Would the Connecticut Republican Delegation Care to Comment?

"GOP Chairman Michael Steele spends $1,946.25 of RNC money at sex-themed Hollywood nightclub"

Not just any sex club but a bondage club that specializes in lesbian sex shows... That is where your hard earned dollars go to when you donate to Republicans. That or paying for limousines and gambling:

The news got worse, according to an adviser to Mr. Shays: The man Mr. Shays entrusted to run his political operation for nearly a decade had been quietly draining the account and had spent nearly $200,000 on Red Sox tickets, limousine travel, mysterious withdrawals at the Foxwoods casino and a donation of more than $1,000 to his synagogue.

I wonder if shoulda been a "3 strikes in jail" Chris Healy ever used donations to cover legal costs for his multiple DUI's? Would it shock you if he did? Just know that your money is safe with them. They will gladly tell you all about that.

Republicans Betting Everything on Opposisition to Health Care?

In the previous post we saw the the Republican US Senate candidates opposition. Now comes State Senators:

The CT Post reports:

All 12 Republican state senators on Wednesday formally
asked Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to join the nation-wide
opposition to the new federal health care reform bill.

The group, calling the legislation "illegal," asked Blumenthal to
oppose it on constitutional grounds to protect state families and
businesses from anticipated mandates and higher costs.

Congressional candidates are lining up as well:

News release:

4th District Congressional Candidate Rob Russo today signed and submitted the “REPEAL IT! Pledge” created by Club for Growth (www.clubforgrowth.org).“When I am in Congress, the first thing I will do is introduce legislation to repeal this bill."


Just like Social Security and Medicare people are going to grow fond of this legislation when they begin feeling the benefits. The Republicans are not doing themselves any favors with this mindless negativism.

Simmons, McMahon, Schiff Still Showing Zeal For Repeal

Days after President Obama signed into law historic health care reforms which will close the donut hole for seniors, allow children up to age 26 to stay on their parent’s insurance, end appalling insurance practices, lower the deficit, and increase access to health insurance for thousands of Connecticut residents, Republican Senate candidates Rob Simmons, Linda McMahon, and Peter Schiff continue to call for these reforms to be repealed and taken away from Connecticut residents.

“Rob Simmons, Linda McMahon, and Peter Schiff have redefined March Madness in their zeal for repeal,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee National Press Secretary Deirdre Murphy. “Simmons, McMahon, and Schiff should let Connecticut residents know what reforms they want to take away first, the tax credits for small businesses, the increased funding for Medicaid, allowing children to stay on their parent’s insurance longer, or closing the donut hole for seniors?”

If Health Reform were repealed… a dismal picture for Connecticut.
Seniors:
Ø An immediate $250 rebate for the roughly 97,100 Connecticut seniors who will hit the Medicare Part D ‘donut hole’ this year would be revoked.
Ø 547,000 seniors will see higher Medicare premiums and have to pay more for preventive health care
State Budget:
Ø $3.9 billion in affordability tax credits to 242,000 Connecticut residents would be forfeited*
Ø $4.5 billion in federal Medicaid funding would be lost*
Small Businesses:
Ø 37,600 small businesses will not get tax credits to help them afford coverage for their employees this year.
Individuals:
Ø Insurance companies will continue to deny coverage to the estimated 38,591 Connecticut residents with pre-existing conditions
Ø Family insurance premiums would increase by $1,780-$2,540**
Children & Young Adults
Ø Insurance companies will still be able to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions
Ø 315,814 young adults who would have been able to stay on their parents’ insurance plans this year would now be denied coverage
*over 5 years
**by 2016

MALLOY CALLS FOR GOVERNOR, LEGISLATIVE LEADERS TO NEGOTIATE BUDGET IN “THE LIGHT OF DAY”

Says “unprecedented crisis requires unprecedented actions”

Democratic candidate for Governor and former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy today released the following statement:

“I’m calling on the Governor to do today what I’d do if I were Governor. Call the legislative leaders into a negotiating session and allow members of the media (traditional and new media both) to sit in. I’d put my ideas on the table, and I’d ask each of them to do the same. I’d see how far apart we are and then I’d start trying to move us to consensus, and I’d do it in public.

“I know this suggestion is going to be dismissed by some as ‘grandstanding’ or me not understanding how the Legislature works. Neither is the case. They’re stuck, and they not getting un-stuck. They can’t keep doing what they’ve been doing. Passing deficit mitigation packages that you know are going to be vetoed by the Governor gets you nowhere. Similarly, passing a deficit mitigation package in one chamber knowing it has no chance of passing in the other chamber – but doing it anyway – also gets you nowhere. And while trying to gain the upper hand by selectively leaking to the press parts of conversations that were held in private meetings might be fun, it too gets you nowhere. Which is exactly where we are: nowhere.

