From Masschusetts’ State House News Service: NEW GROUP PLEDGES “STRONGER CHORUS OF VOICES” FOR BIZ: Business groups have launched a new effort aimed at getting Beacon Hill leaders to more clearly focus on job retention and creation policies. Jobs for Massachusetts Now, an offshoot of the five-month-old Jobs for New England Now, was created in part because business leaders feel there’s not been enough effort by state and local policymakers to make Massachusetts more competitive for businesses and development. “We have come together to encourage policymakers to make decisions that will help businesses recover during this fragile time and hopefully get more Massachusetts residents off the unemployment line,” Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said in a statement. The other coalition members are Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), South Shore Chamber of Commerce, Metro South Chamber of Commerce, and National Federation of Independent Businesses Massachusetts. John Regan, executive vice president of AIM, said: “Many business leaders believe that a stronger chorus of voices is needed to let state legislators and state officials know that every move they make impacts local businesses and in turn, affects business owners’ ability to provide jobs. That is why we decided to join this organization.” Massachusetts has lost more than 109,000 jobs in the past year and its unemployment rate in July was 8.8 percent, up from 8.6 percent in June. The Legislature’s Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee kicked off a four-stop “listening tour” in April to hear testimony about potential pro-growth policies. The tour ended in July. The group plans to highlight studies, opinion pieces, news and commentary on its website www.jobsformassachusetts.org. Its executive director is veteran lobbyist Paul Moran of the Dewey Square Group, a veteran state government analyst who has worked on behalf of health care, insurance and municipal interests during his career.
Archive for September, 2009
SHNS: New Group Pledges "Stronger Chorus of Voices"
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009SHNS: New Group Pledges “Stronger Chorus of Voices”
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009From Masschusetts’ State House News Service: NEW GROUP PLEDGES “STRONGER CHORUS OF VOICES” FOR BIZ: Business groups have launched a new effort aimed at getting Beacon Hill leaders to more clearly focus on job retention and creation policies. Jobs for Massachusetts Now, an offshoot of the five-month-old Jobs for New England Now, was created in part because business leaders feel there’s not been enough effort by state and local policymakers to make Massachusetts more competitive for businesses and development. “We have come together to encourage policymakers to make decisions that will help businesses recover during this fragile time and hopefully get more Massachusetts residents off the unemployment line,” Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said in a statement. The other coalition members are Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), South Shore Chamber of Commerce, Metro South Chamber of Commerce, and National Federation of Independent Businesses Massachusetts. John Regan, executive vice president of AIM, said: “Many business leaders believe that a stronger chorus of voices is needed to let state legislators and state officials know that every move they make impacts local businesses and in turn, affects business owners’ ability to provide jobs. That is why we decided to join this organization.” Massachusetts has lost more than 109,000 jobs in the past year and its unemployment rate in July was 8.8 percent, up from 8.6 percent in June. The Legislature’s Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee kicked off a four-stop “listening tour” in April to hear testimony about potential pro-growth policies. The tour ended in July. The group plans to highlight studies, opinion pieces, news and commentary on its website www.jobsformassachusetts.org. Its executive director is veteran lobbyist Paul Moran of the Dewey Square Group, a veteran state government analyst who has worked on behalf of health care, insurance and municipal interests during his career.
Opinion: Connecticut: Last In Job Growth – And No Plans To Change
Friday, September 11th, 2009Devastating piece in this morning’s Hartford Courant: In short, whether in specific business sectors or in the broad public responsibilities of education and infrastructure, the state has no strategic plan to change the threatening long-term trends.
Political leaders and citizens of Connecticut should recognize that we have the assets, the intelligence and the creativity to significantly shape our economic performance. We must put the question of our economic future at the center of our policy discussions to put our state on a strong track, finally creating new, good-paying jobs.
CBIA: CT business leaders aren't happy with General Assembly
Friday, September 11th, 2009From the Hartford Courant Blog: A new survey sponsored by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and the accounting firm BlumShapiro suggests that our own elected leaders are doing a good job at making more of a mess of the the state’s already depressed economy.
Whether you agree with it or not, the survey results illustrate a major problem. We need businesses to feel positive about the state. If our elected (Democratic) leaders in the General Assembly are sending the wrong message to businesses, and particularly ones that are considering expansion or moving here, that’s not good. But it’s also a problem if the business leaders think Democrats are somehow anti-business, which is absurd. Democrats know where our tax revenues — and jobs — come from as much as Republicans do.
Unfortunately, the annual survey did not ask business leaders whether any of the governor’s policies had “negatively influenced” the ability to run a profitable business. It also, not surprisingly, found that Connecticut business does not like taxes, and particularly the income tax.
But Carl R. Johnson, managing partner at BlumShapiro, is right when he says that legislators “need to reach out more to figure out how the business community can help.”
“I don’t think that people realize that if business is thriving how we create jobs.”
CBIA: CT business leaders aren’t happy with General Assembly
Friday, September 11th, 2009From the Hartford Courant Blog: A new survey sponsored by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and the accounting firm BlumShapiro suggests that our own elected leaders are doing a good job at making more of a mess of the the state’s already depressed economy.
