Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

WELCOME TO THE SIXTEENTH EDITION OF
TAX TALK
Your weekly update on what others are thinking, doing, and planning
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I will include in next week's publication.

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Susan Kniep, katzrus50e@aol.com
East Hartford Taxpayers Association
Subject: Public Access to State Legislative Process
November 18, 2003

The following are editorial comments which appeared in the November 17 edition of the Hartford Courant by Robert Ward, House Republican Leader. The remaining comments are featured on the Home Page of FCTO's website, ctact.org.

Give The Public Access To Legislative Process
Robert Ward of North Branford, House Republican Leader

These past two years, many important pieces of legislation have found their way into long, complicated bills that did not reach legislators - much less the public - until just hours before a vote. Meetings at which the budget was being negotiated occurred behind closed doors. The work of legislative committees, which hear citizen comments on all sorts of topics, was often ignored. Information was not getting to the public - or even to rank-and-file legislators - in a timely manner prior to legislative action. That simply isn't the way the people's business should be done. Refer to ctact.org for the continuation of this editorial.
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Robert Green, green_robert@hotmail.com
Chairman, Salem Republican Town Committee
Subject: Comment on Dummies Guide to Corruption: State Officials Must Share the Blame for CRRA/Enron Deal
November 18, 2003
Good morning, Sue: If Ms. Bass is going to pound on Rowland for his "involvement" with the CRRA and the ENRON debacle, she also needs to be seriously looking at Melodie Peters, who wrote the legislation that allowed the ENRON deal to take place and then refused to convene her energy committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding Connecticut's involvement in the ENRON collapse. Ever wonder why she's not running for re-election next year? I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count. Bob Green, Chairman, Salem RTC
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Tom Ahern, nhcitywatch@yahoo.com
New Haven Taxpayers Association
Subject: LEGISLATIVE REFORM (AHERN)
November 18, 2003
The following New Haven Register article is condensed ... Please send this to your legislative leaders and ask that they support the GOP position....

GOP Calling for Legislative System Reform
by Gregory B. Hladky, New Haven Register

General Assembly Republicans caused a bit of a flap last week by calling for reform of a legislative system they claim has been abused to the breaking point. Overall, committee leadership positions have increased by 200 percent since 1973 and regular legislative leadership positions have boomed by an even more extraordinary 225 percent. Each of those leadership jobs, by the way, carries a bit more money for the lawmaker with the title, some additional prestige, and perhaps a better parking space or a more impressive office or larger staff. Top legislative leaders, of course, flatly deny that the additional perks have influenced this trend, or that it has contributed to the legislature�s growing inability to reach tough decisions. While Republicans have proposed cutting back the number of committees to 17 and even Democrats are ready to give lip service to the idea, no one appears ready to admit that the leadership structure itself has reached absurd dimensions. But there are now a total of 258 so-called leadership spots in a General Assembly with only 187 members. If everyone�s a leader, who is left to follow?
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Susan Kniep, katzrus50e@aol.com
East Hartford Taxpayers Association
Subject: CL&P seeks $10 million for perks
November 18, 2003
The following is from the New Haven Register, Maria Garriga
Consumer advocates are blasting Connecticut Light & Power Co. for including more than $10 million in perks for executives and directors in its latest request for a rate increase. Berlin-based CL&P has asked the state Department of Public Utility Control to approve a rate increase that would cost customers $135 million in its first year. The DPUC must decide by Dec. 15.According to the state Office of Consumer Counsel, the electric company�s seven top executives would gain $2 million more in retirement benefits, including $762,000 through a "supplemental retirement plan" and $1.3 million through a "non-supplemental executive retirement plan."

"The compensation provided is necessary to attract and retain the highest caliber executive talent available," said CL&P spokesman Chris Riley.
The company has also asked for permission to charge customers an additional $15 million for its companywide pension fund. "Their pension plan this year has already earned $65 million more than they expected," said the Office of Consumer Counsel�s supervisor of technical analysis, Richard E. Sobolewski. CL&P has also asked for $4.7 million in incentive bonuses, a 160 percent increase between 2002 and 2004, Sobolewski said.
"Incentive compensation should follow payroll, a 4 to 5 percent increase a year," Sobolewski said. "We wanted them to raise goals for the incentive program. Based on our consultant�s analysis, their goals are much easier." Riley declined to discuss specifics of the rate case, but said, "We believe the compensation provided by CL&P is competitive with other companies in our industry." State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also criticized the utility company for the perks, including $1.5 million set aside to fly Michael G. Morris, chairman of parent company Northeast Utilities, around in a private corporate aircraft. CL&P wants to charge customers $630,000 a year to operate and maintain the aircraft. Each flight costs $27,000, said Blumenthal, who opposes the overall rate increase. "These perks, or benefits, should not be charged to ratepayers if they are provided to management or directors. They should be paid by shareholders," Blumenthal said. He said CL&P already rewards its top management generously. Morris took home more than $1.7 million in 2002 in salary and bonus, plus $220,000 in stock options. Blumenthal also took issue with CL&P�s request to make customers pay $1 million toward liability insurance that would protect the members of the board of directors if they get sued by shareholders. He said shareholders should pay for the insurance. Riley said customers benefit from the attention the board of directors gives the company. CL&P filed a rebuttal Monday with the DPUC to the briefs filed by Blumenthal and the consumer counsel�s office. CL&P has asked for an overall rate increase of $677 million over four years, from 2003 to 2007. CL&P provides electric service to more than 1 million customers in about 85 percent of Connecticut, including Bethany, Branford, Guilford, Seymour, Madison, Cheshire, Clinton, Westbrook, Deep River and Old Saybrook.
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Robert Young, hoploans@snet.net
Wethersfield Tax Association
Subject: Cell Tower Falls!   If they are building a Cell Tower near you, you will want to read this......
November 18, 2003

Oswego, New York Cellular Tower Crushes Chief's Vehicle
Steve Yablonski/Oswego Bureau Chief, Oswego Daily News
It stretched for more than half the length of a football field, causing considerable damage but no injuries. Within a matter of seconds Thursday morning, the cellular tower behind the Oswego Fire Department's eastside station went from being 165 feet tall to being 165 feet long. To read more...http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=46&id=21901
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Phil Gosselin, imgoose7@yahoo.com
East Hartford Taxpayers Association
Subject: The Prayer at the Opening Session of the Kansas Senate
November 18, 2003
This pastor has guts! Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people.

When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard "Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.   We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it
freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will and to openly ask these things in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest.   In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.   The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa, and Korea. Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.
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