Lamont asks business leaders for help
FAIRFIELD — Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday asked about 200 business leaders gathered for an annual economic summit to help him turn around the state.
He asked them to keep their businesses here, support his planned $20 billion transportation infrastructure plan, and encourage millennials to consider Connecticut for their homes.
“We have tens of thousands of jobs in this state right not that we cannot fill,” Lamont told a packed meeting room in Fairfield University’s Dolan School of Business. “We need these folks very badly right now. We’re doing everything we can to train them and give them an opportunity.”
Delivering the keynote address at the ninth annual economic forum hosted by the Connecticut Turnaround Management Association, the Association for Corporate Growth, the Fairfield County Chapter of the Exit Planning Exchange, and the Connecticut chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Lamont acknowledged that the state faces massive fiscal challenges and hasn’t had job growth in 40 years.
Lamont recalled that when he first met Charles F. Dolan in 1981, the former CEO of General Electric knew that cable TV, then in its infancy, could change the nation’s viewing habits. As a young entrepreneur interested in wiring colleges for cable, it was crucial, visionary encouragement for Lamont.
During a 38minute appearance, including about 15 minutes of questions and answers from the predominantly male crowd, Lamont said that the message he has gotten from business during his first 10 months is office is to get the state’s finances in better shape, and speed up transportation.
“They love to borrow in Hartford,” Lamont lamented over the General Assembly. “Buy now, pay later. Our fixed costs are going up like this,” he said, pointing toward the ceiling of the meeting room of the newly opened business school building. “And our revenues have been flat. We hadn’t put any money in our pensions for a couple of generations now. Shame on us. During the early years we overpromised big pensions, ‘let the next guy pay for it.’ Typical borrowing binge. A lot of our fellow states did that.”
But the next generation of state employees will have definedcontributionstyle plans. “The bad news is I still have about 100,000 retirees and we didn’t do that for them, and then this is what we have to work through in terms of pensions and health care,” he said. “It took 40 years to get into this.”
To help, he has essentially slowed down capital purchases, as part of his socalled debt diet, which has rankled many legislative leaders. “I’ve gotten a little negative push back on this,” he said, stressing that school construction and affordable housing projects remain important.
“The legislature loves the givebacks you get with these little bond toys you can play with,” he said. “From now on we’re going to cut back on how much we borrow and we’re going to focus everything we can on economic growth going forward.”
The crowd chuckled when La mont made a reference to the argument over transportation in the State Capitol, pitting supporters of highway tolls like himself against antitoll forces such as Republicans who would rather borrow $800 million more per year for transit infrastructure, which he opposes.
“It’s not like you need a new lane on I95,” he said. “That’s costprohibitive. What we’ve found is seven or eight choke points. If I can clean up those choke points, I could take 15 minutes off the commute right like that. Every business leader I have talked with has told me how important transportation is.”
He said that options for paying for it include transferring money from the state’s emergency reserves. But Lamont believes the state needs the money in case the nation slips back into recession.
“We’ve got a plan to have user fees on our major bridges,” he said. “I don’t think I can get that on cars and trucks, even though that would provide the money we really need, so we’re focused right now on trucks only and, you know, you guys have got to make up your mind about how you think we ought to do this, if you think this is a priority. If you do, talk with some friends in the legislature and tell them what you think, ‘cause it’s a tough vote. It’s incredibly unpopular.”
Lamont is scheduled to meet with legislative leaders in the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon. He asked the executives for assistance.
“People with funny pink hats stand outside my office all the time with ‘no tolls, no tolls,’” and I just say the alternative is pretty lousy and we have to get this right,” Lamont said.