Ned Lamont created some great political theater last week when he stood amid unemployed workers at a Connecticut Works office in Hartford and ripped the state for letting Alexion’s new production facility slip through its fingers.
If the facts are as the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful paints them — and we have no evidence to the contrary — state bureaucrats should be ashamed of their bungling here. And they should be held accountable.
Alexion, the fast-growing Cheshire biotech firm, was nurtured with state funds. It grew rapidly and today employs more than 500 people here. But when it came time for Alexion to open a production plant, state officials never returned their calls. The result, of course, is that another state — in this case Rhode Island — stepped in and made a deal.
Now, if there’s one thing Connecticut has it’s a plethora of public and quasi-public entities dedicated to creating jobs, helping firms innovate, helping firms get financing and the whole industry known as economic development. But if nobody returns a call seeking help, it’s all pretty much an empty — yet costly — facade.
Perhaps this is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. Then again, perhaps it’s just another case of state workers failing to take the initiative.
Either way, this seems a case study worth pursuing. Who dropped the ball? How did it happen? And how can we keep it from happening again? We’re not recommending a witch hunt here, rather a forward-looking search for answers to fundamental questions. Do we need to thin the herd of agencies or thin the herd of underperforming bureaucrats?
We didn’t see much else that was newsworthy in the jobs plan Lamont announced that day. But for shining the light in this dark corner, he deserves our thanks.
And one of Lamont’s main gubernatorial rivals — Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy — cleverly threw some fuel on the fire Lamont had started. It’s a good time, he said, to revisit the question of why the state is resisting efforts to release details of its development efforts. Malloy is dead on when he says it makes no sense for the state to hide what it’s been doing with public money.
Secrecy breeds suspicion. And in this economy, when it comes to job creation, transparency needs to be the order of the day.
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Flood Insurance Miscalculation
Speaking of governmental accountability, the decision by the U.S. Senate to go on its Easter recess without extending the national flood insurance program is a true head-scratcher.
Sure, even without an extension, those who have coverage will be paid if the river floods, as several Connecticut rivers did last week. But Hurricane Katrina can’t have slipped that far from the minds of our elected officials that they’d toy with the idea of not renewing the program. So why delay and cause even the slightest heartburn for folks who have their hands full hefting sandbags against the ravages of Mother Nature?
The more important impact here comes in throwing another roadblock in the path of people trying to buy property in areas where lenders require flood insurance. Without a functioning national flood insurance program, buyers can’t buy, sellers can’t sell, bankers can’t lend, real estate brokers can’t get paid.
The Senate’s inaction is a cruel trick played on a sector that needs a hand, not an April Fool’s Day prank. Renewing the program needs to be Job 1 when the Senate returns April 12. But more importantly, senators need to look in the mirror and ask themselves how well they are serving their constituents’ interest when they duck their responsibility like this.
