From:
Susan
Kniep, President
The Federation of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website: ctact.org
email: fctopresident@ctact.org
860-524-6501
November 22, 2004
WELCOME TO THE 38th EDITION OF
TAX TALK
Your update on what others are thinking, doing, and planning
Send your comments or questions to me, and
I will include in next week's publication.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
IN MEMORIAM
It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of
Augustine M. “Gus”
Masiello, Co-founder of The
Citizens for Prudent Spending Organization (Woodstock) and Editor of
the community newsletter, Comings & Goings. Please visit the website which Gus initiated and
which is a tribute to the many causes he championed. http://prudentspending.org
FCTO’s NOVEMBER 13TH MEETING WAS A GREAT SUCCESS!
Wow! What a fantastic
meeting we had on November 13 in West Hartford thanks to those
who braved the weather and contributed to an informative and thought provoking
Agenda. A special thank you to Lew
Andrews and Dowd Muska of the Yankee Institute who expounded upon their ideas
to reduce the tax burden in Connecticut. Lew’s message of consolidating four years of
high school into three, wherein students would complete high school in their
junior year with financial rewards, has merit.
Dowd enlightened us as to why Maine’s proposed Proposition
13 failed while providing insight into how other States can succeed through
utilizing a credible and informative marketing campaign. Visit Yankee Institute’s website and read
other interesting reports at http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/public.php.
Peter Arcidiacono of East Hampton expressed his
ideas on reforming Binding Arbitration in the public sector based on private
sector wage increases and benefits (please watch for Peter’s full remarks in
our next Tax Talk publication). Please
visit Peter’s website at http://ehcommonsense.tripod.com
. George
Ruhe of Wethersfield provided great
insight into filing a Writ of Mandamus against municipalities which do not
follow their own documented laws. (refer to FCTO’s Home Page for
further information on the Wethersfield Taxpayers
Association’s Writ of Mandamus action against the Town of Wethersfield). Enough cannot be said about Karen Emerick of
Glastonbury who kept our
undivided attention as she explained how she and a small group of concerned Glastonbury taxpayers
initiated the call for strong ethics laws and what they learned after
dissecting Board of Education expenses through their own systematic
audits. Karen could be a motivational
speaker in helping taxpayers understand why they must become involved in their
government and assume an active role in attempting to control their taxes. Flo Stahl and Richard Pozzo, from Avon and Winsted,
respectively, told us of their successes in their communities in bringing
taxpayer related issues to light.
Congratulations goes to Flo and her taxpayers
association for their exceptional website
www.avontaxpayersassn.org. Richard
provided encouragement in emphasizing that Independent candidates can succeed
when seeking election as they did in Winsted.
Carl Genrich of Avon proposed
providing tax incentives to Seniors to remain in their
homes with the understanding that their homes would undoubtedly be sold to a
young couple with children which in turn would impact costs associated with
education.
Susan Kniep complimented those in attendance
from the East Hartford Taxpayers Association who were instrumental in
incorporating within the EH Town Charter, which was approved on Nov 2, 2004, both Budget by Referendum through
petition and audits on town projects over $500,000.
For those who could not attend due to the weather, we
will look forward to your joining us in the Spring. Also remember you can let others know what
your tax group is doing through TAX TALK.
Email your comments to fctopresident@ctact.org.
TODAY’S NEWS: A brief summary is offered below.
FCTO encourages you to read the entire news articles at
the websites referenced.
527 Fundraising
Nets a Record Haul
Independent
political groups have raised $391 million for the 2004 election
Center for Public Integrity By Derek Willis
WASHINGTON, October
18, 2004 — Political organizations known as "527 committees" have
raised a record $391 million during the 2003-2004 election cycle, according to
a Center for Public Integrity analysis of filings with the Internal Revenue
Service. Continued at this website: http://www.publicintegrity.org/527/report.aspx?aid=403
*******
Report Links
Exposures To Gulf War Syndrome
Hartford Courant By Thomas
D. Williams
HARTFORD COURANT,
November 14, 2004 - The federal government has acknowledged that illnesses
afflicting many veterans during the 1991 Persian Gulf War resulted from
exposure to hazardous substances, but that hasn't helped the ill veterans still
waiting for benefits, family members say.
