If you wish to receive the Federation’s email alerts, write
to fctopresident@aol.com
CONNECTICUT’S BUDGET DEFICITS
JUST GOT BIGGER
$$$$$$$$$$$$
April
30, 2016
From
Susan Kniep, President
The
Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone:
860-841-8032
BREAKING NEWS
A few minute before midnight, Christine Stuart
of CTNewsJunkie.com reported
Malloy To Reporters: Budget
Negotiations Are Hitting A Wall
The following is an excerpt. Democratic legislative leaders
just came up with a budget proposal on Thursday that addressed a $920 million
budget deficit. That deficit grew an additional $40 million on Friday after
revenue figures were released following April tax collections. Malloy said his
team agreed to stay at the negotiating table until noon Saturday to reach a
settlement but it’s clear for me that thats
not going to happen. He said Democratic legislative leaders are treating this
like a revenue issue when it’s “a revenue issue and a spending issue.
At 8:10 PM, Christine Stuart had reported that
Revenues
Fall Short Leaving 2016 and 2017 Budgets In The Red
Noting that - April tax revenues did not come in as
anticipated Friday, which means this year’s deficit will grow to about $256
million and the 2017 budget is $960 million in the red.
Office of
Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes said most of the revenue
shortfall the state is experiencing is related to declining
income tax collections. Read more at Revenues Fall Short Leaving 2016 and 2017
Budgets In The Red
CONNECTICUT
STATE LEGISLATORS
WILL GET THEIR REPORT CARDS ON
ELECTION DAY - NOVEMBER 8, 2016
Will Your Legislator, Pass or Fail!!!!
*******************
Lets
take a look at what has transpired on the Hill in Hartford within the past few days.
STUDENT AID FOR
UNDOCUMENTED ILLEGAL RESIDENTS
The recent vote by State Senate Democrats will have a
chilling impact on some legally registered Connecticut students who will be denied
access to the taxpayer funded $40 million dollar financial aid pool. Their
denial will be usurped by undocumented immigrants who will now be allowed
access to the pool.
Act SB-147 entitled AN ACT ASSISTING STUDENTS WITHOUT LEGAL
IMMIGRATION STATUS WITH THE COST OF COLLEGE was assessed by the Office of
Fiscal Analysis which wrote the following The bill results in no fiscal impact
to the constituent units of higher education as it does not alter the total
amount provided for institutional aid. The bill does result in a potential
redistribution of such aid to recipients. Their opinion can be accessed at analysts report.
It is interesting to note that Republican Senator Art
Linares from Westbrook, CT’s Senates only Hispanic would have voted no on aid to
undocumented students as reported by
CTMirror.org opening the financial aid pool would crowd out legal
residents. Linares further stated I am very concerned about our current
financial situation, when addressing the near $1 billion state deficit in the
upcoming fiscal year. We have to solve those problems first before we take on
additional burdens that would create additional stress on other residents.
*******************
STATE RUN RETIREMENT PLAN FOR PRIVATE
SECTOR
In Oct,
2015, the Wall Street Journal wrote WSJ: Wealthy Connecticut's Pension Problem
Is a 'Ticking ...Time Bomb noting
the following Connecticut has roughly half of what it needs to pay future
retirement benefits for its workers, with one lawmaker calling the situation a
ticking time bomb.
Yet, the States failure to manage the State employee pension
plan has not deterred our State legislators as Connecticut House Sends Bill to Senate
Setting Up a State-Run Retirement Plan for Private-Sector Workers (Christine Stuart / CT News Junkie)
*******************
PROPOSED MINIMUM WAGE
INCREASE
On April 28, 2016, Democrat Senate President Pro Tem Martin
Looney proposed increasing the states hourly minimum wage to $12 by Jan. 1,
2020 which was denounced by Senate Republicans as described within CTMirror.org
article captioned Connecticut Senate debates, for a while, a $12 minimum wage.
Here is what
others are saying on this issue
Former CEO of McDonalds: $15 Minimum
Wage Will Cost Jobs
Jon Miltimore is
the Senior Editor of Intellectual Takeout, Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. | April 25, 2016
Ed Rensi, the former president of McDonalds USA, wrote
an article that appeared in Forbes in which
he argued that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour could cost about a
million jobs in limited service restaurants.
Rensi, who
worked at McDonalds for three decades before he became Chief Executive Officer,
made three key points: 1) A $15 minimum wage would eat up 75 percent of the
profit for a typical McDonalds franchise owner; 2) Franchise owners would be
compelled to shift to automated kiosks to protect their bottom line; 3) the job
losses would primarily impact young workers.
UC Berkeley
last week offered a real-life case study on this very topic. Continue reading at http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/former-ceo-mcdonalds-15-minimum-wage-will-cost-jobs
And in an Editorial by Investors
Business Daily
UC Berkeley Touts $15 Wage Law, Then Fires Hundreds ...
Of Workers After It Passes
Labor Markets: Hundreds of employees at the University of California
at Berkeley are
getting schooled in basic economics, as the $15 minimum wage just cost them
their jobs. Too bad liberal elites fighting for $15 don’t get it.
A week after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the states
$15 minimum wage boost into law, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees
announcing that 500 jobs were getting cut.
Coincidence? Not really. Continue reading at http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/uc-berkeley-touts-15-minimum-wage-then-fires-hundreds-of-workers-after-it-passes/
*******************
In February, 2016, the Yankee Institute lent insight into
the problems which had beset the Connecticuts
Department of Motor Vehicles through their article captioned Promoted Former Commissioners Avoid Blame for DMV ...
Debacle
This has been a tumultuous year for Connecticut taxpayers.Governor Malloy and our State Legislature have
been on a spending spree with taxpayer dollars yet it appears that only now
they have come to the realization that the state is broke. Worse than that the
States high debt and deficits have rating agencies questioning the financial stability
of our state as Most Wall Street agencies have 'negative outlook' on CT ...
as noted by CTMirror.org.
In an article captioned The 10 Worst Sinkhole States in America | Wolf Street
written in March, 2015 it is noted that
The taxpayer
burdens in Connecticut and Illinois weigh over twice as much on each of their
respective taxpayers as the burden in California.