U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd heads to East Hartford later today to announce a new agenda aimed at using technology to create jobs, helping small businesses grow and investing in local communities, a spokesman said.
Dodd planned to tour the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, an economic development organization in East Hartford that focuses on small businesses.
His proposal includes tax incentives for businesses, a loan program and the use of federal stimulus money to help pay for weatherizing homes, spokesman Bryan DeAngelis said.
The plan would create clean energy zones for businesses similar to the Empowerment Zone program, which designates distressed areas to receive federal benefits for development. Businesses in the zones would get tax incentives for starting or expanding their use of clean energy technology.
Dodd, who faces a difficult 2010 re-election campaign, also plans to ask Congress to establish a temporary mechanism to loan directly to small businesses with good credit to help them create jobs. The plan comes days after Department of the Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called on banks to boost lending to small businesses.
Dodd also intends to propose using federal stimulus money to encourage people to weatherize homes.
The announcement of the jobs program comes as Dodd faces a crowded field of challengers for re-election, including a Democratic primary challenge from former Air Force Officer Merrick Alpert.
Several Republicans are vying for the GOP nomination, including former Rep. Rob Simmons, former World Wrestling Entertainment top executive Linda McMahon and Fairfield County money manager Peter Schiff. Two other Republicans have dropped out of the race in recent weeks.
A spokesman for Simmons criticized Dodd’s efforts to create jobs, calling his new jobs agenda “more of the same.”
“Any agenda to create jobs must shift Washington’s focus away from reckless spending and toward pro-growth tax cuts and aggressive deficit reduction,” said Raj Shah, communications director for Simmons’ campaign.
A Quinnipiac University poll last month showed 54 percent of voters disapprove of the job that Dodd, a five-term incumbent, has been doing in Washington. That was up from 49 percent in September. (AP)