Check
out your school and CT Mastery Scores, Welfare can make more sense than work,
Another Business receives Taxpayer Incentives, Pratt Cutting 400 Jobs, State
Can’t Cut Any Jobs, As it Hands Out Raises Under a No Layoff Clause, Supreme Court Overturns Bottle Bill, Trader known as the "London whale"
has reached an agreement with federal authorities to avoid criminal prosecution
over a $6 billion trading loss
August 14, 2013
From: The Federation of
Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep,
President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
Welfare
Can Make More Sense than Work | Cato Institute
By Michael D.
Tanner
This article appeared in The
Hartford Courant on August 13, 2013.
Most decisions in life are the result of a cost-benefit
analysis. When residents in Connecticut
consider getting a job, they assume they would be better off having a job than
not. They’d be wrong. Because in Connecticut, it pays not to work.
Next Monday, the Cato Institute will release a new study
looking at the state-by-state value of welfare. Nationwide, our study found
that the value of benefits for a typical recipient family ranged from a high of
$49,175 in Hawaii to a low of $16,984 in Mississippi.
In Connecticut, a mother with two children participating in
seven major welfare programs (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families,
Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, housing assistance, utility assistance and free
commodities) could receive a package of benefits worth $38,761, the fourth
highest in the nation. Only Hawaii, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia provided more generous
benefits.
Continue reading this article at http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/welfare-can-make-more-sense-work
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Connecticut
Mastery Test scores drop from last year
By Rachel Chinapen rchinapen@nhregister.com / Twitter: @rachelchinapen
Updated: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 12:08 AM EDT New Haven
Register
Click on See full report.
And search for your school!
Connecticut Mastery Test scores showed a decrease in 2013
and the state Department of Education Tuesday said in a release that the
transition to Common Core standards in many districts is a reason for the drop.
“Student performance data on the CMT show decreases in all grades and content
areas as compared to last year,” the state release said. In a conference call Tuesday, state Education
Commissioner Stefan Pryor said that leaders from several districts have
attributed the lower CMT scores to the transitional period to Common Core
Standards. Common Core requires a deeper knowledge of fewer areas, whereas CMT
requires a broader range of knowledge to a lesser degree, Pryor said. Continue
reading at http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2013/08/13/news/doc520a8585a7ef0892007559.txt
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Ironic that Pratt & Whitney cutting 400 jobs,
half from Connecticut while the
State of Connecticut is prohibited from cutting its largest expense due to a no
layoff clause the Governor signed with the unions, which as the Yankee
Institute notes Malloy's no-layoff agreement shrinks
savings at UConn - Raising Hale.
But something else went along with that no layoff
clause! As the Groton Patch noted Connecticut Workers Getting 5-6 Percent
Pay Raises - Statewide ... “As part of a deal Gov. Dannel P. Malloy negotiated in 2011 some 45,000 state
workers will get pay raises of as much as 6 percent. “The salary hikes for
both union and nonunion state employees will cost Connecticut
taxpayers $125 million, according to a report on the Hartford
Courant.”
Keith Phaneuf of CTMirror.org in
April, 2013 wrote in an article captioned Report: State economy headed for crisis
| The CT Mirror that Connecticut's
massive long-term debt, deep pockets of poverty and more than 20 years of
stagnant job growth threaten to sink the state's economy for decades unless
major reforms are enacted, according to a report from a national
fiscal responsibility group and the University of Connecticut's economic
think-tank. His article continues
noting…..
Comeback America Initiative founder David M. Walker and UConn economics Professor Fred V. Carstensen, who outlined their
report at the Hartford Marriott, called for dramatic new reductions on public
worker retirement benefits, deeper investments in transportation, education and
economic marketing, and an enhanced "culture of transparency" that
will drive greater efficiencies in state spending.
Each CT taxpayer owes more than $50,000
Though Connecticut has one of the highest bonded debts, per
capita, of any state in the nation, that represents just a fraction of the
crippling debt taxpayers must answer for the in near future, said Walker, a
Bridgeport resident and former U.S. comptroller general under President
Clinton. He launched his Comeback America campaign for fiscal
responsibility in 2010.
The picture goes from bad to scary, the report says, when
one considers state employee and public school teacher pension funds that have
less than half the resources they need to meet future obligations, as well as a
state retiree health care program for which government has saved almost
nothing..
Connecticut ranked dead last
among states in 2011 when all debt is combined and assessed on a per capita
basis. Each taxpayer effectively owed $50,900 here.
The Federation notes
that all that debt hasn’t stopped Governor Malloy from adding to his
First Five Program which should be renamed the First Fifty as he offers up
another taxpayer funded multi million dollar incentive to the NY Firm, Fifth Street Finance
Corp.
Malloy, the former Mayor of Stamford, recently noted
“Another finance firm will be joining the growing industry in the
Greenwich-Stamford area”. The CEO of
Fifth Street, Leonard Tannenbaum, appears to be no stranger to
Connecticut as noted within the 2012 article
Political heavy hitters assemble at financier's mansion ... which highlighted “An A-list lineup of political power
brokers from every corner of Connecticut assembled at the $10 million
backcountry Greenwich mansion of financier Leonard Tannenbaum for the inaugural fundraiser of his
pro-business, self-proclaimed bipartisan PAC called Keeping America
Competitive”. The article further notes
“Tannenbaum recently formed the PAC group in a bid to
reshape the regulatory landscape that he said is stunting the growth of small
and mid-sized businesses, and to push for education reform in his home state of
Connecticut”. 2012 Contributors to the
Keeping America
Competitive Pac are noted at the following web link …… http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2012&cmte=C00514919
Well, one regulatory policy Governor Malloy may wish to
embrace is to STOP handing out taxpayer dollars to a select few businesses as
noted within Governor Malloy: Governor Malloy's
"First Five" Job Creation Initiative and instead recognize that, in the words of the Hartford
Business Journal, Gov’t incentives no substitute for pro-business climate.