Continued at this website: http://www.ctnow.com/news/health/hc-gulfillness1114.artnov14,0,5930723.story
*******
Hi, Susan. The FCTO readership might be
interested in this burgeoning eminent domain conflict.
Jay Halpern, zoarmonster@sbcglobal.net
Power Line Threatens Homes
State would take 741 buildings from Milford to Middletown
New Haven Register by
Luther Turmelle, North Bureau Chief
NEW HAVEN
REGISTER, September 29, 2004 - State officials are considering a plan that
could necessitate acquiring "a significant number" of homes along the
69-mile route of a proposed high-voltage power line between Middletown and
Norwalk. Continued at this website: http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13027396&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=8
*******
Marvin Edelman, marvined@earthlink.net
Windham/Willimantic Taxpayers Association
Subject: AN OPEN
QUESTION AND ANSWER FORUM:
The Impact of Schools and Education on Local
Taxation
November 21, 2004
The Forum will be held on Wednesday, Dec 8, at 7 PM at the Windham Center School Library, Route
14. Guest respondent
is Paul Perzanoski, Windham Superintendent of
Schools. For additional
information: (860) 456-9150
*******
From: Theresa McGrath
Executive Director,
Family Alliance for Children in Education
FACE0203@Comcast.net
860-570-1203 Email: face0203@comcast.net
Hello Friends, Below is an article from the NY Times on
the new IDEA Statutes. If anyone has any other information they would be
interested in providing me on these new laws, I will be happy to review them
and pass along to our list of parents and organizations for their review if
necessary. I would be interested in any comments you may have as well.
Take care, Theresa
Parts of Special-Ed Bill Would Shift
More Power to States and School Districts
By
DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, NEW YORK TIMES, Published: November 22, 2004……WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 - In updating the law
governing special education for the nation's 6.5 million disabled students,
Congress has given state and school officials more power to shape the terms for
providing services to disabled children, paring down rights that advocates for
such students had won during the Clinton administration.
Supporters
of the bill said the new law was aimed at reducing costs, red tape and the
adversarial relationship between parents and school districts.
But advocates for disabled children said the bill, which
both houses of Congress passed Friday, would make it harder for dissatisfied parents to sue to obtain services for their
disabled children. For one thing, they will have to submit to mediation or
other meetings to give school officials a last chance to resolve disputes
before the courts may intervene. View Entire News Report at this Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/education/22special.html?oref=login
******
Ray Chicoine, RDChicoine@msn.com
Coventry Taxpayers
Association
Subject: Forming
Taxpayers Association
November 19, 2004
Congratulations to Ray as he begins the formation of a
taxpayers group in Coventry. A special thank you to Marvin Edelman who
serves on FCTO’s Board for attending Ray’s meeting and providing guidance and
insight into the importance of taxpayer associations.
Hi Sue: Just a few words about the meeting this past
Monday We had about 12 people attend the meeting with Marvin Edelman as
guest speaker. Hr gave an excellent talk about the taxpayers association
and the need to reform the binding arbitration laws. I spoke about the need for honesty
in government and the numerous hidden taxes we pay. I showed a
picture of a gas pump sticker that shows a 5% gross receipts tax on the sale of
gasoline. I also spoke about the huge increase in the number of state
employees which puts an enormous strain on the state budget. I spoke
about some of the people in our town on the very edge of surviving. I was able to put together a small number of
temporary officers which will include my self and two other members of the Republican Town
Committee. I plan to go to the town hall Monday and register the
association with the town. I am not
planning another meeting till sometime in March or April. In the meantime
I was able to get volunteers for a by-law committee. So during the winter
months I hope to get the by-laws put together and present it to the association
for a vote. Could you e-mail me on a set
of model by-laws we could work off. I will send you some articles
that may be of interest to you. Thanks
Ray Chicoine
*******
Tom Durso, TDurso8217@aol.com
Oakville / Watertown Taxpayers
Association
Subject: Requiem for
the Connecticut GOP? Not
Necessarily
November 21, 2004
A great editorial by Tom Durso to appear in the Waterbury Republican. Always supportive of FCTO, Tom concludes his comments “The Connecticut
Republican Party may appear comatose but, joining with
the Federation of Connecticut Taxpayers Organizations (http://www.ctact.org/)
and its many local affiliates, the GOP can come roaring back and
Connecticut will rejoin the nation in its march toward individual
freedom and prosperity.”
