The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
First Five yields new jobs: Cheers or moans?
Should we cheer? This week, the governor released what many consider to be some good news that is expected to continue to shore up Connecticut’s struggling economy by putting thousands back to work.
Dannel P. Malloy says the latest state analysis shows Connecticut’s First Five economic development program is working and thus far has yielded nearly 3,800 new jobs from 13 companies participating in the program.
The Department of Economic and Community Development established the First Five program in 2011 to help businesses expand and create jobs. As part of the program, the department provided companies with millions in financial assistance. To be eligible, the companies had to commit to either creating 200 new jobs within 24 months from approval of application or invest at least $25 million and create not less than 200 new jobs within five years from the date the application is approved.
The state provided $256.6 million in direct assistance to the companies and an additional $125 million in tax credits. The companies in the program have made a total investment of nearly $1.3 billion in new infrastructure and other types of private sector improvements. Malloy says that investment is more than five times what the state has provided to the companies in loans and grants.
With the state laying off hundreds of workers and the state’s economy sputtering, this sounds like something to cheer about.
But before we offer the governor a round of applause, state Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano is asking very pertinent questions: What kind of jobs are they and how much do they pay?
We would like to know, too. Are they the kind of jobs that keep people on the bread line or the kind that offer people the means to stand on their own two feet? Here in Connecticut, we need jobs that offer a people a lifeline to the future, not keep them tethered to state services.
Fasano says he doesn’t know and can’t get an answer because Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith “tells me it’s proprietary.”
That is a major concern and Connecticut residents should demand an answer.
We’re not sure how the state can hand over taxpayer money to private companies and then refuse to tell its citizens whether the state’s expenditures to keep and create jobs here is helping the people of Connecticut or paying dividends to the companies involved. But residents of Connecticut have a right to know.
Malloy says the amount of direct state assistance provided per job is $13,786 — a number Fasano rejects and calls self-serving. He says his calculations puts the cost of each new job at nearly $72,000.
That is a wide discrepancy and Fasano’s questions deserve to be answered. Malloy says, “If we are not competing to keep these jobs, we lose. If we don’t have a toolbox available to keep these jobs, we lose.”
Sounds like quite a dilemma — so the question for Nutmeggers remains the same: Should we cheer or should we moan?
Editor’s note: This editorial has been updated to correct the number used by Fasano as the cost of each new job.