“Let’s be clear about what’s going on with the budget deficit. This is a bipartisan train wreck that isn’t going to be solved by political grandstanding. This deficit is not cyclical, not primarily the result of the recession, and not revenue-driven. And, because the state doesn’t abide by GAAP the way it requires cities and towns to, the actual deficit is a lot worse than what most people think.

“This deficit is deep and structural – the cumulative result of long-term spending increases, underfunded liabilities and borrowing plus a state government that is top heavy and too top down. In other words, it’s the result of a lot of bad decisions that were made over a long period of time by both parties. But, ironically, since it’s everyone’s fault, there’s no one person or entity that should be blamed. Meaning there’s no ‘good guy,’ no ‘bad guy,’ no finger pointing. Just a collective acknowledgment that the problem needs to be fixed, now.

“So, what do we do? First, we need to reduce the cost of state government. There’s no way around it.

“Since we’re going to have to make cuts, I’d start by asking each of us to cut political appointee staff by 15 percent. You can’t ask others what you’re not willing to do yourself. Since we each have a place where we’d draw the line, I’d draw mine first: no cuts to the most vulnerable people in Connecticut – those who are served by the community non-profits. People with disabilities, seniors in our nursing homes, people who suffer from debilitating mental illness, children who are at risk, and the other people served by these providers. Then I’d ask each of the legislative leaders to do the same with the constituencies they want to protect, hoping that there’d be some common ground there.

“And then, with everything else on the table – and I mean everything – we’d each have to suggest cuts and advocate efficiencies. No one likes to, but everyone has to. But, since we’d be doing it in public, my sense is there’d be a lot less of the ‘he said, she said’ stuff that’s been going on lately. No one wants to look like that when everyone’s watching.

“And, because being Governor is about leadership, I’d start by suggesting that we look at state government as a whole. I’d bring to the table the ideas state employee labor leaders have been carrying around for the last two years, and where I think the efficiencies and cuts make sense, I’d propose them so the legislative leaders wouldn’t have to. I’d be willing to take that heat. Where I don’t think their ideas make sense, I’d prove to them that they’re wrong, and then I’d tell them to come back with new ideas that hit the same dollar amounts. I’d take that hit, too. Then I’d put some other ideas on the table, like merging the state’s four economic development agencies into one department (if we can be dead last in job growth with all four of them in existence, we can’t do any worse with just one agency). To be clear, I have no interest in laying people off. We’re not even done absorbing the impact of the early retirements, and putting people out of work is never smart. I’d also suggest freezing compensation for all political appointees, and I’d want to look for ways to stop providing cars for state employees other than the five constitutional officers and law enforcement (people can be reimbursed for official use of their personal cars).

“Then I’d ask legislative leaders for their ideas.

“As Yogi Berra once said, ‘It gets late early around here.’”

Just Shut Up

Rick Green, a Hartford Courant columnist and blogger, reports on his blog CTConfidential that “Rowdy students prevented New Canaan's Ann Coulter from speaking in Ottawa” Canada, and he added “That will stop her” in apparent approval.

Closer to home, UConn students successfully blocked Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton  from speaking on campus.

Coulter said later that the Canadian university that scheduled her to speak was a second rate institution, and Boughton, who is running for governor on the Republican ticket this year, politely protested his exclusion from a law school panel before which he had been invited to speak. Boughten did not characterize UConn as a second rate college.

Canada, more or less patterned after European models, has no First Amendment rights. Mark Steyn, a Canadian writer much published here in the land of Jefferson and Madison, has had a tougher time of it in Canada, where a quasi governmental agency – the amusingly miss-named Canadian Human Rights Commission -- a couple of years ago subjected Steyn to a lengthy and costly investigation following a complaint received by the commission from the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC). The CIC objected to a magazine in Canada that printed excerpts from Steyn’s book “America Alone.”

In Connecticut, whenever assaults are made on First Amendments rights, the air is usually thick with recriminations: commentary articles in newspapers, marches and assemblies, editorial protests and other healthy effusions. But let a Connecticut native be hooted down in Canada or a candidate for governor in the state be pressured out of a speaking engagement by law school students at a tax supported university and you get – a silence so think you can mould it into a brick and throw it at the head of any target disserving of liberal displeasure.

Neither the Canadian brown shirts nor the UConn group was associated with Tea Party Patriots.

Race To The Top: New Teacher and Principal Evaluations

The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) has released a new issue brief, “Teachers, Principals & Race to the Top,” detailing the broken system and underscoring the need for change.

“When 99 percent of Hartford teachers receive a satisfactory rating, but less than half of students are reading at grade level, something needs to change,” said Alex Johnston, ConnCAN Chief Executive Officer. “Race to the Top is Connecticut’s chance to follow New Haven’s lead and institute meaningful teacher and principal evaluations.”

