Real story the Connecticut business and
Industry Association is joining us to
breakdown Connecticut's economic outlook.
Does Governor Lamont's new budget proposal
do enough to keep business in
Connecticut and to start new ones?
And how our nationwide issues
like a looming recession,
hiring needs and debt affecting our state?
Eric Getty with the Connecticut business
and Industry Association will join us.
Plus, President Biden gave a historic state
of the Union address and one Connecticut
veteran was there to see it.
Senator Richard Blumenthal's guest is
joining us. Alex Bletsas, a veteran
and former Pentagon official,
to talk about his experience in
Congress's chambers and his work to help
Afghans after evacuating hundreds of
them from Taliban rule.
Good morning and thanks
for joining us on the real
story. I'm Jen Bernstein.
Connecticut's had its fair share
of economics, ups and downs.
And much like the nation right now,
as we know, while the state enjoys
a record surplus, doesn't really
mean the end of a fiscal crisis.
Businesses packing up and
leaving Connecticut. People too,
could benefit from historic tax cuts,
paying down pension debt as something
Governor Lamont's talked about,
and getting people back to work.
Could it all make a difference?
What needs to change this session?
Well, to help answer that question,
Eric Getty,
Vice President for public policy
with the Connecticut business and
Industry Association is here.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
It's a pleasure and very good to
be back in person because we did
several zoom interviews during COVID.
OK, so let's talk about the.
Governor's budget, he had a lot in there.
The biggest one that he that we've talked
about is the cut in personal income tax.
He talked about paying down the pension debt.
From CBI's point of view,
what did you like in there?
What didn't you like?
Well, I think there was an awful lot
to like in the governor's budget.
As you said, we really do like the
fact that he is helping reduce
some of the income tax rates,
especially for some of Connecticut's
lowest wage, lowest paid individuals.
So we like that, hopefully that.
Helps attract more people into the state
of Connecticut and we really like the
fact that he's going to restore the
full pass through entity tax credit.
That's something that is going to
benefit about 123,000 businesses in
the state of Connecticut and pump
about $60 million back into the
economy and again for 2/4 of the
Connecticut smallest businesses.
So we, we like that.
We like that a lot.
I certainly think that there's still
a lot of opportunity to even make this
even even better budget more business.
Tax relief would would certainly
be greatly appreciated and we hope
to continue on those conversations
with the administration.
Is there anything specific that
you were disappointed that you
didn't see when it comes to those
you know business tax relief?
Well we had a number of proposals going
into this session that we thought would
really help us stimulate the economy.
One is allowing the pass through entities
to take advantage of the R&D tax credit,
help develop a new products in the state,
create new job opportunities.
Also a little disappointed that
there was no additional relief.
To help with the unemployment debt
that every business in the state
is currently helping to pay back,
right now that's a big drag on the economy.
So you know, again,
it's early in the process and we certainly
hope that he's willing to engage with us on,
on those conversations.
Sure, I know that Christy Pentima
had posted on LinkedIn talking about
the guardrails that were put in
place in 2017 when the legislature
was bipartisan and they had put
things in like the volatility cap and
putting certain controls in place.
And they were praising that the
legislature was taking it up again.
Yeah, that what difference could
that make if we continue that
well, I mean there is no question that
we emerge from the pandemic in the good
economic condition that we did as a
state because those fiscal bipartisan
reforms were put in place back in 2017.
So it is an absolute no brainer
to continue those on the governor
just yesterday or in his in his
budget address talked about.
Sending it for 10 years,
ultimately I think what they're
going to do is extend it for five
years with an option to renew it
for an additional five years.
After that I I think it's going
to have overwhelming support and
it's it's absolutely critical to
continue to help pay down some of
the states long term liabilities.
We know that Governor Lamont
talked about incentives for keeping
employers or helping employers fill
jobs because that's the main issue
that you all have talked about too,
the the workforce shortage.
That we're seeing.
How bad is that in Connecticut?
Ohh it's it's incredible.
We have about 100,000 open jobs in
the state of Connecticut and even if
every single person on unemployment
right now were to get a job tomorrow
we'd still have 21,000 open jobs.
So we really need to attract
more people into the state.
Honestly this is probably the biggest
drag on these states economy right now.
You know affordability is still something
that we're going to be struggling with
but right now this is this is what
businesses are really talking about.
Wow. And and that's been.
Since the pandemic, right,
because we've always heard about
affordability in Connecticut
for for a long time obviously,
but now it's really about shortage.
Yeah, I mean really it's even
before the pandemic, you know,
we were talking about or we didn't
even really recover all the jobs
from the 2008, 2009 recession.
So we were already a little
bit behind the the ball,
but the pandemic certainly exacerbated that.
