CONNECTICUT’S BUDGET DEFICITS
JUST GOT BIGGER
$$$$$$$$$$$$
April 30, 2016
From Susan Kniep, President
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
BREAKING NEWS
A few minute before midnight, Christine Stuart of CTNewsJunkie.com reported
Malloy To Reporters: Budget Negotiations ‘Are Hitting A Wall’
The following is an excerpt. Democratic legislative leaders just came up with a budget proposal on Thursday that addressed a $920 million budget deficit. “That deficit grew an additional $40 million on Friday after revenue figures were released following April tax collections. Malloy said his team agreed to stay at the negotiating table until noon Saturday to reach a settlement “but it’s clear for me that that’s not going to happen.” He said Democratic legislative leaders are treating this like a revenue issue when it’s “a revenue issue and a spending issue.”
At 8:10 PM, Christine Stuart had reported that
Revenues Fall Short Leaving 2016 and 2017 Budgets In The Red
Noting that – April tax revenues did not come in as anticipated Friday, which means this year’s deficit will grow to about $256 million and the 2017 budget is $960 million in the red.
Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes said most of the revenue shortfall the state is experiencing is related to declining income tax collections. Read more at Revenues Fall Short Leaving 2016 and 2017 Budgets In The Red »
CONNECTICUT STATE LEGISLATORS
WILL GET THEIR REPORT CARDS ON
ELECTION DAY – NOVEMBER 8, 2016
Will Your Legislator, Pass or Fail!!!!
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Let’s take a look at what has transpired on the Hill in Hartford within the past few days.
STUDENT AID FOR UNDOCUMENTED ILLEGAL RESIDENTS
The recent vote by State Senate Democrats will have a chilling impact on some legally registered Connecticut students who will be denied access to the taxpayer funded $40 million dollar financial aid pool. Their denial will be usurped by undocumented immigrants who will now be allowed access to the pool.
Act SB-147 entitled AN ACT ASSISTING STUDENTS WITHOUT LEGAL IMMIGRATION STATUS WITH THE COST OF COLLEGE was assessed by the Office of Fiscal Analysis which wrote “The bill results in no fiscal impact to the constituent units of higher education as it does not alter the total amount provided for institutional aid. “The bill does result in a potential redistribution of such aid to recipients”. Their opinion can be accessed at analysts report.
It is interesting to note that Republican Senator Art Linares from Westbrook, CT’s Senate’s only Hispanic would have voted ‘no’ on aid to undocumented students as reported by CTMirror.org as “opening the financial aid pool would crowd out legal residents”. Linares further stated “I am very concerned about our current financial situation,” when addressing the near $1 billion state deficit in the upcoming fiscal year. “We have to solve those problems first before we take on additional burdens that would create additional stress on other residents.”
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STATE RUN RETIREMENT PLAN FOR PRIVATE SECTOR
In Oct, 2015, the Wall Street Journal wrote WSJ: Wealthy Connecticut’s Pension Problem Is a ‘Ticking …Time Bomb noting “Connecticut has roughly half of what it needs to pay future retirement benefits for its workers, with one lawmaker calling the situation a “ticking time bomb.”
Yet, the State’s failure to manage the State employee pension plan has not deterred our State legislators as Connecticut House Sends Bill to Senate Setting Up a State-Run Retirement Plan for Private-Sector Workers(Christine Stuart / CT News Junkie)
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PROPOSED MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE
On April 28, 2016, Democrat Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney proposed increasing the state’s hourly minimum wage to $12 by Jan. 1, 2020 which was denounced by Senate Republicans as described within CTMirror.org article captioned Connecticut Senate debates, for a while, a $12 minimum wage.
Here is what others are saying on this issue.
Former CEO of McDonald’s: $15 Minimum Wage Will Cost Jobs
Jon Miltimore is the Senior Editor of Intellectual Takeout, Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. | April 25, 2016
Ed Rensi, the former president of McDonald’s USA, wrote an article that appeared in Forbes in which he argued that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour could cost about a million jobs in limited service restaurants.
Rensi, who worked at McDonald’s for three decades before he became Chief Executive Officer, made three key points: 1) A $15 minimum wage would eat up 75 percent of the profit for a typical McDonald’s franchise owner; 2) Franchise owners would be compelled to shift to automated kiosks to protect their bottom line; 3) the job losses would primarily impact young workers.
UC Berkeley last week offered a real-life case study on this very topic. Continue reading at ….. http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/former-ceo-mcdonalds-15-minimum-wage-will-cost-jobs
And in an Editorial by Investors Business Daily
UC Berkeley Touts $15 Wage Law, Then Fires Hundreds … Of Workers After It Passes
Labor Markets: Hundreds of employees at the University of California at Berkeley are getting schooled in basic economics, as the $15 minimum wage just cost them their jobs. Too bad liberal elites “fighting for $15” don’t get it.
A week after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s $15 minimum wage boost into law, UC Berkeley ChancellorNicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees announcing that 500 jobs were getting cut.
Coincidence? Not really. Continue reading at ….. http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/uc-berkeley-touts-15-minimum-wage-then-fires-hundreds-of-workers-after-it-passes/
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In February, 2016, the Yankee Institute lent insight into the problems which had beset the Connecticut’s Department of Motor Vehicles through their article captioned Promoted Former Commissioners Avoid Blame for DMV …Debacle
This has been a tumultuous year for Connecticut taxpayers. Governor Malloy and our State Legislature have been on a spending spree with taxpayer dollars yet it appears that only now they have come to the realization that the state is broke. Worse than that – the State’s high debt and deficits have rating agencies questioning the financial stability of our state as Most Wall Street agencies have ‘negative outlook’ on CT … as noted by CTMirror.org.
In an article captioned The 10 Worst “Sinkhole States” in America | Wolf Street written in March, 2015 it is noted that “The taxpayer burdens in Connecticut and Illinois weigh over twice as much on each of their respective taxpayers as the burden in California”.
| THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION TO SOLVING THE STATE DEBT OF 6.6 BILLION DLRS AND DEFICITS OF 71 BILLION |
| END BINDING ARBITRATION AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING LAWS View the Many Reports – We Have Provided to You – March 2016 |