Why State Spending Is Enigmatic

Many Conservatives have clamored that spending is excessive and problematic in the state of Connecticut. This is true, at least somewhat, but there are omissions that are being ignored for political pageantry. Conservatives would have us believe that there is too much wasteful spending, and certainly they are not entirely wrong. But, it is important to note that this is true of every governing body across the country, and the argument is nothing new.

We all are keenly aware that there is always a way to get things for less, perhaps privatize more of government, and certainly cut those social programs that have earned such a terrible record.

Well no one doubts that spending needs to be streamlined, especially during hard economic times when government and the deficit grows in tandem with poverty. Sadly what is being overlooked is the paradox of tax cuts during a Recession/Depression (depending on your view of the current economy.)

The paradox in state spending today is accompanied by its rhetoric. Rhetoric that reminds voters that people are hurting, there are few good jobs out there and several other preventable conditions exist that are agitating poverty. With the spread of rich to poor now at at record 14.5% Connecticut, and many other states for that matter, has to factor this increase in poverty into its budget. We also have to consider the cost of Un-employment (at a record 99 weeks for some) , food aid, and a record level of need as requested by the Connecticut Department of Social Services. Lets also factor in the interest on our debt, accompanied by inflation and the associated cost of dealing with increases in crime and punishment, and then it becomes easy to understand how our state ran some record deficits.

Connecticut has the highest debt to person ration in America and a pension fund set to run out by 2019 because of negligent cuts that are threatening everyone. The disingenuous nature of economic repair men is dangerous and irresponsible. Once again we have a tax paradox in Connecticut, whereby we all overwhelmingly agree that the poor should be helped, children deserve health care, and that the tide of poverty must be reversed. But few dare offer a genuine solution by way of new jobs and economic opportunity.

There are several places where money can still be saved in government but those cuts will hardly match the money that is needed to solve the basic humanitarian issues we have incurred in our state. For this reason I question the MRTC produced graph as little more than a political ploy emblematic of a half truth. A half truth that will become self evident in time when all cuts that have been made get made. Then it will become clear that such a graph accompanied by more conservative tax rhetoric will amount to severe austerity losses. Austerity losses accompanied by the unwelcome sight of homeless people living on the street, children being left uninsured, and pension funds being denied to new employees while older employees receive less.

The answer is as I stated in previous articles, and that is Connecticut needs to challenge the monetary policy of the Federal Government, resist austerity measures, challenge the supremacy clause of the Federal Government, sue the Feds against all job killing treaties and consider rebuilding our state from the vantage point of the sovereign position of individual states rights. This may require us to pass new "xeno-tax" laws that specifically target the Federal Government and the glut of outside slave produced goods dumped on our markets. Lastly and most importantly we need to embrace the green economy and protect our remaining jobs from export. Connecticut cannot "fix the world," but Connecticut can independently work to fix its economy from within our own borders by not allowing "the world" to "drag us down."

Milford PPSF House Values Plummet 51.5% In One Year!

The price per square foot or (PPSF) value on a home is a number that has many indications, but is often the figure that resembles the "canary in the coal mine" of Real Estate.

When the PPSF takes a dive the main reason is property neglect, neglect that can occurr due to homes being sold at discount prices to compensate new owners for the additional work these homes need.

In Milford there are 78 homes in the pre-foreclosure stage, and in my neighborhood there is one bank owned home that is not even for sale. As the home sits vacant the elements and bank neglect are incurring the wrath of nature and making the "out of pocket" restoration expenses to that home increase and the PPSF to plummet.

The following report on Milford is from Trulia, and tells a chilling tale! A tale that suggests many people in our community are letting the insides and outsides of their homes fall apart to avoid or delay costly repairs.  None-the-less home inspectors are reporting these discrepancies and shoddy workmanship at alarming rates.

According to Trulia the "average price per square foot for Milford CT was $207, a decrease of 51.5% compared to the same period last year. The median sales price for homes in Milford CT for Jun 10 to Aug 10 was $277,000 based on 89 home sales. Compared to the same period one year ago, the median home sales price increased 2.6%, or $7,000, and the number of home sales decreased 36.4%. There are currently 518 resale and new homes in Milford on Trulia, including 5 open houses, as well as 78 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process.

The average listing price for homes for sale in Milford CT was $383,088 for the week ending Sep 22, which represents a decrease of 1.9%, or $7,288, compared to the prior week. Popular neighborhoods in Milford include Post Road North and , with average listing prices of $269,621 and $383,088."

Source Trulia.com.

Tom Marsh Vies For Inclusion In Gubernatorial Debates

He won a spot on the ballot by gathering 11,000 signatures, but should Independent gubernatorial candidate, Tom Marsh be included in the debates?

