Jobs For Connecticut Now

In today’s CT Confidential, Rick Green blogs about the business climate in Connecticut, and laments that the cost of living in the state is driving people away.  Finding “revenue” with new taxes isn’t going to do anything to solve our state’s problems, and in striving to make Connecticut a better place to run a business, the effort shouldn’t start with a call to raise taxes.

Green attended a forum on housing and the economy in Hartford yesterday, sponsored by the Partnership for Strong Communities, a group working to build partnerships between nonprofit housing groups and the business community.  The event was also attended by two gubernatorial candidates — Mary Glassman and Oz Griebel.  Most notably, several business voices in Connecticut lamented the state’s loss of jobs, educated workers and investment.

Connecticut should be working to create a business environment that will foster growth, development and investment in new business, a good first step on the road to economic recovery. 

The full post is available here.

From the Norwich Bulletin:  The high cost of doing business in the state and rising health care expenses have caused nearly half of Eastern Connecticut businesses to downsize during the recession, according to a survey released today.

The 2010 Survey of Eastern Connecticut Businesses also indicates that nearly half the businesses in the region also have reduced employee wages and benefits.

To see the full article and comments from JNEN’s co-chair, Tony Sheridan, click here.

From Connecticut’s WNPR:  “A top Federal Reserve economist has told an audience in Hartford that while he foresees continued growth in the economy, jobs will continue to lag behind the overall recovery.  Eric Rosengren, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, says he believes there are still significant headwinds facing the economy, including low levels of lending by the banks, cautious spending by consumers, and above all, the continued sluggishness in the labor market.” To hear the full story from WNPR’s Harriet Jones click here.

Interesting interview in the Hartford Business Journal with CBIA’s Peter Gioia: “We are technically out of recession and recovering at a moderate pace. But we took such a severe downturn in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009 that most people do not “feel” we are in recovery. By end of 2010 recovery is expected to be strong and long enough to be noticeable.”   To see the full article click here.

Richard Laurenzi of Prospect Machine Products, Inc. (a JNEN member) discusses how federal stimulus dollars have assisted his company through these difficult economic times on Hartford’s WFSB’s Channel 3.  Click on the photo to see the story!

Interesting Letter-to-the-Editor today in the Danbury News-Times from an important member of our coalition: Attorney General Blumenthal is at it again. He is meddling in the affairs of private businesses, and is doing his best to deter future businesses from entering the state. On the heels of a 1,000-person layoff by Pratt & Whitney, Blumenthal has begun to attack other employers for making business decisions that involve workforce restructuring or downsizing.
Unfortunately for the residents and workers of Connecticut, our problem is less that some companies are being forced to downsize, and more that our state continues to remain an unfriendly environment for businesses of all sizes. What Blumenthal and many other policymakers do not realize is that instead of mandating that companies maintain staffing when they cannot afford it, the state should be taking steps to reverse the trend of businesses downsizing and leaving the region.

That means creating measures to encourage job growth and investment, as well as providing incentives for new businesses to open their doors here.

Officials like Blumenthal bemoan the loss of jobs, yet continue to foster an environment that is anti-business. The grandstanding needs to end. The real work should be helping to move Connecticut towards economic prosperity. Until then, businesses will continue to run scared.

Stephen Bull

President, Greater Danbury

Chamber of Commerce

DANBURY

Interesting piece recently posted on the Wall Street Journal’s ‘Political Diary’ blog. For those of you who do not have a subscription, we have posted it below. The piece outlines the AG’s accusation that AT&T was removing 75 jobs from Connecticut, while preparing to spend $60 billion to purchase Media One, which was clearly inaccurate. More importantly, it is a reminder that some state policymakers are continuing to play the “blame-game” without much attention to details, when in fact they should be playing the “solution-game” in finding new ways to keep jobs and companies entering the state.

What kind of message are we sending to future employers with these kind of tactics? When will our policymakers start providing incentives instead of insults to lure more jobs back into the state? We hope our local leaders take note and begin to change their attitude…

Dick Blumenthal’s Flashback

You might wonder why a state’s top law enforcement officer is issuing a press release denouncing a private company for engaging in perfectly lawful layoffs. You might also wonder why Connecticut’s long-serving Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is getting mixed up about what decade he’s living in.

His office last week blasted AT&T in a press release for laying off 75
workers in Connecticut. The AG’s release stated: “Awash in money as it
stands ready to spend $60 billion to purchase Media One, AT&T is hanging up on Connecticut families and consumers.”

