By Ana Radelat

Washington – Connecticut’s accountants are frustrated that they can give clients only limited advice about a massive federal tax overhaul underway in Congress, and some predict there will be more losers than winners among individual taxpayers in the state.

“They are likely to see their federal taxes increase next year, and they should be aware of that,” said Bonnie Stewart, executive director at the Connecticut Society of CPAs.

Stewart said the state’s certified public accountants are being deluged by clients, both business owners and individuals, asking how they would fare under the new tax bill.

“The calls are coming in to accounting offices across the state,” she said.

Westport’s Board of Finance tonight reelected Brian Stern as its chairman and Michael Rea as vice chairman.

Stern was elected by a vote of 5 to 0 with 1 abstention, his own. Finance board member John Hartwell was not present.

Rea nominated Stern, saying his “leadership, your evenhandedness is much appreciated by the taxpayers of this town.”

“One of the great characteristics about Brian is that he has been, in very tough times with the budget, very patient with the public.”

By Mark Pazniokas

New Haven — Connecticut’s political left obtained commitments from four Democratic gubernatorial contenders on a range of progressive issues today at a “People’s Symposium” that was as much a test of the audience’s appetite for hitting the streets to resist President Donald J. Trump as the politicians’ visions for succeeding Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Pictured (l-r) Joe Ganim, Dan Drew, Dita Bhargava and Jonathan Harris. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Mark Pazniokas for CTMirror.org

The Working Families Organization and its allies in labor and progressive politics devised the symposium as an early effort to frame the campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and test their ability to identify and engage foot soldiers in the campaigns for governor and control of the General Assembly in 2018.

“We’re trying to harness the energy of the Resist Trump movement,” said Carlos Moreno, a spokesman for the Working Families.

About 500 people showed up at the Fair Haven School to watch Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, Middletown Mayor Dan Drew, former state Sen. Jonathan Harris of West Hartford and Dita Bhargava, a former Wall Street executive from Greenwich, be quizzed on taxes, immigration, criminal-justice reform, police accountability, collective bargaining, and the fight for a $15 minimum wage.

By Mark Pazniokas

Backed by the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations today filed a lawsuit to force Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to approve their gaming agreements with Connecticut and clear the way for them to jointly develop a commercial casino in East Windsor.

Tribal leaders watch Gov. Dannel P. Malloy sign ceremonial copy of the East Windsor casino bill in July. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Mark Pazniokas for CTMirror.org

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., comes one month after the tribes and the state’s congressional delegation failed to move the Department of the Interior off its puzzling stance of neither rejecting nor approving amendments to the tribes’ gaming compacts.

The refusal to give a clear answer was a victory for MGM Resorts International, which has lobbied for two years in Hartford and Washington, D.C., to block the East Windsor casino and protect the market for an MGM casino scheduled to open next year in nearby Springfield.

By suing Zinke, Malloy and the tribes appear to be trying to move decision-making in the case away from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Justice, where lawyers now must decide how or whether to defend Zinke’s failure to meet timetables for reviewing amendments to gaming compacts.