After all the high-fiving is done, after Governor Malloy takes a victory lap through Fairfield County’s financial sector, some questions must be explored about just what’s happening with the scads of public money being tossed around in the name of the expanded ‘First Five’ economic development program.
The announcement of a $750 million capital project and 1,000 new jobs for Stamford by 2022 is indeed an impressive catch. Stamford, coincidentally the city where Malloy was once mayor, gets a shot in the arm from the kind of showcase waterfront corporate center envisioned by Bridgewater Associates, billed as the world’s largest hedge fund. The state needs quality jobs and that is indeed just what is promised.
To be sure, the price is high — an estimated $115 million in public money in the form of forgivable loans, training grants and tax breaks. And judging the real value is virtually impossible.
This project, like some of the others in ‘First Five’, has some downsides. Stamford’s gain, for example, is Westport’s loss. Are other hedge funds happy to see a rival use their tax dollars? It’s also hard to make the case Bridgewater’s move will do anything to attract similar businesses to Connecticut, a prime argument for the billion-dollar Jackson Laboratory investment.
Fairfield County is already knee-deep in hedge and venture funds. In fact, Bridgewater would have been going against the grain to move out. Yet the official line is that Bridgewater was considering taking its operation to New York or New Jersey. How seriously? Only Bridgewater knows for sure.
Trust is a wonderful thing but trust and verification is even better. Taxpayers simply deserve to know what’s being done with their money. The lack of transparency here is appalling. Like Area 51, the lack of details spawns conspiracy theories.
Could Malloy be using ‘First Five’ — or ‘First 15’ as the governor is now calling it — to do some urban renewal and spread the wealth to favored areas? Could there be an undercurrent of rewarding friends? In a state that’s seen politicians indicted on a regular basis, it’s not too big a stretch to wonder.
Then there’s the still open question of whether the program has really attracted any new business to the state. The list of companies reads like a who’s who of the state’s growing companies. Certainly any or all could have been about to bolt the state when Team Malloy pulled them back. It’s also plausible that all were richly rewarded for doing exactly what they had planned to do anyway.
The Bridgewater Associates deal dwarfs the others. By one estimate, this single deal cost taxpayers more than the others combined. A few million here, a few million there and pretty soon we’re talking real money. And given the state’s finances, that’s money we can’t use elsewhere.
This seems a good time for the governor to provide a progress report on the overall program — what it has accomplished and where he sees it going next. The folks paying for it deserve nothing less.
Election season
Like the turning of the leaves, the passing of the primary election marks a turning point in Connecticut. The parochial insider games are over; next we get national conventions; sometime after that, a few of us may notice there’s an election coming up.
Despite the breathless efforts of television to treat the results with the same import as a tornado alert, Connecticut residents again showed a stunning apathy.
In some races, turnout was about 15 percent. Republicans seem more energized than Democrats. The national media seems confused by the lack of data and has moved Connecticut from the ‘solid’ blue to the ‘leaning’ blue category. That falls into the interesting-if-true category.
The message here seems clear: We get the kind of government we tolerate. Shame on us.