Marsh, the first selectman of Chester who initially entered the race as a Republican and later changed his affiliation, said he’s currently speaking to debate organizers to make sure he’s included.

“I’ve been vetted. I’ve been through the process. I should be there,” Marsh said Thursday.

To continue reading Christine Stuart Story
CLICK HERE

Alderman Raymond Vitali R5, May Hold Jonathan Law's Future In His Hands

The future of a $4 million addition to Jonathan Law High School rests in the hands of Alderman Raymond Vitali, R-5, after the Board of Finance rejected authorizing funds for the work Monday night.

The Finance Board’s 3-2 rejection means the request will be sent back to the Board of Aldermen. The aldermen will need a supermajority to approve the addition, and reverse the Finance Board’s decision.

Earlier this month, the aldermen voted 10-5 to approve creating a draft bond authorization, which was a critical first step toward allocating the $4 million for the work.

All nine Democrats and Vitali, a retired longtime school principal, approved creating the draft bond allocation, while the board’s remaining five Republicans voted against the project, saying a recession is not the right time to be borrowing funds.

In order for the aldermen to get a supermajority vote, Vitali would again need to break from his party and vote with the Democrats.

Vitali, who is aware of his role, stood up during the Finance Board meeting held at the Parsons Government Center Monday, and said, “I am the two-thirds vote.” He said the entire process has been “purely political,” but did not elaborate.

After the meeting Vitali declined to say how he’d vote, saying he needed to learn more about the city’s finances and “do some thinking.”

Before the Finance Board’s vote, Republican Mayor James L. Richetelli Jr. again reiterated his strong objection to borrowing any money, while the nation is in a historic recession.

He also said it sends a terrible message to borrow funds many residents are suffering financially.

Finance Board Chairman Jack Skudlarek said he had concerns that the aldermen, and not Richetelli, placed the project on the agenda calling it an “extraordinary” measure. Skudlarek said the mayor as the city’s chief executive officer places items on the agenda, and Richetelli said, while unprecedented, the move was legal according to the bond counsel.

Skudlarek also said he was not convinced there were any immediate health and safety concerns warranting that the project be approved now.

Proponents of the Law addition say the bids came in $1 million less than anticipated, and waiting would likely mean the city would receive less state reimbursement.

Jonathan Law Principal Janet Garagliano said the addition is needed because next year 15 teachers are projected to be using carts, which means they do not have their own classroom.

She said the school is short two science labs, and is looking to convert storage space into reading classrooms. Four classrooms have been converted from storage spaces in the school.

The work includes construction of a 12,234-square-foot addition including seven regular classrooms and two science laboratories in a ninth-grade wing.

Finance Board member Joseph Agro said the project should move forward because it’s likely costs will only increase in the future, but board member Joseph Fitzpatrick argued the bids are too high, and it’s likely the costs will drop.

Aldermanic Chairman Ben Blake, D-5, defended the aldermen’s actions saying typically the city spends $15 million annually on bond projects and by approving only $4 million for the Law addition it’s still “reining back considerably” the amount of money that is borrowed.

ORIGINAL BRIAN MCREADY POST CLICK HERE

Senate Approves Taking Governor’s Appointment Power, Declines Ethics Rule

by Christine Stuart: The state Senate approved a bill Friday morning 21-12, which would require a US Senate vacancy to be filled by a special election, instead of gubernatorial appointment.

Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, said the bill returns the power to elect a US Senator to the people of Connecticut. Since the 1940s the power to appoint a US Senator has resided with the governor, but recent scandals like the one in Illinois over Barack Obama’s vacant senate seat has given the concept of holding a special election more momentum than in previous years. The bill now heads to the House for a approval.

Also Republicans tried to change the rules of the Senate to create a bipartisan committee of ethics to allow for senators to be disciplined by their peers.

The Republican move comes on the heels of two recent election complaints against two Democratic senators who were noticeably absent during the debate and vote Friday morning.

Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, who was fined $6,000 in March for double-billing the state and his own political action committee for expenses related to his attendance at legislative conferences, and Sen. Joseph Crisco, D-Woodbridge, who was fined $4,000 this week for violating state election laws related to his re-election campaign, were both absent.

Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Southport, predicted that the resolution to change the rules would be defeated, but tried to remind his Democratic colleagues that once upon a time, the concept was something they supported.

Sen. President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, said it opens the doors to frivolous complaints against any of the 36 senators. He said it means even if someone believed a rumor was true they couldn’t be held responsible for making a false statement against a senator. McKinney said he met with Williams earlier in the day Thursday and would have agreed to limit who was able to file complaints to the 36 senators in the circle.