Malloy’s latest deal provides Fifth Street Finance with $5 Million tax
dollars to bring 46 jobs and create another 50. As noted within the Hartford Business
Journal article captioned CT offers $5M for NY firm's Greenwich
relo | HartfordBusiness.com “Connecticut
is pledging $5 million to assist a Westchester County, N.Y., commercial
lender's move of operations and 50 jobs to Greenwich, authorities say. “The state's financing will consist of a
10-year, low-interest, $4 million loan to buy and refit the property, plus a
$500,000 grant for job training and another $500,000 grant to outfit the
building with a renewable-energy power system, such as solar, fuel cell or
wind. “In return, FSC CT Inc. has
committed to adding at least 46 more job in the coming
decade, authorities said. “Fifth Street's
specialty is providing senior secured loans to middle market companies. “Some $3 million of the loan is forgivable
if Fifth Street
delivers on its job-growth and commitments to the state, officials said”. The
article continues at http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Political-heavy-hitters-assemble-at-financier-s-3553050.php
And yes, of course, state bond money is involved as Connecticut’s bonded
debt continues to soar. Page 41 of the
48 page document of the State’s Bond Commission meeting of July 26, 2013
provides further insight into the Loan to First Street Financial and can be accessed at the following web link: http://www.ct.gov/opm/lib/opm/Agenda_Jul26_2013.pdf.
Yankee Institute writes Rumored future Republican candidate
takes state cash - Raising Hale, noting
“Tannenbaum is reportedly interested in running for office,
probably for U.S. Senate as a Republican.
“Recently, opponents have criticized a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Kentucky
for taking state aid for a company he
owns in Connecticut”.
And who can forget the Hartford Courant headlines in 2012
when it was announced that the First Five included another Stamford deal as the
World's Largest Hedge Fund To Get Up To
$115M In State Assistance noting in
the Courants words ….. The world's largest hedge
fund, Bridgewater Associates of Westport, announced an ambitious expansion plan
Wednesday that includes building a new headquarters and nearly doubling its
staff in the next decade, all with generous state help — up to $115 million of
forgivable loans, grants and tax credits……The state's incentive package for
Bridgewater is by far the largest for a First Five company so far, as is
Bridgewater's investment. Christopher P. Bruhl, CEO
of the Business Council of Fairfield County, compared the Bridgewater
coup with Silicon Valley's landing a digital
giant. Bridgewater's founder and chief investment officer, Ray Dalio, is the highest paid hedge fund manager in the world,
pulling in $3.9 billion in 2011. http://articles.courant.com/2012-08-15/business/hc-malloy-first-five-economic-announcement-20120815_1_ray-dalio-bridgewater-associates-new-headquarters
Still waiting for your tax incentive? Or the tax bill to pay for these
incentives!
***********************
Open Secrets is a valuable website
where you can access various PACs, their donors and recipients as millions of
dollars are raised and disbursed. This
might lend some insight into whom your elected officials are beholden to – check
it out at Find a PAC | OpenSecrets! Also, access Influence & Lobbying › PACs .
***********************
US Agrees
Not to Prosecute 'London Whale' Criminal Charges Against Two Others Could
Come as Early as Wednesday Wall Street Journal - by Gregory
Zuckerman, Dan Fitzpatrick, Devlin
Barrett, August 13, 2013, 7:55 p.m. ET
The J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.37% &
Co. trader known as the "London whale" has reached an agreement with
federal authorities to avoid criminal prosecution over a $6 billion trading
loss, but two former colleagues are expected to be charged as soon as
Wednesday, according to people close to the case. Prosecutors are expected to charge Javier
Martin-Artajo, a Spaniard who led the team that made
the disastrous trades, and Julien Grout, a Frenchman
responsible for recording and distributing daily values on the group's
positions. They don't, however, plan to bring charges against Bruno Iksil, who made the wagers that earned him the nickname,
according to a person close to the situation.
The developments mark the first move by prosecutors trying to uncover
who was responsible for the trading fiasco in a London outpost of the bank's chief investment
office, and whether any wrongdoing was involved. The decision not to prosecute
Mr. Iksil suggests the former trader has emerged as
an important witness. Continued at …… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324769704579010902425293672.html
**********************
Lots of
nickels: Supreme Court overturns $5.8 million award in bottle bill case
By Mark Pazniokas Tuesday, August 13, 2013 CTMirror.org
A Connecticut
Supreme Court decision Tuesday overturns a $5.8 million award to a dozen beer
and soda distributors who challenged the state’s ability to retroactively seize
unclaimed bottle deposits in 2009.
The decision settles a controversy that opened in the fall
of 2008, when Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the General
Assembly adopted a deficit mitigation plan whose provisions included an end to
what had been a revenue stream for the distributors. Continue reading at …. https://www.ctmirror.org/story/2013/08/13/lots-nickels-supreme-court-overturns-58-million-award-bottle-bill-case