S.B. 440, “An act concerning school districts and teacher performance programs,” would institute a better data system that defines principal and teacher effectiveness in terms of student achievement growth and links teacher and principal training programs to the classroom effectiveness of their graduates.

Text of this bill is available here.


Section three of H.B. 5491, “An act concerning certain school district reforms to reduce the achievement gap in Connecticut,” requires schools districts to incorporate student achievement growth into their teacher and principal evaluation systems by July 1, 2011.

Text of that bill is available here.


The last day for the Connecticut General Assembly’s Education Committee to pass these bills out of committee is Wednesday, March 24.

In early March, Connecticut was rejected from the first round of the Race to the Top, the federal government’s highly coveted $4 billion competition to reward states that aggressively reform their public schools.

Round 2 of the Race to the Top is due June 1. ConnCAN’s campaign, “Our Race to the Top” is calling for four reforms to help Connecticut win the Race to the Top: measuring effectiveness, superstar principals, world-class standards and money follows the child.

Detailed policy goals and other information

Let's Close Corporate Tax Loopholes!

Corporate tax loopholes have allowed some of the state’s largest and most profitable corporations to pay almost nothing in corporate taxes. One such tax avoidance scheme, called the "Las Vegas Loophole," allows large, multi-state corporations to artificially shift profits to subsidiaries in states without corporate income taxes, like Nevada. These loopholes diminish revenues that Connecticut needs to maintain schools, health care, public safety, transportation, and other essential services for families, communities, and businesses. They also put local, Connecticut-based companies at a competitive disadvantage to the large multi-state companies that can take advantage of the loopholes.

Monday morning, Finance Committee co-chairman Representative Cameron Staples held a press conference in the Legislative Office Building to call for legislation to ban the worst of these tax avoidance schemes. Joining Rep. Staples at the press conference were several other legislators and also representatives from advocacy organizations Connecticut Working Families, Connecticut Voices for Children and Better Choices for Connecticut.

“While families are struggling, some of our state’s largest and most profitable corporations are shifting millions out of state to avoid paying Connecticut taxes,” said Jon Green, director of Connecticut Working Families. “Average families can’t just invent elaborate shell games like AT&T does. So we all pay more.”

Advocates supported legislation known as ‘combined reporting’ that would stop corporations from shifting Connecticut profits out of state by requiring them to report income from all jurisdictions. Advocates argued that these large, multi-state businesses can afford to pay taxes that support the public services and infrastructure that businesses use.

Connecticut’s business taxes as a share of state economic activity (private sector gross products) are the second lowest in the nation, according to an analysis by the accounting firm Ernst and Young. In 2003, 18 of the largest 100 corporations headquartered in Connecticut paid only $250 in corporate income taxes, according to an analysis by the Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee.

"Connecticut can no longer afford corporate tax loopholes that put local companies at a competitive disadvantage and drain revenues we need to maintain education, health, transportation, and other essential services for families and businesses." said Jeffrey Tebbs, Research Associate for Tax Policy at Connecticut Voices for Children.

A new study released today concluded that the combined reporting tax reform would not impose unreasonable administrative burdens on Connecticut businesses. The study, conducted by Connecticut Voices for Children and the Yale Law School Legislative Advocacy Clinic, found that more than half of the states with corporate income taxes (23 of 45) already require combined reporting. Further, the study found that 86% of Connecticut's largest employers already operate in states that require combined reporting.

“Enacting combined reporting would take one step forward in making Connecticut's revenue system more accountable, transparent and equitable,” said Maggie Adair, co-chair of the Better Choices for Connecticut coalition. “23 other states have had the common sense to do this and Connecticut should join them.”

One poster child for these corporate loopholes is AT&T. Over a period of three and a half years, the company shifted over $190 million in profits out of state to a subsidiary in Nevada to avoid paying Connecticut taxes. Revelations of this scheme prompted an investigation by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal last year.

Following the press conference, a bill to address corporate tax loopholes (S.B. 485) was one topic at the Finance Committee’s public hearing.

Connecticut Working Families is a coalition of community organizations, labor unions and neighborhood activists who united to fight for a fair economy. Working Families was formed to inject issues like affordable healthcare, living wage jobs and fair taxes into the public debate, and to hold politicians accountable on those issues.

Connecticut Voices for Children is a research-based, policy think tank that works to advance public policies that benefit the state’s children, youth and families.

Better Choices for Connecticut is a community coalition working to help Connecticut make smarter choices on ways to improve the state’s imbalanced revenue system so that it advances opportunity for shared prosperity for all Connecticut residents; preserves services for children, families and the elderly; creates and sustains good jobs; and reinvests in the middle class and our communities.