From: The Federation of
Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
March 9, 2011
JOIN THE
FEDERATION ON SATURDAY, MARCH 19
From 8:30 AM to 12 Noon at The
Chatfield in West Hartford, CT
The Federation
of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations
Will be
Discussing How to Cut Spending and Reduce Taxes
The Public is Invited – Space is Limited
Please RSVP to fctopresident@aol.com
or call 860-841-8032
By Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Continental Breakfast Donation
**********************
ACTION ALERT – PLS ATTEND
**
IMPORTANT**
Labor & Public Employees
Committee Public Hearing
Thursday,
March 10, 2011 @ 4:00 PM
Room 1B, Legislative Office
Bldg, Hartford, CT
More Below
********
Breaking News:Poll Shows voters Oppose Malloy's Tax Increases; Approval
Rating Only 35% http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-q-poll-malloy-0310-20110309,0,6463788.story Hartford Courant Updated: 5:18 p.m.
Waterbury keeps it simple: Cut spending and don't raise taxes
http://ctmirror.org/story/11791/waterbury-keeps-it-simple-cut-spending-and-dont-raise-taxes
Fairfield County is biggest winner under Malloy town aid plan http://www.ctmirror.org/story/11779/fairfield-county-biggest-winner-under-governors-town-aid-plan
**********************
ACTION ALERT – PLS ATTEND
**
IMPORTANT**
Labor & Public Employees
Committee Public Hearing
Thursday,
March 10, 2011 @ 4:00 PM
Room 1B, Legislative Office
Bldg, Hartford, CT
The Labor
& Public Employees Committee will hold a public hearing on Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 4:00pm
on Binding Arbitration & Prevailing Wage Reform Proposals -- specifically:
- SB 990 - would adjust the thresholds that
trigger the prevailing wage mandate, from $100k to $200k, for renovations,
and, from $400k to $800k, for new construction.
- SB 989 - would (1) exempt fund
balances as a criteria for determining municipalities' financial
capability to afford awards, and (2)
limit the review of a rejected arbitration award by a municipality to a
single arbitrator.
- HB 6409 - would require all individuals
selected to serve as neutral arbitrators in municipal arbitrations be
members of the American Arbitration Association.
**********************
The Trouble with Public
Sector Unions DANIEL DISALVO
http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-trouble-with-public-sector-unions
Kansas Bill Seeks to Outsource Government Jobs A bill in Kansas establishes a
commission to study ways to outsource government jobs to private sector jobs or
to non-profit organizations. The bill passed, the
house. If it passes the senate, governor Sam Brownback
will likely sign it. http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
Quinnipiac: Voters disapprove
of Malloy and his budget By Mark Pazniokas on March 9, 2011 CTMirror.org
Connecticut voters have a dim view of Gov. Dannel
P. Malloy's first two months in office, disapproving of his overall performance
and his proposal to raise taxes by $1.5 billion to help erase an inherited
deficit, according to a poll released today. Continued at ….
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/11792/quinnipiac-voters-disapprove-malloy-and-his-budget
Inflation a tax we should all
be worried about TriCities.com March 8, 2011 I believe we will soon experience
the biggest tax increase since the 1940’s and it could greatly cripple the
economy. This new tax will further impoverish the poor more than any other
class, yet they will be promised no added tax burden. This tax will even affect
those who have no income. What is this new tax? Inflation. Many trillions of
bailout and stimulus dollars have been created out of thin air by the privately
run Federal Reserve
cartel, and this new currency has dramatically increased the money supply now
held in bank reserves.
Additionally, more than a trillion dollars have
been created and sent to foreign banks to bail them out, further lowering the
buying power of existing dollars. In other words, you and I have paid for
the bailouts of foreign banks and will pay when this inflation storm eventually
hits stateside. Supply and demand rules the economy and we won’t escape it.
When the supply of dollars increases, the value of existing dollars inevitably
drops, though the process might take time. The federal government
is spending $1.5 trillion more than
it takes in. In order to fund this stupendously, irresponsible spending, the Federal Reserve
is printing money to buy government bonds (debt), digging us even deeper.
http://www2.tricities.com/news/2011/mar/09/inflation-tax-we-should-all-be-worried-about-ar-892412/
Campaign targets Conn.'s teacher layoff policy March 08, 2011
By Abbe Smith, Register Staff asmith@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN — With teacher layoffs looming, some in the state are arguing against
the traditional “last in, first out” approach to letting educators go. School
reform nonprofit Connecticut
Coalition for Achievement Now has launched a campaign seeking to change the
seniority-based layoff strategy for teachers, an approach it says ignores the
important question of teacher effectiveness. ConnCAN is asking people to call
their legislators and ask for a state bill that empowers school districts to
make layoffs based on factors such as student performance, peer reviews and
classroom observations. Read complete article at …… http://www.newhavenregister.com/articles/2011/03/08/news/aa3neteacherlayoff030711.txt
THE
WALL ST PIT http://wallstreetpit.com/65415-politics-matters
Obama Considers Tapping Oil Reserve
Legislators considering
pushing back education reforms By Jacqueline Rabe on March 7, 2011 The extensive education reforms
passed last year in hopes of winning a federal Race to the Top grant may be
delayed because the state didn't win the grant and doesn't have the money
itself to implement them. Continued at …. http://www.ctmirror.org/story/11771/legislators-considering-pushing-back-education-reforms
Malloy tax plan sparks,
fears, complaints and threats By Keith M. Phaneuf on March 7, 2011 Departure was the theme of the day
as legislators heard testimony on Gov. Dannel P.