It is interesting because
it crosses through multiple
facets here in Connecticut.
I mean, you go into the dentist
office or you go into a restaurant.
Obviously, I mean that's when
we know and everyone is having
a work or workforce shortage.
That's absolutely right.
Every industry in every corner of
the state is suffering from this
and a lot more needs to be done.
And you know, we certainly want to
continue to come up with solutions and
help the administration get there.
Let's talk about the big Lego
announcement, a huge blow to Enfield,
a huge blow to Connecticut.
Obviously your reaction with
CIA to them leaving Connecticut,
well the loss of any jobs in
the state is, is terrible.
News and especially when it is a
big flagship company like Lego.
So that's awful.
But you know this is part,
this is exactly what we
were just talking about.
This is part of the workforce
crisis they're leaving here because
there are more people in in Boston.
There's more ability to get the
workforce that they're looking for there.
So we what we need to do is we
need to focus on that in the
coming years and months.
We we've got to,
we've got to do more to get people
into Connecticut and filling these
jobs so that we don't lose anymore.
Companies,
there's an interesting there was a
wallet hub study and I wanna make
sure I have it right here that
ranked Connecticut one of the worst
states to start a new business
citing that people were leaving
Connecticut as a real issue when
it comes to not only starting the
business but also keeping employees.
So it's something that we're
continually hearing.
So what can we do as a state to
change that obviously there's
that's a complicated question
but a few things that you think
we could start doing right away.
Well, you know again I hate
to talk about the state.
Negative way. Yeah. Obviously,
I think this is a great state to do business,
a great state to live for sure.
But yeah, we have our challenges.
We've gotta start addressing
the affordability issue,
helping to attract new
residents into the state,
attract new businesses into the state.
And then back to the back to the
workforce issue we've and I think that's
directly related to that affordability.
So if we can start tackling that,
I think that we're going to really turn
the corner in terms of our economy.
I know that we've talked a lot about this.
And governor or Governor Lamont
had talked about this too,
just the brain drain at points
that we're seeing in our state
because we have great colleges and
universities here and obviously
we have some talented students.
But trying to get that pipeline
to go straight to our into our
workforce is the challenge, right?
Absolutely, yeah. I mean there's,
you know again anything we could do
to try to keep our students here
is obviously a greatly appreciated.
You know that one of the things
CIA proposed was creating more
opportunities for businesses
to be able to get tax relief.
When helping out their employees
with student loan debt that was
not in the governor's budget,
it's something that we are
continuing to talk about.
I know he is trying to do more when it comes
to providing relief for student loan debt.
So obviously he's he's listening to us.
But yeah we got him create more
opportunities that and hopefully that
will help keep more of our students here.
So overall, does CIA feel like
we're trending in the right
direction with this budget proposal
and what you all are hearing,
I mean we obviously are in a better
economic place than we were. Ohh,
there's no question about that.
We, we, the economy is in a much
better spot than we were before.
And I think that this budget is,
is very positive for the business
community in terms of addressing
some of the affordability issues.
I still think there's more
that we could be doing.
But overall, I think we are
trending in the right direction,
especially the last couple of years.
And and it's all because I've seen a lot
more bipartisan cooperation at the Capitol,
not just rejecting ideas
from one party to the other.
Simply because they didn't
originate with with you.
So you know,
I think that if if we can
continue down this track,
Connecticut's best days are
still ahead of us.
So you're saying that's interesting that
you feel like the political divisiveness
that we've seen in past years and
Connecticut obviously we've seen it here.
It hasn't been as explosive as it has
been on the national, you know, scale,
but you feel like that's tempered down
a bit and people are working together.
Well, you always have your heated
moments during any legislative
session of course, but you know,
I think that there is bipartisan.
Cooperation going on right now
with passing these fiscal guardrail
protections, extending those,
that's a great sign of something
you don't normally see at the
beginning of a legislative session.
So I think there are at least
starting off on the right foot
and hopefully that continues.
Interesting. OK. Alex Getty or Eric Getty,
thank you so much for joining us today
and for lending your expertise on what you
all are seeing come back in the middle of
the session to see how it's going because
obviously this is the governor's proposal.
He still has to get that passed through.
That's usually.
Compromising that happens. Alright.
Eric Getty with the Connecticut
business and Industry Association,
thank you very much for joining us.
Alright, coming up next on the real story,
who from Connecticut was in the chambers
during that historic state of the Union
address? Our next guest was a distinguished
guest at President Biden speech,
a champion for Afghan refugees.
Alex Platsis, former Pentagon official
and Army veteran is joining us to discuss
his bipartisan effort to find safety
for Afghans living under Taliban rule.
His experience on Capitol Hill coming up.