In This Together CT

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
–

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.

Yesterday, Governor Rell vetoed the compromise budget passed by the House and Senate. Despite all your hard work for a fair budget, the fiscal year has ended with no budget in place.

Without a budget, Governor Rell gets to set funding for every program and service and department in the state by executive order – she doesn’t have to compromise with anyone.

Rell’s priorities are frighteningly out of whack: she’s already eliminating funding for public services that working families rely on, just to protect households earning over $500k and big corporations from having to pay a little bit more in taxes.

We’re starting to see what Rell’s vision of Connecticut looks like, and it isn’t pretty. We can’t let that happen. We can’t let Governor Rell balance the budget on the backs of hard working families and our state’s most vulnerable.

Please take a moment to email the legislature and ask them to send Rell another budget with a progressive income tax.

While the legislature’s tax proposal should be more progressive in order to raise more revenue and many harmful cuts remain , the legislature deserves credit for sending Rell a budget that staves off some of the worst cuts with a progressive income tax on the state’s top earners.

But apparently Governor Rell cares more getting her way than about reaching a budget agreement on time.

What does her way mean? Well, it means not even a nickel income tax increase from the richest residents in the state, while throwing some of our state’s most vulnerable out in the cold. She’s already eliminated funding for job training programs – when what we most need is to get people back to work.

She’s done away with funding for AIDS prevention and treatment. She’s slashing funding to community health services and family resource centers.

These aren’t threatened cuts anymore. These are real. They’re happening. And they don’t just hurt the most vulnerable — they waste our state’s opportunity to take advantage of Obama’s stimulus package, and they’ll slow down any economic recovery.

This isn’t the kind of Connecticut we want to live in. Tell the legislature to send Governor Rell another budget with fewer cuts and a more  progressive income tax.

Here’s the link: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/t/4138/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2834

Thanks for your help once again.

We’re hearing from the Capitol in Hartford that the State Legislature is working out the final details of their budget plan — maybe as soon as tonight. That’s why I need you to speak out one more time.

The legislature has already agreed to billions in painful cuts. Now they could follow the Governor’s slash-and-burn example, and release out a budget proposal that is completely balanced on the backs of our families, which could throw us deeper into recession. Or they could take the opportunity to truly lead, and put us on the road to recovery by making sure the state’s top 5% of earners pay their fair share.

Take just one second to tell our legislators:

No more cuts. Support a progressive income tax.

A budget is a moral document. Working class and middle class families already pay more of our income in state and local taxes than the rich. And the recession is hitting us hardest. We can’t afford shoulder the entire burden ourselves.

What ever happened to shared sacrifice? The Governor’s proposals would cut even more funding for healthcare for the most vulnerable, close libraries, and even shutter job training programs when we most need to put people back to work. That kind of strategy would only hurt our families worse and plunge us farther into recession.

It’s time for our state’s top earners to contribute to the solution to this recession too. It’s time for a progressive income tax. Here’s the page to take action again.

This is the last moment. Now is the time to act.

Thanks for all your help.

Corporate Tax Loopholes? Some of CT’s biggest corporations dodge their taxes — and leave us to pay their share! Tell the State Senate: Close Corporate Tax Loopholes

When large corporations dodge their taxes, we all pay more. And in Connecticut, some of the biggest corporations are the best at playing dodge the tax.

In recent years, some of Connecticut’s largest corporations have exploited corporate tax loopholes, including General Electric, Webster Bank, Pfizer and Pitney Bowes, to pay just $250 in corporate taxes - the state minimum.

With a looming budget crisis, we simply can’t afford these loopholes. Either big corporations pay their fair share, or we pay for them.

Click here to tell your State Senator to close corporate tax loopholes by supporting the Better Choices budget plan.

Help spread the word! You can share this action on Facebook by clicking here.

Let’s not forget what’s at stake here. The Governor’s disastrous budget puts vital programs on the chopping block. Her budget cuts healthcare for the state’s poorest, cuts funding for libraries, and even shutters job training programs when what we need most is to start putting people back to work. It will also cost Connecticut tens of thousands of jobs and undermine President Obama’s stimulus plan to put Connecticut back to work.

That’s why we’re going on the air with a TV spot about the Governor’s dangerous budget plan. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the new ad by clicking here.

We’ve all heard that big businesses can manipulate their finances to dodge taxes, but I was surprised it was this bad. When large corporations hire expensive accountants to exploit loopholes and hide profits, we all pay for it. As recently as 1981, corporate taxes made up one quarter of state revenue. Today, it’s dropped to just 7%.

And in 2003, 18 of our state’s 100 largest corporations paid $250 in business taxes. But the average household in the state pays over $3,500 in state income. Where’s the justice in that?

We’re supporting the Better Choices budget plan to protect those vital public services by closing corporate tax loopholes and raising income taxes on people making over 250k per year, those who can most afford it.

Budget negotiations are getting heated, and there will likely be a deal in the next two weeks.

Act now: Tell your State Senator that to close corporate tax loopholes and support the Better Choices budget plan.

Thanks, and don’t forget to spread the word.

For more information on corporate taxes:

The think tank Connecticut Voices for Children has done excellent research on this topic. You can learn more about corporate taxes in Connecticut by reading some of their reports here and here.

Join us for Lobby Day: If we don’t fix the big problems with state budget, public service workers will be in the same place in another two years. Can you join us for lobby day this Wednesday to make sure our legislators get the message? Yes, give me the details No, but I’ll send an email Download a lobby day flyer here

When Connecticut needed to close it’s budget gap, public service workers stepped up. The people who keep us healthy, keep us safe and teach our children offered up $700 million in wage concessions and furloughs.

But if we don’t fix the big problems with our budget, in two years we’ll be back in the same boat, and they’ll be demanding even more dangerous cuts to vital public services and deeper sacrifices from public service workers.

That’s why we need you to step up again: come join us at the Capitol in Hartford this Wednesday for our lobby day. Come at noon or 5pm or both.

Can you join us on Wednesday for lobby day?

Yes, I want to sign up
No, but I still want to help

Let’s fill the up the Capitol. We should have people hanging from the rafters. Our legislators need to know how serious an issue this is. We’re already making big sacrifices — and now some legislators want us to cut back on vital public services even further?

It’s time to tell our legislators that everyone needs to pitch in — it’s time for the wealthy and the big corporations to pay their fair share too. If we can’t make the big fixes that our budget needs, in two years, our public services and our public service workers could be in danger again.

Come join us for lobby day at the Capitol, this Wednesday.

Click here to sign up for lobby day and join us at Noon or 5:00 PM:

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/t/4138/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=596

If you can’t come, it’s still vital that your legislators hear your voice. Click here to send your legislators an email asking them to fix the budget:

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/t/4138/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2763