Oy vey.
“Students and their families should not have to choose between attending graduation and being subjected to proselytizing religious messages,” said Alex Luchenitser, senior litigation counsel for Americans United, in a statement Wednesday. “Yet that is exactly the choice that the Enfield Schools impose on students and their families.”
Will a tax revolt this be the ultimate trickle-down economic effect? Revenue is drying up not only at the Federal level but is now doing so, as was inevitable, at the State and local levels. I’ll go out on a limb and predict that the local level is where the pushback on taxes will occur, not only here but nationwide.
Here’s a little foreshadowing of the fun that awaits us in 2010: a number of stories from around the State which show us why we are about to become California – or one of many Californias.
The Town of Winchester uncovers a “mystery” problem:
The town of Winchester’s budget situation is so bad that there may not be enough money to make payroll next month, according to the newly elected Winchester Board of Selectmen, which voted to set up a process that would allow the town to borrow up to $2.5 million against future tax payments in order to keep the town running.
The process involves using tax-anticipation notes to pay for budget shortfalls, which may reach a critical point next month. If the town goes ahead with the plan, a special town meeting and referendum would be required to allow the town to borrow against future proceeds.
Mayor Candy Perez said she first heard about the seriousness of the budget problem on Nov. 4, (emphasis added) the day after this year’s municipal election, when then-Town Manager Keith Robbins said the crisis was bad enough to warrant tax-anticipation notes. Robbins submitted his letter of resignation to Perez a week later.
In Naugatuck, there are some unhappy days at the Board of Ed, and a $2 million shortfall looming.
Teachers overwhelmingly condemned the performance of embattled Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson Thursday, while the school board continued to search for ways to make up a projected $2 million budget deficit.
The Naugatuck Teachers’ League voted 320-8 in a symbolic gesture to show they have no confidence in the 62-year-old school chief, who has been here since September 2006.
We know where that ends.
And looming Statewide… a projected $3.2 billion shortfall in 2012, according to the State’s Office of Fiscal Analysis. (Click to download as PDF or view above.)
Help support Bethel Temple Church Of God on Frank Street, in need of about $6,000 to replace stolen equipment.
Pastor Larry Pinkard will invoke the prophet Nehemiah from the pulpit Sunday — and tell a tale about how walls will be rebuilt on Frank Street.
The sermon will touch on the tale of two houses of worship attacked by evildoers, one in biblical times, one in 2009.
IN his column today, The Courant’s Rick Green says farewell to the old economy, complete with a scary graphic showing that Connecticut has lost over 15,000 manufacturing jobs in the last year. And then Mr. Green wonders if anyone is listening.
Actually, considering his appearance on the panel with Peter Schiff on Face The State, I find this highly ironic. (Watch the exchange that starts at about 3:00.) Hasn’t Schiff been the one saying that we’ve stupidly, deliberately exported our manufacturing base to Asia? I love watching people throw the accepted wisdom at Schiff.
With apologies to Mr. Green, having lost over 70,000 jobs in a year, I think we’re saying farewell not just to the old economy, but to our ability to pay for the welfare state we have constructed.
After being turned down in 2005, Fairfield’s Black Rock Congregational Church has received permission for a major expansion from the Town of Fairfield’s Inland Wetlands Commission. At 85,000 square feet, the new church will be two and a half times as large as the present 34,000 square foot facility. Black Rock is one of Connecticut’s largest Evangelical congregations. Details here.
Although, as Tom Blumer points out in the NewsBusters blog, the media may be oddly reluctant to remember that there was a U. S. Supreme Court case – and a person – named Kelo.
Superior Court Judge Barry Stevens has ruled that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport must release thousands of pages of documents relating to allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ended nearly a decade of appeals by the diocese in its efforts to block public access to more than 12,000 pages from 23 lawsuits against six priests.
While the nation’s highest court ordered the diocese to turn over the documents, it let stand a lower court ruling that a small segment of the records dealing with priests’ medical records and seven priests not named in the lawsuits could remain sealed.
More here from the Connecticut Post.
She will be remembered well. Lt. Gov. Fedele will definitely be a candidate, as he states in this Channel 8 video.
Whoever wins will need our prayers for the thankless task that awaits – dealing with Connecticut’s seemingly intractable budgetary and revenue problems.
The income tax raised nearly $1.3 billion less than budgeted in the last fiscal year, which ended in a record $925.6 million deficit. The state government is covering that shortfall with borrowed money.
The current year is showing no signs of improvement.
Are we on our way to being the next California? Read more here at the Republican-American.
Republican candidates prevailed in most major races yesterday and, as Vincent at Connecticut Local Politics points out, Connecticut exemplified the trend better than anywhere.
Like New Jersey, we are a deeply blue state, so to see the GOP win in places like Stamford and Norwich and Stratford shows that something major was going on last night. (The only town that completely bucked the trend was West Hartford. Come on folks, get with it.)
What happened was a revolt against overspending. The GOP runs best in the Northeast when it sticks to three issues — taxes, limited government, and crime. In this economic climate, the party pounded the financial management issue, blaming Democratic mayors and councils for overspending during a recession. It clearly resonated. For example, in my hometown of Fairfield, the RTM swung from 27-23 Democratic to 38-12 Republican, and the GOP won almost all the open board seats (finance, education) as well….
Sure, we are a blue state, and so is New Jersey. But just because we are Democrats doesn’t mean that we like seeing the government nationalize the auto industry, or take over the health care industry. Nutmeggers remain New Englanders, who believe in private enterprise, personal responsibility and thrift. Watching the government triple the deficit and have little to show for it (except for make-work featherbedding like the torn-up-for-no-reason Merritt Parkway) drives people of our mindset nuts.
I think this is sound analysis. It’s become far too easy to make bogeymen out of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh – as if there were nothing at all a rational person could find troubling about that tripled deficit.