Now that’s just weird, since AT&T bought MediaOne (a cable TV business) way back in 1999 and sold it to Comcast in 2003. But then weird is Mr. Blumenthal’s conception of his office’s responsibilities, which includes frequent grandstanding on matters far afield from an attorney general’s normal concerns.

The episode became marginally less mystifying when Bill Henderson,
leader of the Communications Workers of America Local 1298, stepped up to take the blame for the faulty information. So Mr. Blumenthal is
issuing press releases denouncing private companies for engaging in
lawful behavior — press releases that are actually drafted by labor
unions?

Mr. Blumenthal’s political ambitions have been a perennial matter of
speculation in Connecticut. He has repeatedly passed up chances to run for senate or governor, seemingly because he doesn’t like the odds of any race that he might actually stand a chance of losing. He will soon be coming up on his 20th year as Connecticut attorney general. A risk that often afflicts long-serving office holders is that a certain lack of accountability goes to their heads. They get sloppy.

– Holman W. Jenkins Jr.

This morning, the Hartford Courant’s “Today’s Buzz” posted an online poll asking readers to vote on whether the state is meddling in business or doing its job. As of this afternoon, 81% of those who had voted said that the state is “meddling” in business affairs. Of those responses, 47.7% said that this worsens the business climate, while the other 33.3% said that the state can’t manage its own affairs and should leave businesses alone. This is unsurprising, given the state of the Connecticut economy and jobs market.

As we’ve mentioned before, there’s no time like the present for policymakers in Connecticut to take steps to reverse the trend of businesses leaving the state. Just last week, Pratt & Whitney, the state’s largest private employer, announced that it would cut 1,000 jobs in the state; not long after, Attorney General Blumenthal launched an attack on AT&T for announcing plans to relocate 75 jobs. What Blumenthal didn’t acknowledge is that the company also plans to fill more than 100 jobs across the New England region, and is holding job fairs in several states.

For too long, Connecticut has failed to make the business environment more conducive to job creation and retention. If Connecticut is going to encourage businesses to keep their doors open, policymakers must act immediately to implement measures that reward businesses for creating jobs and make the region more attractive to businesses. Now is the time for state leaders to take steps towards making our region more business friendly, promoting job growth, and implementing measures that will incentivize businesses to open their doors in Connecticut.

Great piece today from Rick Green in the Hartford Courant’s CTConfidential Blog. Hopefully our state leaders can take a cue from the fine people of Pittsburgh. If they don’t, we may never have a chacne at a G-20 Summit. Here’s a snipet, full piece is here: Connecticut should pay attention to the Pittsburgh revival story that’s getting a lot of play with the G-20 Summit that begins today.

Not so long ago, Pittsburgh was a place young people were fleeing, a city with a once proud manufacturing history saddled with an aging population. Does this sound like Connecticut? We are learning — again — this week that we are one of the oldest states in the nation.
We are a place where young people leave, where newly retired wealthy residents can’t wait to get out, where we are left with an older population that has few options — except to remain

STATEMENT FROM PAUL MORAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF JOBS FOR NEW ENGLAND NOW, ON THE CONNECTICUT ATTORNEY GENERAL’S PRESS CONFERENCE AND THE PRATT & WHITNEY LAYOFFS

“On Monday, Connecticut residents learned that Pratt & Whitney would be shutting down two facilities in the state, resulting in the loss of one thousand jobs. It was an extremely sad day for the region and those families directly impacted. But more importantly, the event should have been a wake-up call to our state and regional leaders that creative and innovative thinking is needed to help make Connecticut more attractive to the business community.

Unfortunately, only forty-eight hours later, the Attorney General thought it was an opportune time to use his bully pulpit to criticize another one of the state’s largest employers for having to move seventy five jobs out of the state because of changing technologies. This constant blame game between state policymakers and the business community is not a productive dialogue to help change the poor jobs situation in our state. These actions of the Attorney General fail to recognize that AT&T continues to provide and grow jobs throughout the state in other developing technologies, and fails to encourage a forward looking conversation between government leaders and the business community.

Thousands of jobs have already been lost in Connecticut, and more will continue to be lost unless state leaders realize that we need to work with our business community to make our region more business friendly and create an environment where jobs can grow. Jobs for New England Now is dedicated to eradicating the anti-business climate that has been challenging the region for too long, and we encourage policymakers to begin a new dialogue asking, ‘How can we create incentives for businesses to enter this region?’ and ‘How can we help sustain and create more jobs for our residents?’”

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