From:
Susan Kniep, President
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website: ctact.org
860-528-0323
January 26, 2004
WELCOME TO THE 21st 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.
Please note that TAX TALK is now on our
Website
Thank you to all who contributed to TAX TALK this week. Several
interesting articles follow to include the
State Ethics Should Comprise Citizen Groups
Tactics Often Used to Form and Sell Budgets
CCM Endorses Changes to Binding Arbitration,
January 15 Minutes of FCTO Meeting
DO YOU HAVE
SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO
INCLUDE IN NEXT WEEK'S PUBLICATION?
*************************************************************
Marvin
Edelman, frogpond01@earthlink.net
Windham Taxpayers Association
Subject: State Ethics Should Comprise Citizen Groups
Dear Susan: I am very sorry that I could not attend the last meeting.
Please let me know what took place and where we are headed. I caught the
broadcast on January 23 of the hearing of the Government Administration and
Election Committee regarding reform of the state ethics code. A major
speaker was Rep. Demetrios Giannaros
of Farmington.
He is calling for the appointment to the Ethics Commission of people who
represent citizens' groups rather than the usual political and lawyer
members. I think FCTO in your person or someone should be
considered. Our recommendations in Windham for
charter revision are being shot down, as expected, by our clueless local leadership.Best wishes. Marvin.
Susan Kniep will contact Rep. Giannaros
***********************************************************************************************
Peter Arcidiacono, PJArcidiacono@aol.com
Common Sense, East Hampton
Subject: Tactics Often Used to Form and Sell Budgets
A special thank you to Peter for providing us with a wonderful "resource
that can be used to become aware of (and be armed to counter) tactics sometimes
used by officials as they form and try to sell their proposed
budgets." This document can be found on FCTO's
website, ctact.org, under Budgets-Local.
*************************************************************
Susan Kniep,
President of FCTO
Subject: Binding Arbitration and January 15 FCTO
Meeting
FCTO's efforts to revise Binding
Arbitration Reform are yielding results. The following is a proposal
adopted by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. We continue to
encourage municipalities to pass our Binding Arbitration Resolution and I will
be reporting on the status of this endeavor very shortly. I have
also included a copy of the Minutes of FCTO's most
recent meeting.
CCM's Binding Arbitration Reform
Proposal
Modify state-mandated compulsory Municipal Employee Relations Act (MERA) and
the Teacher Negotiation Act (TNA) by (a) providing that when a local
legislative body rejects an arbitrated award by a two-thirds vote, the contract
goes back to negotiation, as it does under the arbitration statute for state
employees, rather than going to a second, final and binding arbitration panel,
and (b) allowing local legislative bodies to reject stipulated board of
education-teacher collective bargaining agreements. Stipulated agreements
are voluntary agreements between boards of education and teachers within the
arbitration process that are then incorporated into awards. There are
thus no "last best offers" from each side on the issues that were
previously at impasse, and therefore no ability for local legislative bodies to
reject these awards and require a second arbitration on these issues.
Minutes of January 15, 2004 FCTO
Meeting
On January 15, 2004, The
Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. held a meeting at 740
Main Street, East Hartford.
The meeting began at 7 PM and in
attendance were Jack Walton of Oakville-Watertown, Flo
Stahl of Avon, Walt Grunder
of Glastonbury, Pat
Spring of Berlin, John McIntosh of Berlin, Ed Kardus of Wethersfield, Bob
Young of Wethersfield, Jim
Mathias of East Hampton, Ed
Stedman of Monroe and
Susan Kniep of East Hartford.
(Several members could not attend due to the weather)
Prevailing Wage Policy Statement
A motion was made by Flo Stahl, and seconded by Jim
Mathias, to sign the Prevailing Wage Policy Statement on behalf of FCTO calling
for a Blue Ribbon Commission to study the merit of prevailing wage law
reform. Suggestions were made for grammatical improvements to the
Statement which Susan Kniep
will relay to the Coalition pursuing the Prevailing Wage Issue. The
Coalition includes Chambers of Commerce throughout the State, CCM, and others
concerned for the high costs of construction due to the Prevailing Wage
law. Susan Kniep indicated that periodic
updates on this issue will be noted under the Prevailing Wage category on FCTO's website.
Membership Drive
Susan requested that each attendee solicit at least two new taxpayer groups,
inform them of FCTO, direct them to our website and determine what their three
primary concerns are. She requested that their names and telephone
numbers be provided to her.
FCTO 2004 Meetings
Following a brief discussion, it was agreed that FCTO
would meet during the months of January, March, May, July, Sept and November at
740 Main Street in East
Hartford. Susan will schedule these meetings to
occur mid month, Thursday evenings, 7 PM to
9 PM. It was also suggested that FCTO
members who are holding their own taxpayer group meetings, invite Susan to
offer a brief presentation on FCTO. Susan will plan on attending
the April 15 meeting in East Hampton and a
May meeting in New Haven.
Others are encouraged to notify Susan when their meetings are scheduled.
FCTO 2004 Issues Agenda
Everyone concurred that although there are many
taxpayer related issues to be addressed, it would be in FCTO interest to direct
our energy to: Binding Arbitration, Prevailing Wage, Smart Growth,
Unfunded Mandates, and School Vouchers. Flo
Stahl referenced her taxpayer group's success in compiling and disseminating
salary information on Avon Town and
Board of Education employees. She will provide a brief summary of their
efforts for the benefit of other tax groups who may wish to assemble similar
information in their respective towns. Ed Stedman suggested that a
policy be considered for FCTO to support an independent audit of local Board of
Education funds whenever a Superintendent leaves office.
MarketingCampaign
Attendees were given copies of FCTO brochures to be distributed within local
libraries, senior centers, etc. Again, it was suggested that Susan Kniep appear on local cable
shows and at taxpayer meetings to bring public awareness to FCTO.
Susan asked that she be notified when taxpayer meetings are scheduled and
requested that members facilitate her appearance
on local cable shows.
Status Binding Arbitration Responses
Susan will construct and disseminate a follow up to FCTO's
September Binding Arbitration letter to the 169 towns requesting budgetary
information and the passage of the Binding Arbitration resolution. She
requested that those in attendance inform her of 3 towns they would be willing
to contact to facilitate the generation of this information, and to also
provide her with the names of others who might be willing to work on this
project. Susan will be providing an excel spreadsheet denoting the status
of the generation of this information per town. Susan will
also pursue obtaining whatever information may be available through CCM.
Financial Report
Flo Stahl and Jim Mathias agreed to audit FCTO's financial records in accordance with FCTO
bylaws. Treasurer Bernie Roy will be asked to provide them with the
necessary documentation.
The meeting adjourned around 9:30 PM.