In This Together CT

Read what the candidates for governor are saying in their own words. Then follow the links to post comments on the original source articles to set the record straight or recognize their support for working families.
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Read the latest installment of compiled quotes from the candidates over the last week and a half, including some of what was said during Tom Foley’s July 15 appearance on WNPR’s “Where We Live.”
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As we enter the summer months, and the election cycle, the rhetoric will heat up. We are beginning to hear louder calls for public service employees to sacrifice more and more. But we all know how much we’ve already sacrificed and the impact that has had on the people you serve. Let’s keep reminding them!
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Tell your legislators: Close corporate loopholes

For most of us, April means taxes, one of life’s great certainties. But some of Connecticut’s largest and most profitable corporations are playing a shell game, quietly shifting millions in profits out of state to avoid paying taxes.

Because of those corporate loopholes, the rest of us pay more. They win and we lose.

We simply can’t afford to let the big guys play by their own set of rules. It’s time to stop the shell games. Tell your legislators to close corporate tax loopholes:

http://fairtaxesct.org/send-a-message

Help spread the word: Share this action on facebook or forward this email to friends and family.

In this economic crisis every dollar counts – and every time a huge corporation like AT&T avoids a dollar in taxes, it comes right out of our schools, our hospitals, out of public safety or our libraries. Or else it means higher taxes on working families and small businesses.

AT&T became the poster child for tax avoidance when a DPUC audit found that they paid $145 million to an AT&T subsidiary in Nevada for use of their own logo. It’s a paper transaction that only exists to shift profits to Nevada, which has no corporate tax. Wal-Mart engages in an even more complex scheme involving paying rent on their stores to an out of state tax-exempt “real estate investment trust.”

How often does this really happen? It’s hard to know because in Connecticut, corporations aren’t required to disclose their transfers to out of state subsidiaries What we do know is that corporate taxes have dropped precipitously as a share of the state budget, from 24% in 1986 to 7% today.

We’re supporting legislation to stop paper transactions like these and make our state’s large and profitable corporations pay their fair share. It’s now a new idea — 23 other states already do it.

The legislature’s Finance Committee could vote on this legislation as soon as today.

Please take action right now. Connecticut can’t afford these loopholes anymore. Tell your legislators stop the shell game.

http://fairtaxesct.org/send-a-message

Thanks for all you do.

Please pass this message along to friends and family after you take action by forwarding this email or sharing on facebook.

Enough is enough. It’s time to stop the budget cuts and put people in Connecticut back to work.

The plan to balance the state budget on the backs of working people, by slashing public services and attacking state workers is the wrong way to move Connecticut forward. We need solutions, not political posturing. Connecticut needs a real jobs program that invests in Connecticut and its residents.

Connecticut is the wealthiest state in the union, and it’s time for our richest neighbors to pay their fair share. It’s time for the folks who helped start this recession to help end it. They can afford it, but Connecticut can’t afford more budget cuts.

Call your state representative and state senator and tell them to pass a real jobs program that puts people back to work while protecting families and communities.

Click here to find your state representative and state senator.

Here’s a sample script to use for calls to your state representative and state senator:

Hello my name is ____________________ I am a resident of ___________________. I’m calling about the State Budget to let you know that the 3 billion dollars already cut is enough. We need the General Assembly to pass a real jobs program that will put people back to work and protect families and communities.

• To pay for a real jobs program, it’s time for the wealthy to pay their fair share.

• The recession is over for them, and they are taking home millions in bonuses, even though some of them are the very people who started the recession to begin with.

• Now they need to pay their fair share so we can start bringing the rest of us out of the recession as well.

Thank you for your time and effort working on this important issue.

Have you thought recently that the folks in the Governor’s office just don’t get it? Have you ever found yourself saying to co-workers that you wished top politicians listened more to the concerns and ideas of frontline public service workers, or better understood the needs of Connecticut’s working families?

This Saturday is your chance to get answers to the really tough questions from Connecticut’s gubernatorial candidates.

For the first time in decades, we’ll be electing a newcomer to the state’s top office. SEBAC, our coalition of state employee unions, is hosting a forum with the candidates for governor on Saturday, March 20 in West Hartford.

All of the potential candidates — both Democratic and Republican — have been invited to speak to union members and answer our questions. The following candidates have agreed to attend:

Ned Lamont – Democrat
Rudy Marconi – Democrat
Dannel Malloy – Democrat
Juan Figueroa – Democrat
Tom Marsh – Republican

Turn-out for the event is expected to be high. If you haven’t already done so, contact your union’s representative to RSVP and get additional details on this important event.

This is your opportunity to let the candidates know that you care about their positions on issues like rebuilding Connecticut’s economy, protecting the vital services we provide, and providing a better future for our children and grandchildren. Let’s ensure that we end up with a partner in the Governor’s Office in 2010.

Look forward to seeing you at the forum on Saturday!

A few weeks ago, we asked members of SEBAC’s unions to share their stories about how budget cuts are affecting them. On January 28th, we met with the Governor and exchanged our ideas on how to help solve the economic crisis. We showed that once again, public service workers are willing to be a crucial part of the solution.

We’d like the public to hear these ideas as well. We can think of no better way to accomplish this goal than to have union members who care about public services share your suggestions for increasing government efficiency, improving the delivery of services, and saving taxpayers money.

If you are a member of one of SEBAC’s unions, share those ideas by completing the attached survey. Some of you may have already seen this request in recent emails but we want to make sure that we reach as many respondents as possible. We truly need and welcome your participation.

