In an interview with Hartford Business Journal, new Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman discussed myriad topics. Here’s a Q&A on some of them. Answers have been edited due to space constraints.
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In an interview with Hartford Business Journal, new Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman discussed myriad topics. Here’s a Q&A on some of them. Answers have been edited due to space constraints.
HBJ: What is the biggest difference between the private and public sectors?
LEHMAN: The biggest difference is really the decision-making apparatus. In the private sector, I could make decisions and there’s a certain amount of what I’m responsible and accountable for.
But obviously when you talk about legislation there are lots of different stakeholders involved, understandably and appropriately so. That’s probably the biggest distinction is this kind of consensus building, and you’re seeing it with the budget process right now. It takes a little bit longer and there is a lot of back-and-forth. But I knew that coming in.
HBJ: Connecticut’s regulatory environment is often panned by the business community. Do you envision a big regulatory reform push, if not this year, maybe next year?
LEHMAN: I want to thoroughly study it. Rightly or wrongly, there is the perception out there that we do have too much regulation in the state. I hear a lot of rhetoric. I want to understand the data and dig into it deeper.
I’d like to convene the business community on what regulations are out there that they view as unnecessarily burdensome and see if there’s some consensus we can build on reducing some of that.
HBJ: Gov. Lamont has said he wants to have a pro-business administration but then he supports paid family medical leave and a higher minimum wage, which have caught the ire of the business community. Is he saying one thing and doing another?
LEHMAN: I don’t think so. I think there’s a balance out there. And I think this comes down to who we are and what kind of state we are. I think you can be pro-business and have paid family medical leave. You can be pro-business and have the minimum wage that we have. And listen, you’re never going to please 100 percent of the people. I get that.
We are a progressive state and I think you can be progressive and still pro-business. So in my mind, it comes down to striking the right balance, because there is a cost to those programs.
HBJ: Can you talk about your experience on Wall Street and how that can help you navigate your current job?
LEHMAN: I worked in financial markets, the bond market, for roughly 10 or 15 years, in various degrees. Then I worked in real-estate lending and municipal-finance capacities.
So, I have a pretty diverse background in finance, which I think will be useful in terms of thinking about things like return on investment. Are we spending taxpayer money in a very efficient way?
I want to make sure we’re delivering great returns to taxpayers. We need to be very mindful and deliver services at a very low cost. I’m very sensitive to that point. I think that’s one of the things government should be focused on.
HBJ: What’s your experience with public-private partnerships (P3s) and what are the biggest opportunities you see for them in state government?
LEHMAN: I worked with a team that did public-private partnerships and I’ve seen them done before. I understand how they’re financed. I understand how the private sector thinks about them.
The benefit of P3s is there is a risk allocation to the private sector. The benefit to the state is you’re getting capital day one and the risk of managing a certain property can be put off to the private sector.
But there’s a tradeoff. The cost of capital from infrastructure investors is higher than the state’s current cost of borrowing.
The real clear area where P3s work, and where I think you’ll see more of it across the country, is in infrastructure.
If you think about operating our roads, or if tolls do happen, those are applications where you could potentially tap private-sector money to basically help fund construction of that and the state wouldn’t need to take that risk.
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