State economic development officials have put together a 66-point plan they say should serve as a guide for policy-setting and decision-making.

Check out the full story here.

SOUTHINGTON –Apple Valley Woodworks, a local cabinet maker was approved for a $750,000 low-interest loan for new equipment, according to an announcement from Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

The loan will also allow the company to bring its number of employees up from 91 to 100, according to the press release.

About six weeks later, on Sept. 3, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced the state was offering Pratt $100 million in incentives — $20 million a year for five years — to change course and keep the Cheshire plant and East Hartford business unit open.

But the company’s decision last week to reject that offer — several years after Bayer Corp. in 2006 shunned a $60 million state incentive package and moved its U.S. headquarters from West Haven to New Jersey — has some questioning whether the state does enough to retain businesses.

Tom Mayes, vice president of Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engine & Global Services, in announcing the company’s decision Monday, said the state “made a generous and creative proposal in an unprecedented effort to keep jobs in the state.”

The incentives, however, did not address the main issues the company faces, he said — volume loss amid a declining aerospace market and labor costs. The impacted jobs will be moved to Georgia, Singapore and Japan.

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

The plan calls for a statewide port authority comprising the harbors in Bridgeport, New Haven and New London, along with the state’s airports, including Bradley International Airport.

It also calls for development of a commuter rail line between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, with a spur to Bradley. A commuter line along I-91 has long been debated but would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and would face uncertain ridership.

… Critics of the state’s economic development policies, most prominently and consistently University of Connecticut economics professor Fred V. Carstensen, have long said Connecticut does not do enough to nurture targeted industries, and to educate and retain present and future workers.

The full document can be viewed at: www.ct.gov/ecd

… We’re creating no new jobs. That’s a 20-year trend, according to UConn economist Fred Carstensen. The anchor of Fairfield County — where half of our income tax revenue comes from — consists largely of high-wage earners from the financial services industry. As these highly specialized Wall Street jobs evaporate, these people, in the words of Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch economist Drew T. Matus, “have no skills.”

Unemployment levels are going to linger at 10 percent or above well into next year. So while it’s great that we were able to come up with $100 million to try to save 1,000 Pratt & Whitney manufacturing jobs for a little longer, has anyone thought about what $100 million could do to support cutting-edge biotech industries that might sustain us for decades?

… Matthew Nemerson, president of the Connecticut Technology Council, told me that we remain stuck in “a ‘gotcha’ mentality: Who raised taxes, who cut them?”

“We should be spending a lot of time not blaming each other but saying, ‘Oh my goodness, what is happening?’”

What’s happening is that new jobs are in education and health, and not manufacturing. Financial services jobs are not going to sustain us. We need to plan for — and support — a new economy. That’s no game.

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.

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.

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.