Please complete this online member “Innovations & Efficiencies Proposals” web survey

It won’t take more than a minute or two — and if you have a good idea, we’d really love to hear it.

Or if you prefer to do it the old fashioned way, you can click here to download the survey, print and complete it and send it by mail to me at:

Eric Bailey
AFT Connecticut
35 Marshall Rd.
Rocky Hill CT 06067-1400.

Download the member “Innovations & Efficiencies Proposals” survey (print version)

Also, the SEBAC campaign team has been invited to sit down with reporters and talk about our ideas to increase government efficiency, improve the delivery of services, and save taxpayers money. If you are willing to present your ideas publicly, please let us know by indicating it on the survey.

Thank you for your help in spreading the word!

The state budget is still in dire straits, with revenues still falling. If it weren’t for State employees and the concessions they made in 2009, we’d be in even worse shape. But Governor Rell wants to make further cuts to public services and ask workers to come back to the bargaining table for more givebacks.

What Gov. Rell is forgetting is that those budget cuts have already had a serious impact: they’ve made it harder and harder for public service workers to deliver services that people are counting on.

I’m asking for your help. We need you to show the administration that budget cuts are impacting those critical services — and that her budget cuts really hurt people in Connecticut.

We need to tell Rell your stories. Help us show the governor and her Administration that more cuts will be devastating to the economy and to the lives of regular people.

Please complete one of the attached surveys. They’re quick and easy, but adding all the stories together will demonstrate in clear terms to the Governor how slashing programs and services harm working families in Connecticut every day and slow down economic recovery.

Are you a public service worker? Please complete this survey.

Are you a union leader? Please complete this survey.

Not a public service worker? Share your story of the economy’s impact on any services you receive, from unemployment claims to lines at the DMV. Please complete this survey.

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Having trouble filling out your survey online? Or you’d rather just do it with pen and paper the old fashioned way? You can download and print out your survey and then mail it back to us.

For public service workers, download the survey by clicking here.

For union leaders, download the survey by clicking here.

Please complete these surveys by Thursday, January 14 so we have time to compile the responses.

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Stand up for the developmentally disabled! Privatizing group homes can have disastrous consequences. Don’t let Governor Rell go back on her word. Take Action.

The staff at group homes for the developmentally disabled become like family to vulnerable clients — and breaking up these families can have disastrous effects.

You wouldn’t know it listening to her today, but as recently as 2007, Governor Rell agreed to a moratorium on the privatization of group homes. Back then, she understood it.

Take action: tell your state legislators that privatizing group homes puts the most vulnerable at serious risk.

Two years ago Governor Rell said:

“The group home has been exactly that – a home – for these clients for many years. Many of the clients and their families report great progress in their current environment. Uprooting them at this stage of their lives and putting their families through a transition to other services would represent an unacceptable disruption.”

Governor M. Jodi Rell, November 13, 2007.

Now she’s changing her tune. Gov. Rell says she wants the power to order Connecticut’s developmental services agency to wrench those clients from their group home families.

Today the Senate and House are holding a special session to consider implementer bills to put the recently passed state budget to work. It includes a provision that would continue the moratorium on privatizing these group homes and preserve vital services for children and adults with mental health issues, developmental disabilities, and who are drug or alcohol dependent.

Contact your legislators today and urge them to join us in fighting Rell’s “unnecessary disruption” and to protect services for Connecticut’s most vulnerable families.

Click here to send your message now.

Thank you for all you do to stand up for quality public services Connecticut families count on.

Bill Meyerson
Campaign Coordinator
InThisTogetherCT.org

P.S. Watch video of mental health and addiction service workers and parents of their clients asking the Governor’s spokesperson to explain her reversal. Click here.

You’ll never believe this email I just got. These wackos are actually staging a luxury press conference, with limos and champagne, to thank Governor Rell for protecting the super rich – at our expense!

I thought you’d want to see this for yourself!

-Bill Meyerson
Campaign Coordinator
InThisTogetherCT.org

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Robin Eublind, Billionaires for Budget Cuts
Date: Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Subject: Calling All Billionaires!

Dear fellow Billionaires,

Governor Rell is truly one of us.

She has stood strong and resisted pandering to the needs of working and middle class families, and has always stood up to protect the wealthy and powerful. She understands that taxes are for little people. And we’re proud to say that she’s resisted every effort to raise our taxes to fund silly things like education and healthcare.

Please join us:

Champagne Toast to Governor Rell
This Thursday (July 30th), at Noon
Capitol Steps 550 Capitol Ave, Hartford
(google maps)

Don’t forget your top hats, monocles, white gloves, balls gowns, pearls, etc…

To RSVP, please contact:
Rich N. Luvenit at (860) 221 5696 or at RichNLuvenit@gmail.com
or Robin Eublind at (978) 223 5868 or at RobinEublind@gmail.com

Let’s keep things the way they are! We’re doing OK, so who cares about the rest of the economy?

And don’t forget to join the new Billionaires for Budget Cuts Facebook Group!

-Robin Eublind
Secretary, Billionaires for Budget Cuts
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DISCLAIMER: “Billionaires for Budget Cuts” is obviously not a real group. The event is a put on, but it’s got a very serious message: the Governor is refusing to consider raising revenue from those who can best afford it to help protect those who are most in need from truly devastating cuts.

Please join us at the Capitol, Thursday at noon, in your best Billionaire attire to toast the Governor in jest, and highlight the tax loopholes that Governor Rell is protecting.