The multifaceted $180 million jobs bill passed by the state legislature during last fall”™s special session has generated a wide range of reaction from residents and those reactions range from hope to yawns to skepticism.
In an effort to answer as many questions as possible and to sell the package in an effective manner, state officials have recently charged into the area and presented informational forums concerning the nuts and bolts of the bill. Most recently, a forum sponsored by the Bridgeport Regional Business Council (BRBC) was held at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport and a second hosted by State Rep. Kim Fawcett took place at the Fairfield Public Library. Fawcett represents parts of Fairfield and Westport.
The BRBC forum was conducted by Ron Angelo, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). In introducing Angelo, BRBC Executive Director Paul Timpanelli said, “Welcome to our discussion of the most aggressive jobs bill ever written in the history of the state of Connecticut.”
Angelo said the October special session was about creating jobs and creating jobs only. He pointed out that, “There were five key areas the governor and the legislature looked at ”“ supporting small business growth, supporting innovation, improving the regulatory environment, workforce investment and enhancing economic development.”
In her session a few days later, Fawcett stressed that a spirit of cooperation among legislators was a main reason the jobs bill was passed.
“We have been doing a poor job of creating jobs for the last two decades,” Fawcett said. “In Connecticut we do a poor job of helping small businesses, but we love to say small businesses are the backbone of our economy. This bill came about because of a bipartisan desire to make change.”
Angelo pointed out how the bill targets infrastructure areas, which will also spur job growth. These include refurbishing bridges, “Main Street” upgrades and airport enterprise zones, among others.
He said, “We”™ve heard a lot about shovel-ready projects in recent years and that is what we are looking at with these programs. A major part of the jobs bill also aims to increase manufacturing here in the state and that is a major area where we believe thousands of jobs will be created.”
Angelo told the 100-plus members of the audience how a key aspect of the jobs bill is the Small Business Express Program, which according to the deputy commissioner “was created simply to give small businesses the tools they need to help create jobs and to grow their own businesses.”
Among the components of the program are a revolving loan fund, job creation incentives, Step Up (a job training program initiated by the Department of Labor), job expansion tax credits and a manufacturing reinvestment program.
Angelo also discussed brownfield remediation as being essential to renewing economic growth and noted, “Brownfield remediation programs are competitive and the scoring models are based on need.”
Former state Rep. Lee Samowitz of Bridgeport was in attendance and during the question-and-answer session of the presentation seized on the question of need by wondering aloud, “How does the DECD specifically meet the needs of needy communities?”
During the discussion at the Fairfield Public library Fawcett said, “The state has lost 100,000 jobs in the last three years. And that cascading effect was felt in Hartford. So we decided we wanted to make it easier to do business in Connecticut by growing small businesses, improving training and education for high demand jobs and to develop new tools to make it easier for businesses to create new jobs.”
One industry that Fawcett believes the state is on the fast track to become a dominant force in Connecticut is bioscience.
“We have positioned Connecticut to be a world leader in the bioscience field,” she said. “The potential in terms of job creation and economic growth is tremendous.”
Rob Sullivan is the publisher and executive editor of the Bridgeport Banner daily website ”“ bridgeportbanner.typepad.com ”“ and monthly print edition.