Requiem for the Connecticut GOP? Not
Necessarily: "Is the
Northeast Necessary?", asked Stephen Moore , director of fiscal policy
studies at the Cato Institute in the December 1997 issue of The American
Spectator. Despite the fact that his piece is seven years old,
its content is relevant when one studies the 2004 electoral
landscape. Moore
wrote: "While the rest of America chooses freedom
and prosperity, from Washington D.C. to Maine we see blight,
depression, and chronic leftism that would do Western Europe proud. The
surprise is that the Republican Party hasn't written off this dying region once
and for all". But is there a need to "write
off " a region (and a Connecticut
GOP) which seems intent on committing economic and
political suicide?
The Republican Party, often
labeled the "Stupid Party", especially Connecticut's
version, needlessly concedes the public policy war of
ideas to liberal Democrats and a few Republican turncoats. But with the GOP's
convincing national victory under its belt, any honest observer must give
credit where it's due-- the national Grand Old Party did it. Despite the
labor unions' millions in forced union dues and in-kind help;
despite the trial lawyers' millions in "pain and suffering" booty;
despite George Soros' bundle in "527"
contributions; despite Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911", and
most of all, despite the effete Brokaw-Rather-Jennings-CNN-Streisand
cultural elite, the nation's level-headed voters returned a determined,
steel-willed George W. Bush to the White House with an empowered majority in
both houses of Congress. So where did the Northeast and especially Connecticut's GOP go
wrong?
Notwithstanding the many signs of
lifelessness, there is a living Republican Party in Connecticut.
Granted, the state senate veered further left on November 2 when the
Democrats picked up three more seats; all but one county went for
Kerry; and encrusted Senator Christopher Dodd scraped out a 40
percent victory over his GOP opponent Jack Orchulli. Furthermore,
local Democrats and Republicans are often interchangeable when it
comes to spending taxpayers' money. But, the GOP did hold three of
the state's five House seats and did elect former
governor John Rowland three times since 1994. Moore explains
" There is a free lunch quality to the sentiments of contemporary
northeastern voters. They gripe about over -taxation but they're quick to
condemn any effort at even modest budget restraint and join with the media,
unions, and poverty industry in invoking visions of the
apocalypse." Conditions are naturally worse now, but in 1997
when Moore wrote his TAS piece,
he cited the fact that "governments in New England are already
nearly one-third more expensive than the rest of America---$3226 versus
$2483 per resident." In the April 8, 2004 Wall Street
Journal, Washington's Tax Foundation calculated that Connecticut
extracts 10.6 percent of taxpayers' earnings, based on income, property
and other state and local tax collections. Our state ranks number
nine, behind first place New York, which gobbles up
12.9 percent its residents' income. In Connecticut, "the
after-tax value of all welfare benefits exceeded a $12-per-hour,
40-hour-a-week job. Labor costs are about 30 percent above the national
average. Of the nation's twenty-two right-to-work states, not one is
northeastern. Other than taxes, this may be the single greatest impediment to
the region's economic competitiveness." Moore concludes, "A
Southern governor told me that his state closed its economic development
offices in Europe. 'Why search for factories overseas when we
can plunder high tax areas like Connecticut?' For the rest of
the United States---competitive,
capitalist, and confident---the Northeast is not so much unnecessary as it is
irrelevant. The region now confronts a clear choice: change or die."
Connecticut's elected RINO's, Republicans in
Name Only, not immune to the forces of self preservation, play to the crowd.
Governor Rell is still somewhat of a mystery as to her views on taxation and
growth and more ominously she lacks any strong record of fighting the
forces of centralization and statism which infect the legislature. The emerging
taxpayers group movement is a direct result of the state Republican Party
abdicating its traditional role as defender of individual liberty and the
marketplace of goods and ideas; plus, it's a losing proposition for
the party to continue to out tax-and-spend the state's Democrats.
