Big corporate handouts won’t end under any gov

Happy Election Day! Don’t forget to eat breakfast. Oh, and vote.

Unfortunately, in the governor’s race at least, the “discussion” we’ve heard about the Connecticut economy — taxes, jobs and the state’s fiscal crisis — did not resemble reality.

Instead of myriad details that go into managing the state’s economy, we’ve heard a comically broad, sixth-gradelevel set of claims and counter-claims: huge tax cuts that will never happen, mushy pablum about investment in cities, education and other infrastructures that make the state tick.

The reality is all about details such as the First Five program, one of three business assistance pillars of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s economic development efforts. That’s the avenue for the governor and heads of large employers to trade state money in exchange for corporate promises to stay and grow, or to move here in the first place.

It’s controversial because Malloy has handed over or committed loans, tax credits and outright grants totaling nearly $500 million. That doesn’t even count the huge deal for United

Technologies Corp. to bulk up, in exchange for unlocking some $400 million in tax credits it had but couldn’t use.

In exchange, the First Five companies — household nameplates such as Cigna, ESPN, Bridgewater Associates and Electric Boat — have retained more than 30,000 jobs here and added 4,900, with hundreds more due, in a total of 19 deals.

We’ve heard barely a word about the controversial program, re-dubbed First Five Plus after the first five were done, for a simple reason: Democrat Ned Lamont, Republican Bob Stefanowski and petitioning unaffiliated contender Oz Griebel all pretty much say the same thing.

They don’t like it.

“We’ve relied too much on these one-off incentives and one-off tax giveaways instead of focusing on why companies should be in Connecticut,” Lamont said during the primary campaign.

“Tax dollars ought to go into infrastructure that everybody benefits from, not certain individual company targets,” Griebel said when I caught up with him in West Hartford Saturday.

Stefanowski isn’t any more pleased to see hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money go to companies, although he worked for at least one that received many millions — UBS, in Stamford, one of the first major corporate deals under former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr.

Weicker modernized the whole approach to corporate incentives with his economic development commissioner, Joe McGee, now vice president of the Business Council of Fairfield County.

The three candidates have slightly different and overlapping views on how best to attract and retain big employers other than through aid packages. Get to know the CEO’s, make sure the roads and airports work well, eliminate the corporate earnings tax, lower local property taxes, enhance the education system.

You know, smart government, mix and match.

Here’s the problem: Big incentives to big corporations grew up in the Weicker era, spread around the country like an ugly rumor and now are part of the landscape. Governors Stefanowski, Lamont, Griebel or any other name you want to pick, can say all they want about wiping out these greenmail gifts. It ain’t gonna happen.

It’s part of any governor’s toolbox, period. Take Bridgewater Associates, for example. The world’s largest hedge fund, at least at the time, negotiated a deal in 2016 for $5 million in grants, $22 million in loans and $30 million in tax credits. Initially Ray Dalio’s $169 billion fund management firm was going to move to Stamford from Westport, then the plans changed but the deal still went through.

A broke state howled at Malloy — Democrats and Republicans alike. You paid gazillionaire Dalio how much? Are you kidding me?

Two years later, Bridgewater is on its way to boosting its initial total of 1,225 jobs by 750, with 400 added so far. Say what you want about how much more Connecticut needed that $22 million than Bridgewater, but hear this: That was the best deal Malloy ever cut.

Best. Deal. Ever. Why? If Bridgewater were to leave — unplugging computers and plugging them in someplace else — we’d be out tens of millions of dollars a year, maybe $100 million, from one company’s exit.

Why take that risk? No governor will.

Sure, some of the deals went south — Alexion, TicketNetwork, we know the names. Yes, the state auditors hit the Department of Economic and Community Development for poor job-counting. That matters.

And no, we haven’t had any home runs, companies adding thousands of jobs.

The problems are real but the program won’t die because it can’t. That’s just one of many ways the campaign that ends today veered from the real world.

“The biggest asset base we have is the proximity to Boston and New York and if we have the right infrastructure here, I don’t think we have to do a lot of selling,” Griebel said.

Not a lot — just a few tens of millions of dollars a year to the most important companies in the state.