Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

Status of Bill 6956 � Act Today to Defeat this Bill
CONNECTICUT SENATE PASSES EMINENT DOMAIN BILL
Governor Rell Vetoes Democratic Tax Plan, Calls for Continued Budget Negotiations
Taming the Giant Corporation by Ralph Nader
Federalist Society � June 4 Lunch with Magistrate Judge William Garfinkel
A message from Ray Chicoine,� President, Coventry Taxpayers Association
The Ethics Of Taxation And Efficiency Of Government Services
Study: Illegals cost U.S. $10 billion a year
Citizens Against Government Waste
A Young Man needs Your Help
Proof of Citizenship in Connecticut and Medicaid Eligibility

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Pls Read what State Rep Zeke Zalaski has to say regarding the status of Bill 6956 �

Subject: RE: THERE IS STILL TIME TO DEFEAT BILL 6956! ACT NOW OR PAY MORE IN TAXES!!!!!

From Zeke Zalaski:� You may have to get the governor to veto this bill. They were not going to call this bill as of 1:00am last night but some thing happen from then to now. I will continue to work against the bill. Have people contact the governor. Thank you for the email.

Zeke Zalaski , 81st District (Southington)
Member: Finance & Bonding, Select Committee on Aging
Vice Chair Labor Committee
860-240-8500
Zeke.Zalaski@cga.ct.gov

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CONNECTICUT SENATE PASSES EMINENT DOMAIN BILL

State Senate passes bill limiting eminent domain
Danbury News Times - Danbury,CT,USA
HARTFORD (AP) - Two years after the US Supreme Court sparked national outrage by siding with the city of New London in an emotional eminent domain case, ...� See all stories on this topic

HARTFORD (AP) - Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court sparked national outrage by siding with the city of New London in an emotional eminent domain case, Connecticut's Senate passed a bill Thursday limiting the taking of private property.� But opponents of eminent domain said the bill, which passed 33-3, is not strong enough.� "I think we need a very, very bright line that says the government cannot take any of your property unless they are taking it for government or public use," said Sen. David Cappiello, R-Danbury. "I admit that this bill does a little bit to protect people's property. A little bit. It moves the ball forward but it doesn't come close to doing enough."� Cappiello said eminent domain should only be used for public uses, such as building a public school or highway.� The bill forbids municipalities from using eminent domain to ultimately boost its tax base and requires a local governing body to approve the use of eminent domain by a two-thirds vote, among numerous other changes such as a more thorough hearing process.�� "I'm sorry we didn't have a chance to apply some of the language in this bill, some of the process, to the project we went through in New London," said Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, whose district includes New London.� The bill moves to the House for further action.

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Governor Rell Vetoes Democratic Tax Plan,

Calls for Continued Budget Negotiations

�There Is Still Time to Make Important Progress,� Governor Says

May 31, 2007 Less than an hour after receiving it, Governor M. Jodi Rell tonight vetoed the Democratic tax plan contained in substitute House Bill 7400, An Act Concerning Motion Picture Tax Credits, which would have increased taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars in support of a budget projected to increase state spending by 10.5 percent.

�At a time when revenues are coming in far higher than expected and the budget surplus is growing rapidly there is no reason to increase taxes,� Governor Rell said. �Families do not want � and cannot afford � such a massive state spending increase as they struggle to cope with staggering increases in fuel prices, utility rates and other expenses. What they do want is to see the state take a sensible approach to spending, just like they do.�

Earlier this evening the Governor sent a letter to legislative leaders encouraging them to sit down with her Administration and negotiate to pass a budget before the session ends June 6.

�The people of Connecticut don�t want to see games played at the Capitol � they want us to finish our work: pass a budget, pass an energy plan, pass a health care plan and adjourn on time,� Governor Rell said. �With a little �give and take� we can do just that.�

The Governor also urged the Legislature to pass substitute Senate Bill 1059, An Act Concerning the New Motor Vehicle Lemon Law, which has been amended to include the proposed �gas tax holiday� that would remove the $0.25-per-gallon state sales tax on gasoline until the summer driving season ends after Labor Day. The measure has been sent to the Appropriations Committee for review.

�I strongly support this measure and I know the people of our state are eager for any kind of relief we can give them when it comes to gasoline prices,� Governor Rell said. �I urge the Appropriations Committee to act swiftly and send this bill back to the full House of Representatives for a vote and my immediate signature.�

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Federalist Society - Lunch with Magristrate Judge William Garfinkel of the United States District Court, Monday, June 4, 2007, 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Quinnipiack Club, 221 Church Street, New Haven (directions below)

The Federalist Society, Hartford Chapter is pleased to invite you to an informal lunch with Magistrate Judge William Garfinkel of the United States District Court, District of Connecticut on Monday, June 4, 2007.

We've asked Judge Garfinkel to speak informally on any topic that he may deem of interest or significance for the federal courts. There will opportunity for informal Q&A and discussion after his remarks.

Lunch will be served. To offset costs, there will be a charge of $10 (students $5).�

As before, attendance is not limited to Federalist Society members. Please feel free to forward this invitation to others. For those in firms with summer law clerks, this could be a unique opportunity for them to learn about trial practice directly from a federal magistrate.

Space is limited, so please reply to me at your earliest opportunity if you would like to reserve a place. We look forward to hearing from you!

Brian Freeman, Chair, Hartford Chapter, 860-275-8310, BFREEMAN@RC.com,

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A message from Ray Chicoine,

President, Coventry Taxpayers Association

For two years in a row the voters of the Town of Coventry, voted in favor of a new budget for the fiscal years. This result was achieved by a new council that looked at controlling cost and spending. Last year, the town council raised taxes by 1 mil or 3.85%. This year, depending on what we receive from the state we are looking of a tax increase between .6 to .88 mil or 2.22% to 3.27%. Some of the savings were achieved by doing an insurance audit on town vehicles. The Insurance Advisory Commission, found the town has been insuring vehicles, some of which were retired. When confronted with a rise of insurance premiums, the town notified the carrier they were looking elsewhere for coverage. The insurance company quickly canceled the premium increase. There were reductions in all departments with the exception of fire and police. The council granted the volunteer fire departments their full budget request for both years. The Coventry Police Department hired a new patrolman and were issued tasers this year as a new tool for enforcement. The town council endorsed and a referendum passed to remove asbestos from the schools as well as an updated water system for the schools. The council is also looking to realign many of the boards and commissions to better serve the town

Hopefully we can continue the momentum Ray Chicoine

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COMING TO AMERICA
Study: Illegals cost U.S. $10 billion a year
If Bush amnesty program were implemented, figure would triple http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40146

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CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE

http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homePage

Citizens Against Government Waste
Prime Cuts Citizen's Demand

Whereas, American taxpayers send $1.1 trillion a year to Washington;

Whereas, excluding revenue from corporate and business taxes, 25 cents of every individual income tax dollar is squandered on wasteful, inefficient, outdated, and duplicative government programs;� Read and Sign��.

http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=getinv_PrimeCutsCitizensDemandapril

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The Ethics Of Taxation And Efficiency Of Government Services By Marc Guttman, Published May 27, 2007, The Day, New London http://theday.com/re.aspx?re=fb606a6a-db67-436c-ba93-91104707c3dd

Although many of us think of the middle of April as the �tax season,� the Tax Foundation's calculations have found that in 2007 the average American taxpayer finished paying off his or her yearly tax burden on April 30. That is, we have worked from Jan. 1 until April 30 to pay our share of income taxes, social insurance taxes, sales and excise taxes, and property taxes. �Americans will work longer to pay for government than they will for food, clothing and housing combined,� said Tax Foundation President Scott A. Hodge. Since we, in Connecticut, have chosen to tax ourselves the most, the average Connecticut taxpayer was not paid up until May 20.

Some readers may wonder why this warrants an article, since �death and taxes� are inevitable. Others dismiss as selfish anyone who considers tax rates too high and wants to cut them back. Statists � people who believe in government taking on a large role in our lives � see high taxes as something that responsible and fair-minded citizens should pay happily. We all must contribute to the community, and those who ask questions are usually seeking to dodge their responsibilities.

Yet why would anyone blindly sacrifice the fruit of almost five months of labor and not consider whether the personal loss to one's family is of equal or significant enough value to the community? Whether or not it is ethical to force people to contribute to our public endeavors, everyone should consider the value of what it is for which we are paying.

Modern consensus generally accepts national defense on a federal level, and on a local level, community police protection, fire protection, prisons, some public edifices, public educators, roads, civil and criminal courts, contract insurance, and some communal space, as appropriate endeavors of government, although much of this is still up for debate by many. It was not that long ago that government was limited to these functions. Certainly it has grown well beyond them.

A family member recently told me that she would not mind paying her taxes, if she could just decide how her allotment would be spent. This is not how government spending works.

Value of goods and services

In the free market, each individual prioritizes the importance and value of goods and services for themselves and spends his or her own money as they feel will best maximize their happiness. Through government, we mutually decide what has value to the community and contribute and spend as the majority chooses. Benjamin Franklin described this as two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. This is because when our production ends up in the communal trough and we no longer have personal ownership of it, we fight each other to direct the booty towards the things that we each personally value. Franklin also predicted, �When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.�

In this way, many people are forced to contribute their efforts towards the things they do not value nor support. For some, this may be overseas wars that go well beyond matters of defense, corporate welfare, farm subsidies, the drug war, tens-of-thousands of bureaucrats and regulators in hundreds of agencies producing questionable results, abortions, promoting religion, privacy and other personal liberty infringements, campaigns of disfavored political candidates, to mention some.

To make matters worse, it often seems that what gets funded by the government is rarely even the desire of the majority, but rather that of powerful voting blocks, the wealthy and connected, and the unified.

Aside from the ethics of taxation, one must also consider the efficiency of government-provided services. Does it make sense for Connecticut citizens to send their money to Washington D.C., or Hartford for that matter, and then try to maneuver to have a portion of that money returned to their community? Much of our money is lost to the machinations of bureaucracy, mismanagement, graft, fraud, cronyism, and taxpayer-subsidized decadence for our civil-servant legislators. In addition, government programs often have negative unintended consequences even for those they aim to help.

Taxing personal income

In 1991, Connecticut started taxing personal income. Proponents had claimed the income tax revenue would lead to property-tax relief and jumpstart the economy. D. Dowd Muska of Connecticut's Yankee Institute in his essay �Fifteen Years of Folly: The Failures of Connecticut's Income Tax,� explains that between 1991-2003, Connecticut's property-tax collections rose 19.8 percent; personal-income growth in Connecticut has slowed significantly; Connecticut job growth has been nonexistent since 1991 with the FDIC recently concluding that since the early 1990s, �no other state ... has had such stagnation in employment.�

Now Gov. M. Jodi Rell has proposed a 10 percent income tax hike to expand subsidies to public schools, despite lack of evidence demonstrating a relation between education spending and student performance. While no one wants to underfund education or any important functions of government, should we not first repeal inappropriate and ineffectual spending instead of burdening ourselves more?

We have given the wealthy and organized special interests unfair influence over us by allowing our elected officials to overstep their constitutional restraints, thus making our government, our income, and our liberties saleable items. The answer, of course, is not to increase taxes but to decrease spending by returning government to its constitutional limits. Otherwise, we in Connecticut may be working until June 20 next year to pay off our tax burden.

Dr. Marc Guttman is an emergency physician and vice chairman of the Libertarian Party of Connecticut. He lives in East Lyme. marc_guttman@yahoo.com

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WILL YOU PLEASE HELP

I received the following from an Eminent Domain activist in New London.� This is a very tragic story which she requested be sent on to others.� If we all sent just $5 or more imagine how great that would be�.

Read about Tyler which begins here and is continued on his home page below.� On Friday, April 13, 2007, the first day of the Dyer family's vacation, Tyler Dyer, a Waterford, CT teen and stand-out high school freshman baseball player, dove into the Gulf waters of Florida. In a horrific accident, Tyler broke his neck in three places. He was flown by helicopter first to one hospital and then to another hospital that could better meets his needs. Tyler Dyer - Home Page

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Taming the Giant Corporation

by Ralph Nader

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/30/1518/

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PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP AND MEDICAID ELIGIBILITY

By State of Conn Office of Legislative Research May 17, 2007

http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/rpt/2007-R-0387.htm