An undocumented Florida woman who helped her sister report domestic violence now faces an order of deportation from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even though her lawyers say she never should have been detected by ICE agents in the first place.

The woman, Rita Cote, 25, is married to a U.S. citizen and has four children, all of them citizens. She has no criminal record. But when police arrived to respond to the domestic-violence call on Feb. 16, 2009, law enforcement instead took Cote into custody, detained her for a week and handed her over to ICE.

Cote now faces deportation at any time to her native Honduras, which she fled as a child in 1998 to escape Hurricane Mitch and its aftermath. If deported, she could be separated from her husband and children for up to a decade.

While law-enforcement officials seek to work closely with their communities to prevent or solve crimes, immigrant-rights advocates say cases like Cote's hurt that cause. The threat of deportation can have a chilling effect on the willingness of undocumented immigrants to turn to the police, they argue, even in similar cases of violent crime, leaving areas heavily populated by illegal immigrants more dangerous and lawless.

ICE officials say their enforcement priorities first target illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes, but in practice, the agency more often rounds up those whose only crime is being in the country without documentation. The Obama administration has set a record for deportations of immigrants without a criminal record -- expelling more such people than those with a criminal record, although deportation of criminals has also increased.

[...]

In 2009, Cote appeared on ICE's radar once again following the 911 call on behalf of her sister, who does not speak English. She was still present when police responded to the call. At that point, ACLU lawyers say the responding police officers swayed from normal protocol and required everyone at the scene to present identification. According to ACLU lawyer Glenn Katon, the police took Cote to jail after demanding that she show her passport rather than another photo I.D., which had her married name.

The ACLU lawsuit contends that asking Cote for an I.D. -- and taking it to the level of demanding a passport -- was a matter of racial profiling by the police and claims police and the county had no authority to detain her. "I find that hard to believe that if this was a white family and someone got into a fight at a party, they'd ask everyone for I.D.," Katon told HuffPost.

…so, we need to derive more revenue, not necessarily through property taxes.

[…]

There are some proposals out there…I met with some of the governor's representatives and staff today, there might be something like an expanded sales tax, where they cover more products than they covered before. Half or a quarter of that sales tax be brought back to go to the city of Danbury and the other half would go to the state. That's a good thing for us and I'm going to tell you why, we have the mall!

[…]

I can't tell you how excited I would be but I'll be twittering all night long about that if something like that were to happen.

• Increasing the state hotel tax from 12 percent to 15 percent. Revenue raised by 1 percentage point of that tax would be sent to cities and towns.


• Creating a new statewide, 3 percent surcharge on car rentals. Two-thirds of the revenue would go to the state and one-third to the towns.


• Restoring statewide cabaret tax, a levy on music performance venues. All revenue from this tax would go to the municipalities.


• Adding 0.1 percentage point for retail sales to the 6.25 percent sales tax rate Malloy proposed. Revenue from this surcharge would go to the municipalities in which the sales took place.

Source: CTMirror

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities said that overall Malloy seemed to have made cities, towns and their property taxpayers a priority in his proposed budget, despite the state’s fiscal crisis.

“This is a brave new world I think we’re entering here and I know that everyone here is enthusiastic to be here and support our governor’s budget because both as a lawmaker and as a mayor, I can tell you that no one has ever uttered the kinds of words that Dan Malloy has uttered today,” said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch.

The state hasn’t had a governor, in recent history, who looks to balance the budget without deep cuts in municipal aid, he said.

[...]

The message from CCM was surprisingly unified despite varying party allegiances. Roxbury First Selectman Barbara Henry, a Republican, said she would have liked to hear more from Malloy about mandate relief and spending cuts but, overall, she thought the governor had kept true to his word.

"The governor has made considerable efforts to protect municipal aid," CCM Executive Director James Finley said Wednesday, calling the plan "good news for cities and towns." Finley said last week that cutting ECS by $271 million "would have had a devastating impact on (communities') ability to provide public education as they do now."

Municipal leaders have long complained that during tough fiscal times, state officials often reduce non-education grants while protecting the more popular, higher-profile ECS program, a trend they commonly refer to as the "shell game."

But the governor also kept the budget axe away from grants for road construction, local capital improvements, school transportation, adult education and the municipalities' $61 million annual share of slot revenues from Connecticut's two Indian casinos.

Malloy also preserved funding for two longstanding grant programs that reimburse communities for a portion of local property tax revenues tied to colleges, hospitals and state property -- all of which are exempt from municipal taxation.

[...]

The Malloy budget took one major step further, however, giving municipal governments access to $85.2 million more next fiscal year, and $129.3 million by 2012-13.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said that while the city will take what it can get, $1.4 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the city's annual budget of about $210 million.

"Every little bit helps, there is no question about that, and we are certainly grateful for the opportunity to collect these revenues," he said. "But we really need to see some unfunded mandates repealed and changes to the collective bargaining process in the state if we are going to be able to manage municipal government efficiently."

Through the proposals, Danbury could receive as much as $6 million of additional revenue in the next two years, while Bethel would get about a $1 million as part of the biennial budget.
The additional revenue would come through municipalities keeping a portion of the sales tax generated within their borders, as well as an increase in the conveyance tax charged during real estate transactions.