The state GOP can and must emulate the blazing electoral successes of free
market, pro-growth Republicans such as Watertown's Rep. Sean
Williams, R-68, who has handily won two elections against
well-funded, labor-endorsed Democrats. The idea of low taxes, less
intrusive government, market competition and choice, sell, as was
clearly demonstrated on November 2, 2004. Just as Ronald Reagan sold his ideas
of tax cuts and economic freedom directly to the people in 1981,
completely by-passing a liberal-Democratic Congress, Rep. Williams and any
other legislator with economic savvy can elevate and win the
statewide war of ideas before the 2006 gubernatorial election. This
would forestall the distinct possibility that Connecticut's surviving
producers would have to deal with a fatally
meddlesome legislative and executive branch . Dan Gerstein, Sen.
Lieberman's former communications director, writing in the November 11,
2004 Wall Street Journal, advised his party that
"to break out of our stale political grooves...means declaring our
independence from the sclerotic influence of progress-blocking interest groups
like the teachers unions." He could have been addressing the Connecticut
General Assembly . The Connecticut Republican Party
may appear comatose but, joining with the Federation of Connecticut Taxpayers
Organizations (http://www.ctact.org/)
and its many local affiliates, the GOP can come roaring back and
Connecticut will rejoin
the nation in its march toward individual freedom and prosperity. Thomas P. Durso, Member, Watertown Republican Town Committee, Watertown CT
******
John Gauger, john_george2@hotmail.com
Winchester Tax Group
Subject: Unions
November 3, 2004
John has provided some very informative information on Board
of Education issues and costs, especially in light of the Unions lawsuit re the
Anthem stock distribution. He has
presented a question for those who wish to respond to him at his email
address.
Susan, Winchester has several
teacher unions on its health benefit contract.
The K-8 Winchester system pays 10%
of the premium cost through payroll deductions for our public schools. Winchester (Winsted) has no
local high school and uses an endowed academy (there are 3 in CT, Gilbert, Norwich, and Woodstock under CGS 10-34) Gilbert School under a
voucher system to a private academy. The teachers at the Gilbert School have a union, The
Gilbert Education Association, under CGS-10-153n that bargains for them under
the collective statutes CGS 10-153a to 10-153m. Gilbert just started paying 3%
of their premiums in the contract negotiated in the Spring 2004. The K-8 teachers
have been paying for 2 contract cycles, or about 5-6 years. The Town of Hartland is small and
their insurance is on the Winchester policy (for about
4-5 years). Hartland is the other Town that uses Gilbert as its high school. Winchester received approximately
$ 725,000 from the settlement and it has been spent. I don't know what Hartland
received. Hope this helps.
On another issue don't you find it interesting that we have
state funded private schools on a voucher system in Connecticut? That's
right. And even though we have a public funded Regional High School number 7 in the
same town, I can't send my kids to a better performing public school.
They are being forced to attend an underperforming state funded private school
(50% of the freshman class did not make it to their sophomore year). If you
have a contact or can forward this note to an organization that would like to
challenge this system, my wife and I would like to speak with them and would
consider very seriously bringing a court case to test this system. Gilbert has
442 regular students and 32 special ed students from Winchester and 77 regular
students and 3 special ed students from Hartland for a total of 559. (Most
special ed is shipped out of district). The budget this year is $ 6,121,074 for
an expenditure of $ 11,049 per student. Thanks, John
*******
Lights, Camera, Action ….. On November 19, I had the pleasure of appearing on a cable
program out of Waterbury with Jason
Carlascio. Jason is a great host and
provides encouragement to all who have hope for the emergence of an astute
younger generation of community activists.
Kudos to Jason who is informed on the issues and
provides Waterbury
taxpayers with in-depth insight into their government.
On December 22, I will be taping a show in Plainville and will post the
scheduled date it will air.
My sincere appreciation to Peter Arcidiacono and Jim Mathias who escorted me to the October 19
forum in East Hampton in which I participated with a member of CCM and CEA
regarding union issues and Binding Arbitration. The forum was informative and provided the
basis of Peter’s comments on Binding Arbitration which I will provide in their
entirety in the next edition of Tax Talk.
As FCTO continues to bring its message to communities throughout
the State, I look forward to meeting with other taxpayer groups and continued
appearances on local cable shows. If you
would like to schedule a show, please contact me at 860-524-6501. Susan Kniep, President, FCTO
*******