If Connecticut is open for business as Governor Malloy so loudly proclaims, that memo apparently never got to the legislature.
This month, legislative committees have advance bills that would:
• Add a handful of coverage mandates for health insurance sold in the state (SB21, SB312 and HB5032 among others) that will hit employers and their employees in the wallets;
• Disclose sensitive tax data of privately-held companies that could be used by competitors, unions and advocacy groups (HB6560);
• Limit what employers can say to their employees in company meetings (HB5460);
• Impose a $340 million tax on in-state energy producers — $320 million of that from Dominion Energy — because the firms profited from simply doing business in a state that made a mess of energy deregulation (SB1176);
• Create a single-payer insurance system called SustiNet that will draw on the state’s general fund and require creating a large bureaucracy (HB 6305);
• And mandate paid sick time (SB 913).
Now, by what measure is enacting any of that business-friendly?
At each step, the legislators on the appropriate committees have heard testimony from the business community expressing opposition and pointing out the problems. And in each case, a majority has agreed to move the legislation forward anyway.
There’s still plenty of time for right-minded folks to intervene and derail these misguided bills before they pass. And there’s always the possibility of a veto by Governor Malloy.
It’s virtually impossible to link any specific business decision to any piece of legislation. Decisions made today were likely set in motion years ago. And today’s legislation will have ramifications years downstream. But it’s hard not to look at SS&C’s decision to locate 500 jobs in Indiana or Sikorsky’s decision to build a new helicopter in Florida and not wonder what might have been.
The reality is Connecticut businesses are creating jobs. Unfortunately, most of them are being created outside the state.
The “anywhere but Connecticut” sentiment is in the environment. It didn’t take shape overnight and it won’t go away overnight. A governor who seems to understand that job creation and economic development are at the top of the priority list is just a start. His words need to translate into action and not the kind of action the legislature is working on.
Connecticut business is not a golden goose primed for plucking.
Dominion Energy, for example, can’t pick up its nuclear reactor and move. So they become a sitting duck for legislators looking for revenue. But what’s the message for those making future business relocation decisions? Come to Connecticut, play by our ever changing rules and when you make a profit, we’ll slap a new tax on it? Now there’s an economic development argument that’ll get noticed.
Taking the longer view makes sense but it appears the legislature can’t turn that corner. That’s an expensive miscalculation.
Rollercoaster ride
For Larry McHugh, it’s been a Dickensian fortnight — the best of times and the worst of times.
One day, he is basking in the glow of the governor singing his praises and giving him a new term on the UConn board of trustees. That comes as he hosts a coming out party for the new UConn president in front of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, which he heads.
But just a few days later McHugh was on the hot seat, defending the board’s role — or lack of one — in paying UConn’s top cop more than New York City’s police commissioner.
Nobody ever said public service was easy.
