Together—For Now
Legislative Leaders
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 10/24/11
Knowing the public wants something done about chronic unemployment in Connecticut, state lawmakers want to respond, but at the same time they find their old habits of partisan wrangling hard to break. The result? In this week’s special legislative session on job growth, it appears Democrats and Republicans will vote for a package of job stimulation measures, and then agree to disagree on Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy’s deal for a new bioscience project near the UConn Health Center in Farmington.
For weeks, behind closed doors, lawmakers and the Malloy administration have been crafting the job stimulation package. The “draft” version that apparently represents what both parties endorse so far, totals more than $500 million in bonding. The largest element of the plan is $340 million for a so-called Manufacturers Assistance Account that will be used for low-interest loans and capital for businesses. Companies hoping to expand continue to complain about their access to credit in the wake of the 2008 banking industry disaster.
There is also bipartisan agreement, as expressed in the bill, that the state must streamline its regulatory process. Red tape too often inhibits business activity. The jobs package includes executive action ordering state agencies to eliminate duplicative regulations. The state will also hire a consultant to gain an outside perspective on how to trim more red tape.
Training or retraining the workforce is another focus of the jobs package, because many companies claim they’re ready to hire more employees, but can’t find individuals with the specific skills needed for the work at hand. A big part of this training effort will be to boost the status of the state’s community colleges and vo-tech schools where much of this training can take place.
The legislature meets Wednesday on the jobs growth package and Malloy is keeping his fingers crossed the Democrat-Republican alliance on this bill holds firm. “We understand that the failure to address job growth and job retention on a bipartisan basis has hurt the state,” he said. “Literally from the day I announced this special session, I have taken great effort to do everything in my power to assure that this would be done on a bipartisan basis.”
Things have not run smoothly for Malloy’s other jobs project in the news, a deal to bring Maine-based Jackson Laboratories to Connecticut. The non-profit firm tried to cut a deal with Florida, but that state analyzed the plans, and the state money sought by Jackson, and ultimately said “no”.
Malloy sees the lab’s interest in Connecticut as the ideal progression of state efforts in bioscience. Connecticut has committed money to stem cell research and the legislature this year approved Malloy’s bioscience funding for the UConn Health Center in Farmington. The Jackson Labs facility would be located near the Health Center.
Supposedly the Jackson deal would create at least 300 jobs over the next 10 years, maybe 600 jobs over two decades, and perhaps thousands of construction jobs and other positions tied to the science company’s work. However, there’s a hefty price tag. The state would commit nearly $300 million, an amount that a conservative think tank, the Yankee Institute, called “corporate welfare.”
Catherine Smith, Malloy’s economic development commissioner said she is “wildly excited” about the deal, praising Jackson Labs as a top-flight bioscience firm that can attract stellar talent to its projects.
Malloy wants lawmakers to look beyond the deal with one company. He claims the science corridor being developed from Yale in New Haven, to the UConn Health Center and Jackson Labs in Farmington, and on to the University of Connecticut main campus in Storrs has spectacular potential to become something akin to North Carolina’s research triangle.
“Since the Jackson Labs potential deal was announced, we have had expressions of interest from other medical research folks about coming to Connecticut,” Malloy claimed. “These things just feed upon themselves.”
Jackson Labs VP and chief fundraiser Michael Hyde told a legislative hearing audience last week that the Connecticut project would be “an undertaking of enormous proportions” for his genetic research company, and would have the potential of bringing in “the most sought-after scientists in the world.”
Republican legislative leaders who actually stood with Malloy when he first announced the Jackson Labs proposal last month, have since stepped back suffering from what we might call the “football syndrome.”
You’ll recall the excitement and hype that developed when Republican Gov. John Rowland said he’s struck a deal with the New England Patriots to bring the team to Connecticut in a new stadium to be built in Hartford. In the end, it appeared that Patriots’ ownership had “played” Connecticut in a bid to make Massachusetts jealous, and the Pats wound up staying home in Foxborough, MA.
Over the last few weeks, those GOP lawmakers have raised a slew of questions about the Jackson Labs deal: how many jobs really will be created, should Jackson own the building, why did Florida blow off the project, and of course, why the rush?
Some GOP leaders urged Malloy to take the Jackson deal off the special session agenda for more intensive study followed by action at a later date. Malloy, however wants to move forward (and he has a Democratic majority in the House and Senate), claiming that Jackson needs to know the state is serious, so it can move into formal negotiations in the next few months to make the deal a reality.
“I believe every question is being answered,” said Malloy. He said he asked critics of the deal weeks ago to tell him what model they wanted him to use to best gauge the jobs potential of the deal. “I have not received a reply,” the Governor said.
Malloy said lingering issues can be considered after legislative approval in the negotiations with Jackson Labs that will take place in the next few months. “I’m cognizant of the concern, but we need to go forward in claiming that which is rightfully ours under this major investment we’ve made (in bioscience).”
Follow Steve Kotchko on Twitter for news and insider tidbits on politics and government: @CRN_News