Paul Timpanelli, president of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, in an e-blast to business community members, weighs in on the jobs package passed by the state legislature last week. The Rock & Roll historian kicks off his commentary with a line from a Buffalo Springfield tune.
“There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.”
It was a 1960s classic song by a folk-rock group called Buffalo Springfield and the song was about a significant cultural and historic shift that was occurring in our nation in the mid-1960s. All around us, the politics was changing and institutions were shifting toward a more open society, the repercussions of which are still being felt in 2011.
Today, I am beginning to feel a cultural and historic shift right here in the State of Connecticut. After years of many people, many organizations and many institutions singing the same song about Connecticut’s business climate and the lack of support for business among our political leaders, a shift of historic proportions finally seems to be occurring. The latest and biggest evidence of this change in attitude happened this week with the passage of “An Act Promoting Economic Growth and Job Creation” in a Special Session of the legislature called for by Governor Dannel Malloy.
Yes, Governor Malloy and his administration, after visiting over 350 businesses in the last few months on a jobs “listening” tour, put together a comprehensive and meaningful package of ideas that, believe it or not, was adopted in one day by an almost unanimous vote of both houses of the state legislature. Wow! How did this happen?
At a time when almost everyone seems to be saying government is spending too much money, government needs to just get out of the way, and our political parties can’t seem at agree on anything, our legislature and our Governor in a needed bi-partisan fashion have passed the biggest jobs bill in the history of the State of Connecticut. It’s a bill that reduces business taxes, expands business assistance and workforce development, increases job training programs, creates financial assistance for small business, creates airport development zones, expands the so-called “First Five” business incentive program which has already resulted in thousands of new job opportunities to create the “Next Five,” establishes new processes to expedite state agency decisions that impact business, and assists in added brownfields remediation efforts. In addition, the bill expands the Manufacturing Reinvestment Account (MRA) program and authorizes $120 million in bonds for a Small Business Express program to provide loans and grants to state based small businesses.
The legislature also adopted a major initiative that will result in bringing a research company called Jackson Labs to Connecticut. Operating in the bio-tech arena, this company will create important synergies with the University of Connecticut Health Center that could ultimately put Connecticut on a track to be a national leader in biotechnology research. When coupled with the capital investment decision that the state recently made for the University Health Center, we can become a leading-edge state that will attract researchers and scientists from around the world. Is the investment in Jackson a risk? Sure it is, but these times call for risk taking, bold thinking and directional shifts.
Surely, this is a major shift for a state that hasn’t experienced job growth in over 20 years and for a state that has sadly developed a reputation as being one of the most unfriendly business states in the country.
I sense a big change and I am pleased and proud of the role that Connecticut’s business community, including the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, has played over the last few years in getting our public sector decision makers to think differently about the role that business plays in our state’s success. It was once said and oft repeated that the best social program is a job.
I am convinced that just as it is clear that “something’s happening here,” it is also clear that what is happening is a change for the better, a change that will finally result in job growth.
Paul S. Timpanelli, President and CEO
Bridgeport Regional Business Council
Timpanelli, you are a disgrace. You are nothing more than an impediment to any economic progress this city could have or would have experienced.
I thought Paul was going to sing his Swan Song. “Time to Say Goodbye”
Stick to what you do best … and it ain’t very good … Rock ‘n’ Roll. You’re a rip-off to the citizens who live in Bridgeport, Mr. Trumbull.
Oh … and Mario lives in Monroe.