🔒Manufacturing ‘czar,’ career inclusion among producers’ Capitol wins

Connecticut manufacturers came away from the recently ended legislative session with mixed results.

But they did notch two wins, including one that will make it easier for them to recruit young talent and the appointment of a cabinet-level ombudsman for their sector.

Lawmakers yielded to state producers’ long outcry and created the post of manufacturing “czar,’’ who will provide a credible, influential perspective for manufacturers who often feel overlooked and underappreciated for their employment and other financial contributions to the state’s economy.

An attachment to a state budget bill lawmakers adopted calls initially for a two-year appointment of a manufacturing director within the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), who would be paid $150,000 annually.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s announcement of the post was met with glee at the New Haven Manufacturers Association (NHMA) annual meeting June 6.

NHMA Executive Director Jamison Scott, previously a Woodbridge manufacturing executive, said producers have pressed for some time to have a voice among Connecticut leadership.

“Connecticut now leads the nation in recognizing the importance of manufacturing,’’ Scott said via email. He said Connecticut’s move has greater significance, given that some members of Congress have recently introduced similar legislation to establish a cabinet-level U.S. secretary of manufacturing.

New Haven lobbyist Melissa Biggs, a partner in DePino, Nunez & Biggs who represents the state’s three top manufacturing member-organizations — NHMA, the Smaller Manufacturers Association of Connecticut Inc., and the Connecticut Manufacturing Collaborative — said Connecticut’s production czar will interact with and communicate across the state’s various agency “silos’’ to ensure all are on the same economic page.

The other passed measure mandates, Biggs said, that Connecticut guidance counselors, when advising and tracking high-school pupils who attend two- and four-year colleges or trade schools, now must also counsel them about careers in policing, firefighting, military duty, and manufacturing.

While state manufacturers count those as key “victories,’’ they also came up short in several measures among more than three dozen that were either passed, shot down, or failed to come up for a vote.

So, was the overall session a win or loss for manufacturers?

“I would say it was both,” said Eric Brown, vice president for manufacturing policy and outreach at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, who also helps administer the Connecticut Manufacturing Collaborative. “It depends on how broad a net you want to cast.’’

One failure was to extend an apprenticeship tax credit to small manufacturers operating as partnerships, limited liability partnerships and sole proprietorships. The credit, which is currently only available to C-corporations, allows companies to claim as a credit against their Connecticut income-tax returns a portion of their companies’ investments in apprenticeship training.

“It’s expensive to have an apprenticeship,” Biggs said.

Among measures that passed that state manufacturers opposed was the paid family medical leave program, and a phased-in hike of the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2023.

There is a planned special session on tolls, which some manufacturers have opposed, while the larger business community has been divided on the issue.