Whether you agree with it or not, the survey results illustrate a major problem. We need businesses to feel positive about the state. If our elected (Democratic) leaders in the General Assembly are sending the wrong message to businesses, and particularly ones that are considering expansion or moving here, that’s not good. But it’s also a problem if the business leaders think Democrats are somehow anti-business, which is absurd. Democrats know where our tax revenues — and jobs — come from as much as Republicans do.
Unfortunately, the annual survey did not ask business leaders whether any of the governor’s policies had “negatively influenced” the ability to run a profitable business. It also, not surprisingly, found that Connecticut business does not like taxes, and particularly the income tax.
But Carl R. Johnson, managing partner at BlumShapiro, is right when he says that legislators “need to reach out more to figure out how the business community can help.”
“I don’t think that people realize that if business is thriving how we create jobs.”
Jobs for New England Now Launches Massachusetts Chapter
Thursday, September 10th, 2009This morning, Jobs for New England Now was thrilled to announce the rollout of its second state chapter, Jobs for Massachusetts Now, which will work to promote job growth and economic development in Massachusetts. Groups participating in the Massachusetts project include the Retailers Association of Massachusetts (RAM), Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), South Shore Chamber of Commerce, Metro South Chamber of Commerce, and NFIB Massachusetts.
Since we began Jobs for New England Now just five months ago, we have taken an active role in educating Connecticut policymakers and residents about how we can make the region more attractive to companies that provide jobs to our residents, and we intend to do the same in the Commonwealth.
Moving forward, the project will have an active online presence at both www.jobsformassachusettsnow.org and the larger group’s website at www.jobsfornewenglandnow.org. Both websites house studies, opinion pieces, recent news and blog commentary from coalition members, and other academic experts. Additionally, members of Jobs for Massachusetts Now will work throughout the region in a variety of ways to promote pro-business policies that will help spur job growth and maintain existing job opportunities throughout the region.
State supports windmill project
Thursday, September 10th, 2009From today’s Republican-American: A state-sponsored investment company has awarded $1 million to a Torrington company that is building a new type of windmill on a nearby farm.
Connecticut Innovations announced on Wednesday its investment in Optiwind Corp. as part of its campaign to encourage clean energy in the state.
“We want to help this Torrington company create cutting edge, green technology jobs right here in Connecticut,” Gov. M. Jodi Rell said in the announcement. “At the same time, we can help Optiwind to advance its efforts to address climate change. This state investment is a win-win scenario.”
State predicts bright future for jobs in solar energy
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009From the Boston Globe: The number of jobs in the state’s solar energy industry nearly doubled from 2007 to 2008 – and the numbers are on pace to grow sharply again this year, according to Massachusetts officials.
Ian A. Bowles, secretary of the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said he would disclose the numbers today at the trade show Cleantech Forum XXIII. The two-day show opened today at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
A survey of nearly 100 solar energy employers in Massachusetts showed the number of jobs in the sector grew from 1,086 in 2007 to 2,075 in 2008, Bowles said. The growth is “indicative of the health and welfare’’ of the local solar energy industry, he added.
At Stake: Our Quality of Life
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009From Sunday’s Hartford Courant: With the recent announcement that Pratt & Whitney is evaluating whether to relocate 1,000 jobs, some elected officials proclaimed that we must, at all costs, keep well-paying manufacturing jobs in Connecticut. Given that well-paying jobs have been leaving Connecticut for many years, we can only hope that the magnitude of Pratt’s potential loss will produce meaningful and constructive state action to match those words.
Indeed, we must react with a sense of urgency to this latest wake-up call and aggressively address Connecticut’s woeful economic direction. Gov. M. Jodi Rell deserves credit for her efforts to retain the Pratt jobs, but rather than react to announcements of job relocations, our elected officials must establish a climate that causes businesses to retain current jobs and create new ones.
The piece was authored by Oz Griebel, who is president and CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance.
WSJ: Connecticut follows Trenton and Albany up the tax charts
Friday, September 4th, 2009Jodi Corzine’s Piece from last Saturday’s WSJ: Connecticut grabs $7,007 in state and local taxes per man, woman and child resident, according to the Tax Foundation, more per capita than every state but New York and New Jersey. That’s hardly the company any state would want to keep these days, but the politicians in Hartford seem intent on following Trenton and Albany off the tax-and-spend cliff.
This week Republican Governor Jodi Rell proposed a $1-billion-plus income tax hike, raising the top tax rate to 6.5% from 5% on individuals with incomes above $500,000 and couples with earnings above $1 million to close an expected two-year $8.5 billion budget deficit. The tax hike would be retroactive to January 1, meaning the government would snatch money that residents have already earned. Perhaps she aspires to the nether-world approval ratings of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.
Given the size of its deficit, it’s hard to believe that for 200 years Connecticut balanced its budget without any income tax and became the richest state in the bargain.