The idea of a bipartisan committee on Senate ethics first came up at the end of 2007 when former Sen. Louis DeLuca admitted to asking a man with mafia-ties to beat up his granddaughter’s husband because he thought she was being abused. A six-member panel, three Senators from each party, was appointed to determine whether to recommend a censure, reprimand, or expulsion. DeLuca ended up resigning before the committee made its final recommendation.

Support for changing the Senate’s rules to create a permit bipartisan committee on ethics seems to have faded since.

The bill failed mostly along party lines by a vote of 13-20, with only one Democrat, Sen. Ed Meyer, D-Guilford, voting for it.

Christine Stuart file photo Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford

*************************************************

Thought this information regarding the 17th Amendment was very interesting and germain to this post.

http://www.infowars.com/the-17th-amendment-and-the-injury-it-has-caused-to-our-republican-form-of-government/

Taxpayers Vs. Cost Of Education

There is a squabble going on in town over the cost of education, inflation, and the restoration of missing money from the school system that left many teachers, students, and residents, disappointed with the 2009 budget.

Last election the taxpayers, elected a board of Alderman, that promised to keep our town taxes low, while teachers were surprised when the budget fell short a couple of million dollars. The new Superintendent, Harvey Polansky said to the Board of Alderman to "restore the funds" and that he did not take the new job of superintendent to "dismantle the school system." On the other hand Edward Tamas a local Milford native, has spearheaded a taxpayer group that told the Board Of Alderman that if they give Polansky what he is demanding than he will lead a "Recall" mission to hold the Alderman at their word... keeping our property taxes affordable.

The entire situation has only become more challenging, as towns and municipalities all over connecticut are desperately seeking money to fix gaps in their budgets limiting what the state can offer in aid. New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury, you name it virtually every city is struggling, unless it be lower fairfield county and then things get at the very least "Rosier" for those towns that were able to maintain quality education with a low mill rate relative to their expensive real estate.

According to the CT Post "aldermanic Leaders do not feel threatened by the potential recall, said Minority Leader Vincent Ditchkus Jr., R-3. (referring to Tamas) It's his right to seek it, but a recall is not an easy process. And a special election would cost money. Has he thought of that?"

The energy and emotions are running hot as the blog boards show a very divisive battle over the town budget, petitions with thousands of signatures have been circulating to everyone including Milford's mayor Richetelli. Our leaders, most notably Jim Amann has resigned under a cloud of suspicion citing that he wants to focus on becomming Connecticuts next governor, a job that in the wake of Rell's high approval rating is a "longshot at best."

Rocco J. Frank Jr. a candidate for Jim Amman's seat said two things about the sad situation at city hall, he said "that the alderman and Amann "painted themselves into a corner" had Jim delivered the educational funds to Milford's schools like he did for St. Mary's Catholic school, and other pet projects, we would not have this mess on our hands. I believe that Jim understood how this mess could backfire on him, I believe he resigned to spare himself any potential embarrassment."

Frank also said that at this point "Milford should learn from this horrible mistake and setup a local "rainy day fund" so no more teachers ever have to be subjected to this kind of humiliation from the town Democrats and Republicans." Frank also said that successful towns do not diminish their school systems and neither should Milford.

Photo Above, of the now resigned Amann propping up his choice of a candidate, Former Miss Ct. a 25 year old recently unemployed airline stewardess.

Milford Legislators Under Pressure To Save Teachers

Yesterday, I was out dropping my step daughter to baseball practice. While completing my sponsorship donation to the little league, I was approached by a young gentleman and his mother.

The young man was armed with a petition in his hand and was remarkably upset that his favorite teacher at school was told she may not have a job next year. Accompanied by his mother, we discussed his concerns directed at mayor Richetelli. His story was heartfelt, and the amount of money requested small so Terri and I both signed his petition. At this point I felt honored to express my support of our town teachers and I indicated my opinion about the whole unfortunate situation.

To explain my view I will first remind the people of Milford, that our state has found over a Million Dollars for a boardwalk, money for random parks on bridges, expensive clocks, 60+ thousand to move a scaffold for a party at the Capitol, and money for Tax Exempt church schools, but so far nothing from the state to close what I believe to be a one million dollar gap to save the jobs of apx. 200 teachers.

Milford has several representatives, and the Almighty "Speaker Of The House" AKA Gubernatorial candidate in 2010. I suppose our energy in closing this gap should be directed toward the person who has the most authority in our district Speaker Amann. My personal belief is, that other influential House Speakers have been able to accomplish a great deal for their home towns by way of their authority, whereas Amann has fallen embarrassingly short in delivering us the funds.

With all the money spent in town over the last several years you would think that it would be possible to close a simple one Million dollar gap to save 200 jobs. The petitions are now circulating and the heat is on all our elected leaders to save 200 jobs. Should Amann alone fail in his quest this will mark 250 lost jobs at Bic in his district and now 200 more in the school system.