Malloy's new tax plan: dire predictions of the customers, airplanes, boats,
businesses, residents and jobs that would flee the state to avoid the plans
myriad proposed tax increases. Continued at …. http://www.ctmirror.org/story/11767/malloy-tax-plan-sparks-fears-complaints-and-threats
Roubini Firm Sees Rising Muni Bond Defaults: Report
March 2, 2011
By: CNBC.com There could be about $100
billion of defaults in municipal bonds over the next five years, a report by Roubini Global Economics,
the company founded by famous economist Nouriel Roubini, showed, according to the Wall Street Journal. http://www.cnbc.com/id/41864279
In Praise of Extreme Public Union Lunacy in San Jose Hardly a week goes by in which I do not see examples of
extreme public union idiocy. Nonetheless, it is rare to see an entirely new
concept prop up. Here's a new one. Pete Constant, a San Jose Councilman wants
to answer his own phone. However, union rules dictate that he have a $70,000
assistant he does not even want. What's even more ridiculous is the union has
sent this matter to the courts to resolve. http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/03/in-praise-of-extreme-public-union.html
In
Search Of The Internet Kill Switch Jon Orlin
3/7/2011 The complete Internet shutdown this week in Libya involved a new way to
turn off web access for an entire country. Earlier this year, the total Internet blockade in Egypt backfired and emboldened the
protesters. China is well known for blocking Internet services, but
it’s not just China. Of course, having the government
turn off the Internet could never happen in the United States. We couldn’t condemn
the action in other countries while at the same time plan it here. No one would
even suggest such a thing, right?
Wrong. The topic came up last June when Senators Joseph
Lieberman, Susan Collins and Thomas Carper introduced the controversial
“Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010″. [PDF] One vague provision in the bill gave the
president the power to “authorize emergency measures to protect the nation’s
most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is
about to be exploited.” It became known as the Internet “kill switch” bill even
though the words ‘kill’ and ‘switch’ are not found in the bill.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/06/in-search-of-the-internet-kill-switch/?icid=maing%7Cmain5%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk3%7C48797
Wisconsin Democrats; Meet “Corruption” Posted by lukematthews
(Profile)
Saturday, March 5th at 9:39AM EST There
is an object lesson in most every tale. You can make the lesson a benign
one, a false one, or actually dig deep to discover the truth. The real
story in the debacle in Wisconsin’s
public union mess is one that everyone knows, everyone accepts, and few are
willing to tell. The Democratic Party in Wisconsin is thoroughly and completely
corrupted by public labor unions. There is no nice or polite way to say
this. The Wisconsin Democratic Party has
been completely subsumed by the radical interest groups that support it and
anyone who wants honest, fair governance must stand back and shake their heads
in disgust. Until the hold of these groups is weakened, you will not have
a voice within that group without paying the
piper. Complete article at ….. http://www.redstate.com/lukematthews/2011/03/05/wisconsin-democrats-meet-corruption/
"A Healthy Financial System Cannot
Be Built on the Expectation of Bailouts" Simon
Johnson MIT Professor and
co-author of 13
Bankers
Posted: March 5, 2011 Testimony submitted to the Congressional
Oversight Panel, "Hearing on the TARP's
Impact on Financial Stability," I.
Summary
1) The financial crisis is not over, in the sense that its
impact persists and even continues to spread. Employment remains more than 5
percent below its pre-crisis peak, millions of homeowners are still underwater
on their mortgages, and the negative fiscal consequences - at national, state,
and local level - remain profound.
2) To the extent that a full evaluation is possible today,
the financial crisis produced a pattern of rapid economic decline and slow
employment recovery quite unlike any post-war recession - it looks much more
like a mini-depression of the kind the US economy used to experience in the
19th century. In addition, the fiscal costs of the disaster in our banking
system so far amount to roughly a 40 percentage point increase in net federal
government debt held by the private sector, i.e., roughly a doubling of
outstanding debt. 3) In this context,
TARP played a significant role preventing the mini-depression from becoming a
full-blown Great Depression, primarily by providing capital to financial
institutions that were close to insolvency or otherwise under market pressure. 4)
But part of the cost is to distort further incentives at the heart of Wall
Street. Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General
for the Troubled Assets Relief Program put it well in his latest quarterly report, which
appeared in late January, emphasizing: "perhaps TARP's
most significant legacy, the moral hazard and potentially disastrous
consequences associated with the continued existence of financial institutions
that are 'too big to fail.'" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-johnson/a-healthy-financial-syste_b_831844.html
For those who love our four
legged friends who add so much to our lives….
The Four-Legged Housing Crisis The down
economy is taking its toll on area rescue groups and shelters, as the need for
animal adoptions rises. http://darien.patch.com/articles/the-four-legged-housing-crisis?ncid=M255