September 11, 2013
From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer
Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone:
860-841-8032
Check out News Reports below on ….. Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker Wins Big Against Unions; Pension
Payouts Draw Controversy in Bankrupt Detroit; Jackson Proves Crime Pays for DC
Crooks; Potassium Iodide Pills
Distributed to those Near Millstone; Toni Harp Wins Primary as Family Business
owes State over $1 Million in Taxes; As
2 More are Sentenced to Jail in Donovan Scandal, Federation Asks AG Jepsen to Pursue Legislation to Place the Burden of Incarceration
Costs on Felons, Not the Taxpayers; Connecticut’s Pension Crisis – State Pensions reach $276,000, CT State and Local Pensions
Highest in US, State Pension Plan Less than 30 Percent Funded; Not all covered
by Obamacare!!!
BREAKING: UPDATE 1-Federal judge rules Wisconsin's union reforms
constitutional
Reuters - 31
minutes ago, September 11, 2013 By Brendan O'Brien
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/usa-unions-wisconsin-idUSL2N0H724L20130911
MILWAUKEE, Sept 11 (Reuters) -
Wisconsin's collective bargaining reforms, which prompted strong protests from
organized labor, do not violate the free speech and equal protection rights of
public sector union workers, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
The reforms, passed in 2011 by Republican lawmakers,
severely limit the bargaining power of public sector unions while forcing most
state workers to pay more for benefits such as health insurance and
pensions. They also made payment of union dues voluntary and forced unions to
be recertified every year.
The laws sparked efforts to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott
Walker and some Republican lawmakers who voted for them. Walker survived a recall election last year.
Federal Judge William Conley in Madison wrote in his ruling that the First
Amendment grants public employees the right to free speech and association, but
does not grant them collective bargaining rights.
The reforms, which do not apply to public safety workers, do
not violate equal protection rights of workers because the government has the
right to set wages and benefits for individual workers based on performance and
skills, according to Conley. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/usa-unions-wisconsin-idUSL2N0H724L20130911
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"13th
check" pension payouts spur controversy in Detroit ..., Elsewhere
By Steve Malanga on September 9, 2013
For years the city of Detroit handed out pension
bonuses, known as an annual "13th check," to city employees even as
the financial position of the city's pension funds was declining and Detroit
was borrowing money to finance them, according to a story in the
Detroit Free Press this weekend. In total, the extra pension checks issued from
the city's general retirement fund have cost the fund some $1 billion over the
last 20 years. Had the city eschewed those payments, experts quoted by the
paper suggest, it might have avoided the costly $1.44 billion pension borrowing
in 2005 and the subsequent swaps contracts tied to that borrowing that have helped contribute to the city's insolvency.
But Detroit
is not alone. So called "13th checks" are paid out in other notable
places whose finances are under duress. In some cases they are granted even
when the systems are under financial strain, thanks to loose rules governing
how they are awarded.
The 13th check, for instance, is one of the key issues in
the San Jose city pension reform that's now being challenged in court by local unions. The city is seeking to save some
$20 million annually by eliminating the 13th check, which is now paid to
retirees as a bonus in years when investment earnings exceed expectations.
One problem with such checks is that the legislation authorizing them is
sometimes so poorly written that it requires the pension system to issue the
bonus checks regardless of the financial condition of the city's budget or its
pensions. San Diego, for instance, was required to issue the 13th check in
2010 even though the system faced a
$2.1 billion unfunded liability. The city has eliminated the 13th check for new
employees. Continue reading at …..
http://www.publicsectorinc.com/forum/2013/09/13th-check-bonus-pension-payouts-spur-controversy-in-detroit-elsewhere.html
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Jackson
Proves Crime Pays For DC Crooks
Investor's Business Daily Sept 9, 2013 06:37
PM ET
Graft: In another sign Washington's
hopelessly corrupt, disgraced Illinois
Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. will collect tens of thousands of dollars in
government disability pay while serving time for defrauding government.
Seems the feds bought his last-minute claims of a "mood
disorder," qualifying him for a reported $8,700 a month in federal aid.
This outrageous largess comes on top of a partial federal
pension of $45,000 he'll also collect, despite his sins in office. This is the
same convicted swindler who lined his pockets with federal campaign cash.
Continue reading at …. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/090913-670350-crime-pays-for-convict-jesse-jackson-jr.htm
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New
potassium iodide pills on way for those near Millstone - The
Day
Tablet protects against
radiation absorption
Published 09/10/2013 12:00 AM
By Judy Benson
Read complete article at ….. http://www.theday.com/article/20130910/NWS01/309109920/1017
Excerpt: Emergency
preparedness officials are preparing to distribute more than 1 million
potassium iodide tablets in the 10-mile emergency planning zone around the
Millstone Power Station over the next few months.
The pills, which protect the thyroid from absorption of
radioactive iodine isotopes that can be released after a severe nuclear power
plant accident, are distributed in the nine-town region around the Waterford plant
periodically. Two batches of pills supplied to the region in 2007 will expire
in February and April, Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, said Monday. They are commonly known as KI pills, for the periodic
table symbols for the two main ingredients.
The NRC will send 1.28 million 65-mg tablets to the state
Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection in the coming months, he
said. Adults would take two pills, while each child under 100 pounds would take
one. Taking the pills in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear accident would
reduce the likelihood of developing thyroid cancer. The pills are intended to
supplement the sheltering and evacuation of populations around a nuclear plant
if there were an accident, Sheehan said.
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New Haven mayoral
primary: Toni Harp Wins ... - New Haven Primary Hartford Courant
September 10, 2013 |By CHRISTOPHER KEATING,
Hartford Courant
“State Sen. Toni Harp won the Democratic primary Tuesday
night, taking the first step toward making history in her quest to become the
city’s first woman mayor. “Harp defeated three opponents in a battle that will
continue with just one in the general election in November”…….. “Other candidates harshly criticized the Harp family real
estate business, Renaissance Management Co., because it owes more than $1
million in business taxes and ranks as Connecticut’s
top tax delinquent”.
Check out 100
of the Top Delinquent Business Taxpayer Accounts
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Left
behind: Stories from Obamacare's 31 million ... -
Washington Post
By Sarah Kliff and Lena H. Sun, Published: September 8 at 7:26 pm
The Affordable Care Act, the most sweeping health care
program created in a half century, is expected to extend coverage to 25 million
Americans over the next decade, according to the most recent government estimates. But that will still leave a projected 31 million people
without insurance by 2023. Those left out include undocumented workers and poor
people living in the 21 states, such as Virginia, that have so far declined to expand Medicaid under the
statute, commonly called Obamacare.
“The law will cut the number of the uninsured in half,” said
Matthew Buettgens of the Urban Institute. “This is an
important development, but it certainly isn’t the definition of universal.” Continued at …. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/08/left-behind-stories-from-obamacares-31-million-uninsured/?wprss=rss_homepage
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