Anyone truly interested in saving the teachers of our town should direct their attention to our legislators as I believe the city has laudably exhausted it self in making cutbacks to the present budget.

Sheff v. O'Neill CT's Being Sued Again

The NAACP has said that the state of Connecticut has been given nearly a decade to desegregate the Hartford School system, and like schools that are racially imbalanced. The imbalances according to experts are largely due to socioeconomic factors of urbanization, industry investment, real estate policy, pay inequity, and the unspoken policy and practice of race evasion by the private sector.

There is no doubt that the NAACP case has merit and Connecticut has been slow to respond. They have been so slow that as of November a sleuth of subpoenas landed our states top brass back in court.

One person in particular questioned by Ralph Urban Esq. the NAACP attorney is Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management Robert Genuario. Genuario is an attorney and state senator from Norwalk CT who was appointed to his post by Gov. Rell. Mr. Genuario was being questioned regarding the progress made by the state of CT in its construction and implementation of 7 magnet schools in the Hartford area.

Secretary Genuario indicated that he participated in meetings to address the legal mandates regarding Sheff v. O'Neill he indicated that the state legislature did not approve as much funding as he hoped but did succeed in getting almost one half of the total requirements put through. He also cited collusion of power between the competing branches of government that made the implementation of the court order an arduous task.

The secretary feels that the main problem with full compliance with the Federal Court Order is the overall cost of implementing it. School construction is very expensive and over half of our state bonding debt, now 14.5 Billion, is tied up in school construction projects. This debt is the equivalent of $15,000.00 for every man, woman, and child in CT and consumes 11 Cents of every tax dollar in interest.

His message to the NAACP is that CT, now having the third highest bonding debt in America, simply cannot afford to rapidly build the schools demanded by the court order. Under the current pressures they are doing the best they can without incurring any additional bonding debt. To do so is to potentially destroy the states credit rating making an already bad financial situation even worse.

This case is still ongoing in Hartford superior court, and as a matter of opinion I can certainly agree that education is a desperate situation not only in CT but everywhere. I spent some time reading up on this issue of race inequity and segregation and have come to the conclusion that this issue is enormous and will require the resources of every school in the state if it is to be fixed.

My personal opinion has always been that the best way to desegregate our schools, and to improve education is to get the support of our major colleges and universities. To cut the cost of education to our state, and improve the resources available to low income inner city students, state, local, and private universities should be encouraged to open their doors to state funding to build and expand their campuses to encourage magnet school integration and resource sharing.

The very merger of High School and college in poor inner cities can potentially present envious opportunities for children who are not currently being properly educated. It will also put experienced educators and business managers in charge of education funding and tax dollar allocation.

The state already spends hundreds of millions doing a job that it has yet to be successful at. My personal belief is, that an inner city high school, for example, located on the campus of Yale University would be praised and supported by the highest and brightest levels of government at all levels, including some of the brightest students in the world at the disposal of teachers. This is just one of my "out of the box" innovative thoughts. While I must admit I am no expert on this issue, it certainly is a worthy proposal and possible solution to a decade old problem.

The question remains however, do the universities want to go into the business of educating younger students with state and local tax dollars. I personally feel that this should be explored.

U.S. Courts may bow to International Law.

The Bush administration intervened in the capitol murder case of illegal immigrant Jose Medellin. This intervention came after the U.N.'s International Court of Justice found Medellin was not informed of his right to contact the Mexican Consulate for legal assistance.

The court said that the United States was in violation of the Vienna Convention and therefore must comply. Keep in mind that this is the same court that has selectively ignored the Bush laws regarding torture.

The justices on the U.S. Supreme court are expected to uphold international law. This is presumed because Medellin has been sentenced to death for the murder of two Houston teenagers. Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena who were both sodomized and strangled with their shoe laces. Medellin then boasted of keeping one girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir of the crime.

The court is expected to overturn the conviction because three of the seven Supreme Court justices are against the death penalty, and the one swing judge has a reputation for upholding international law in the in matters of such challenges.

This will be a very sad decision, because for the first time in American history the United States will be recognizing the laws of the Hague international court as superior to our own Supreme Court and U.S. Constitution.

This Bush sponsored attack on the U.S. Constitution must be objected to as it is a slap in the face from both him and the Mexican President Felipe Calderón who encourages his people to ignore our borders and seek employment in the united states.

Please write your congressman and complain vehemently that our country is sovereign and not subject to the laws of the foreign courts. Attorneys can write amicus curia briefs to the judges of the U.S. Supreme court urging them to dismiss this case as having no jurisdiction. Please mobilize and start working to fight this fast.


Full artcle at: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58063