CBIA to state legislators: Prioritize job creation and economic growth

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association is urging state lawmakers to make job creation and economic growth their priorities, following the start of the 2020 legislative session.

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“The main focus of this legislative session must be on making it easier for employers to grow in Connecticut as opposed to what we”™ve seen over the last several years, with new costs and mandates hampering much-needed growth,” CBIA President and CEO Joe Brennan said.

“We”™ve lagged other states, the region, and the nation for far too long,” he said. “We”™re starting to see better signs of economic growth but we”™re still lagging in job creation.”

Noting that Connecticut’s economy grew 2.1% in the third quarter of 2019 ”“ its third consecutive quarter of growth, after growing just 0.5% in 2018 ”“ Brennan called the state”™s 2019 job numbers “disappointing,” with private sector job growth at just 0.4% compared with 1.1% for the six New England states and 1.5% across the U.S.

“The legislature must avoid new mandates and higher costs, whether it”™s taxes or more administrative burdens,” he said. “It”™s time for policymakers to accelerate Connecticut”™s economic and job growth by tapping into the collective expertise of the private sector.”

The expected surge in state employee retirements represents an opportunity for state government to “deliver services in a more cost effective and efficient manner,” Brennan said. “Let”™s start putting the mechanisms in place to streamline and modernize the state”™s bureaucracy.”

CBIA is also calling for reforms to the state”™s paid Family and Medical Leave Act, which the legislature approved during the 2019 session.

Eric Gjede, CBIA”™s vice president of government affairs, called the legislation “a one-size-fits-all mandate that unfairly targets the state”™s small businesses. We”™re asking lawmakers to protect small businesses and make paid FMLA optional for companies with 30 or fewer employees.

“More than three-quarters of our member companies say the mandate will negatively impact their operations,” Gjede continued, “with production and workforce reductions and employee benefit changes among the options they”™re exploring.”

CBIA”™s 2020 legislative agenda includes the following policy proposals:

State Spending and Taxes

Prioritize corrections reforms and home-based long-term care and expand the role of nonprofit organizations in delivering state services;
Honor spending reforms adopted in the last two biennial budgets to continue building the state”™s reserve fund;
Adopt cost-saving collective bargaining reforms, including eliminating overtime and mileage as factors in state employee pension calculations;
Restore pass-through entity tax credit to its original 93% ”“ the 2019 cut costs small businesses $53 million annually;
Eliminate sales tax on employee training and date processing and reject new attempts to mandate real time sales tax remittances; and
Restore the R&D tax credit and eliminate the 10% corporate surcharge tax originally enacted in 2019 as a temporary, three-year measure.

Education and Workforce

Require existing job-training programs to utilize Department of Labor data in targeting middle-skill jobs in the state”™s most in-demand sectors;
Create incentives for schools to offer students more dedicated career pathways and work-based learning experiences;
Ensure all Connecticut Technical High School System schools provide modern instruction based on industry needs; and
Support legislation incentivizing businesses to subsidize employee childcare costs.

Labor and Employment

Make paid FMLA optional for companies with 30 or less employees, reinstate the time of service requirement to qualify for benefits, cap repeated usage of the program at 35 weeks over five years, and require intermittent leave be taken in full day increments;
Reject further efforts to control lawful business practices, including blocking proposals eliminating non-compete agreements and limiting workplace communication;
Make long-overdue reforms to the state”™s unemployment compensation system, including raising the earnings threshold and bringing benefits in line with other states; and
Reject proposals imposing new penalties or undermining the workers”™ compensation system as an exclusive remedy.

Health Care

Reject state-run health care proposals that put a greater burden on taxpayers, erode market competition or hurt one of the state”™s largest employers and economic drivers;
Support legislation that promotes health plan diversity, allowing small businesses to choose from a variety of plans and select the best fit for employees; and
Amend the Health Benefit Review Program to require the Connecticut Insurance Department to conduct a biannual cost-benefit analysis of state mandates.

Environment

Revise remediation requirements, such as the Transfer Act and Remediation Standard Regulations, to encourage economic growth while protecting the environment;
Adopt clear and concise spill-reporting regulations for future spills of common substances based on reasonable reportable quantities; and
Ensure state environmental regulations reflect the most recent version of federal rules

Energy and Technology

Ensure public transparency around the impact proposed energy policies will have on energy costs; and
Guarantee ratepayer funds earmarked for energy efficiency and clean energy investments are not diverted.

Transportation

Lawmakers must unite behind a transportation funding plan that provides the necessary resources to rebuild and modernize Connecticut”™s infrastructure;
Ensure Special Transportation Fund revenues are used for transportation projects; and
Use the private sector to speed planning and completion of priority transportation projects.

Manufacturing

Provide short-term funding for high-value Manufacturing Innovation Fund training programs while developing a long-term, sustainable plan to support future programs;
Streamline or eliminate inefficient or ineffective administrative burdens on manufacturers to increase productivity and competitiveness; and
Reject costly new workplace mandates that diminish the competitiveness of Connecticut manufacturers.

Bioscience

Reject government-run health insurance or medicine-purchasing proposals that further burden taxpayers or patients, decrease access to treatment or medicines, increase costs, or hurt the growing bioscience sector;
Support policies that encourage vaccine R&D and childhood immunization; and
Promote the construction of additional life science laboratory space, especially for start-up biotechnology companies.