William Miller cranked up the printing presses to "pay" for the higher
priced oil. Recall Carter's sweaters, lowered thermostats and
gas rationing coupons. The result of course was record-breaking
13% inflation and a 21% prime interest rate. Carter's one-two fiscal and
monetary whack at our economy, coupled with his under-funding of the
military combined to deliver the nation into a deep recessionary
"malaise". The cleanup man of course was Ronald Reagan who with
Paul Volcker guiding the central bank proceeded to cut taxes and solidify the value
of the dollar bringing inflation and interest rates back to
earth. The Gipper promptly
deregulated oil which pumped up supplies while slashing
prices. The 1980's became a boom decade whose effects continue into the
present. Many thought Connecticut hit bottom in
1991 when Governor Lowell Weicker and a trembling legislature enacted
the state income tax to ward off fiscal calamity. Intoxicating spending during
the prosperous 1980's had set the stage up
for a collision with economic reality . During the 1990's Connecticut muddled
through but continued to lag behind the growth of the south and western
states. Taxpayers thought they had a savior in John Rowland who won the
governor's seat in 1994. He ran on a platform of low taxes; in fact, his
campaign plan was to repeal the income tax. On the contrary, state spending and
regulations grew; businesses and jobs continued
to flee along with productive population and one House seat. Today
taxpayers face a billion dollar hole in spite of some of the highest taxes in
the country. Governor M. Jodi Rell began the
year whispering spending cuts but now, agreeing to tax hikes,
she appears to be infected with a basic flaw of professional
politicians: the need to be liked by the
self-proclaimed, insular experts perched in the
Capitol. Contrast that mind set with that of Reagan and Bush : an unabashed appreciation of the everyday
taxpayers who actually produce the wealth.
George Passantino, Government
Affairs Director of the Los Angeles-based Reason
Foundation, influenced much of the California Performance
Review, a commission requested by Governor Schwartzenegger to
study waste in state government. Mr. Passantino told
me that with California's $ 8 billion budget
shortfall, Schwartzenegger is determined to reign in
state government and reverse the flight of businesses and jobs from the Golden State. The governor
insists that raising taxes by billions would simply drive up spending by
billions. Passantino said that much of
the CPR leg work was performed by a team of 275 seasoned state employees whose
mission was to "root out waste while identifying opportunities to improve
performance." CPR uncovered a dysfunctional, socialistic state
government rife with questionable programs, where agency missions overlap,
state assets go unaccounted, agencies sue each other over turf battles, and the
state's 340 boards and commissions cost taxpayers over
$9 million in salaries for over 3,300 political appointees, not counting
support staff, rent and travel expenses. Passantino notes that each line item has a constituency including the
poverty industry, environmentalists, unions and consumer protection activists
who lobby to defend their claims on the taxpayers' hides. He hopes
that Schwartzenegger's star power will help to
overcome these spenders but it won't be easy. Governor Rell's
80% popularity rating may help Connecticut's earners only
if she takes the limited-government, economic freedom debate to the people
who earn the money, as is California's "Governator" .
Reason's Passantino
concluded our conversation by stressing that public service was never intended
to be primarily a jobs program. He agreed that professional politicians
conjoined with the statist
spending lobbies routinely take local and state government to the
edge before market-based reforms are enacted. Connecticut has been to
the cliff's edge before and each time it returns with less tax base and more
government. Governor Rell's choices are clear: look
west to California and revive the state's productive sector or she
can while away the next two years presiding over the
continued exodus of the state's tax-producing economy . Thomas P. Durso
Watertown CT. Tom Writes on economic/political issues Note: Passantino's tel #
310 391 2245 or 310 292 2382
************
TODAY’S NEWS: A brief summary is offered below. FCTO encourages you to read the entire news
articles at the websites referenced.
Top State Pensioners Get More Than Governor
Hartford Courant by
Christopher Keating, February 25, 2005 - At a time
when Gov. M. Jodi Rell is complaining that some
officials earn more than her commissioners, a recent report shows that nine
retired state employees earn annual pensions that are higher than the
governor's salary of $150,000. Click the following for a continuation of
article http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-pensions0225.artfeb25,0,7827673.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Model in Utah May Be Future
for Medicaid
By Kirk Johnson and Reed Abelson
February 24, 2005, SALT
LAKE CITY - Anyone looking for clues as to how the Bush administration might
overhaul the Medicaid system should come to Utah and read the fine print of
Tony Martinez's health insurance plan. Click the following for a continuation
of article http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/national/24utah.html?ex=1109912400&en=a7be74c091941959&ei=5059&partner=AOL
Nuclear Workers Kept Waiting
Slow
Pace Of Settling Claims For Industrial Exposures
Criticized
February 24, 2005, By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, Courant Staff Writer - Four years
ago, Alfred L. Lavoie learned of a federal program intended to compensate
people seriously ill from exposure to hazardous substances during their work in
the nation's once-secret nuclear weapons industry. Click the following for a
continuation of article
http://www.courant.com/hc-atomworker0222.artfeb24,0,6313258.story
MDC Seeks To Tackle Sewer Woes
One Big Problem, A Multimillion Dollar
Solution
February 22, 2005
By
OSHRAT CARMIEL / Courant Staff Writer …… Hartford's outdated sewer pipes, overburdened
with sewage and rainwater, annually leak about 1 billion gallons of untreated
sewage - equivalent to about 33,000 backyard swimming pools - into local
waterways such as the Connecticut River and Wethersfield Cove. Click
the following for a continuation of article
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hr/hc-sewage0222.artfeb22,0,176024.story
A Budget Reality Check,
By Tad DeHaven &
Veronique de Rugy,
National Taxpayers Union http://www.ntu.org/main/
Feb
18, 2005 - President Bush's FY2006 budget is
being widely derided in the media and across the political landscape. The
newswires are alive with dramatic claims of "deep cuts" and
"scores" of programs being axed. The New York Times has taken umbrage
with what it refers to as "the cruelest cuts." The Washington
Post labeled proposed cuts "draconian" and counseled lawmakers to
"remember the poor." All lament the President's "tax cuts for
the rich" and obsess over the deficit.
Continued at the following website:
Click the following for a continuation of article http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=699&org_name=NTU