Connecticut Lawmakers Work On Jump-Starting The Economy (Courant Editorial)
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-jobs-bill–connecticut.artmar15,0,4196930.story
March 15, 2010
Besides balancing the budget, passing legislation to retain and create jobs is the most important item on the General Assembly’s agenda this session.
About 101,000 people have lost their jobs in Connecticut since the recession began in 2008. The state’s unemployment rate, although below the national average, is an unhealthy 9 percent. Tax revenue is in steep decline.
State government must lend a helping hand.
A number of good proposals are winding through the legislative maze. So far, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the Democrats who control the legislature agree in principle, if not on every detail, on several initiatives. Bipartisan cooperation on jobs creation is essential if quick and effective action is to be taken. Last year’s protracted budget mess is an ugly reminder of what happens when disagreement prevails.
Senate Bill 1 could be a showcase for bipartisan cooperation if a financing dispute can be worked out. The bill, pushed by Democrats, focuses on helping businesses with fewer than 50 employees stabilize and hopefully add to their payroll.
Credit is tight, so the bill establishes a revolving loan fund of $20 million for operating or capital expenses. Mrs. Rell has proposed a much bigger fund of $100 million. Both sides would cancel unused bond authorizations and float new bonds to fill the fund. They just need to agree on how big the loan fund should be.
Democrats would also suspend the annual business entity tax of $250 for two years for mom-and-pop shops with net incomes of $50,000 or less, in the hope that owners might add a few work hours for employees or buy something the business needs. Sponsors believe the tax suspension would send a signal that Connecticut is friendly to small business.
Democrats would make up the $12 million in revenue loss by imposing an income tax surcharge on employees awarded bonuses of more than $1 million from banks that received federal TARP funding. Republicans favor the suspension of the business entity tax; actually, they’d like to eliminate it permanently for all businesses, but Republicans would pay for it by cutting spending. There’s poetic justice in the TARP surcharge.
A third major component of the Democrats’ bill — one with which Mrs. Rell agrees in principle — is reorganization of the state’s economic development-related agencies to cut red tape and make it easier for businesses to get what they need from the state, such as permits or loans.
This bill is one part of the solution to joblessness in Connecticut. Democrats and Republicans should quickly settle their few differences and get it on the books.
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant
