The CT Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/tag/connecticut-business-and-industry-association/)
Connecticut’s business leaders offered much praise but were more cautious with their support when it came to the recommendations of the state’s Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth. Continue Reading →
A vice president and economist with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, Peter Gioia has spent the past 18 years with the state’s chief business lobby, managing its research department and tracking Connecticut’s economy through a quarterly survey. In this week’s Sunday Conversation he talks about the recently approved, bipartisan state budget; the long struggle to adopt it, and its impact on Connecticut’s business community. Continue Reading →
While the new state budget promises an array of tax cuts two and three years from now, it also leaves the next governor and legislature to close a $4.6 billion projected shortfall — far larger than the deficit lawmakers addressed in the current plan. Continue Reading →
With TV ads and ferocious lobbying on both sides of the issue, it’s unclear whether any legislation to help out the Millstone Nuclear Power Station will survive this legislative session. A delay in the release of an updated state energy strategy isn’t helping matters. Continue Reading →
Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, blames the rare loss of Democratic legislative seats in a presidential year on the targeted spending by business groups, not voter dissatisfaction with Hartford after two decades of Democratic control of the Connecticut General Assembly. His GOP counterpart’s view: “Hogwash.” Continue Reading →
Business groups intent on boosting the influence of Republicans in the General Assembly outspent labor allies of majority Democrats by roughly a 2-1 margin in independent expenditures reported to the State Elections Enforcement Commission through Tuesday, according to an analysis by CT Mirror. Continue Reading →
EAST HARTFORD — Facing an electorate that gave the General Assembly a 24-percent approval rating, the House Democratic Majority unveiled a campaign framework Tuesday that focuses on job creation and fiscal responsibility and downplays labor issues, such as raising the minimum wage and making the tax structure more progressive. Continue Reading →
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Census Bureau’s good news that median income rose significantly in the United States last year wasn’t as cheerful for Connecticut. The state was among a dozen with the smallest rate of household median income growth in the nation, which had a robust increase of 5.2 percent. And not everybody benefited from Connecticut’s modest 1.8 percent income growth. Continue Reading →
The last time Republicans won a majority in the Connecticut House, they had the assistance of a Ronald Reagan landslide and a party lever that encouraged straight ticket voting. But the GOP sees opportunity for gains this year in open Democratic seats and polls showing an electorate deeply dissatisfied with a Democratic governor and General Assembly. Continue Reading →
The state’s largest business trade group is making its first major foray into world of independent expenditures with a $400,000 campaign aimed at helping Republicans win a majority in the Connecticut Senate and narrow the Democratic majority in the House. Continue Reading →
Another winter, another warning from the folks who run the power grid that natural gas shortages could cause power problems. The warning once again focuses all eyes on natural gas pipelines – viewed as either a big answer to the region’s power difficulties or a big problem, depending on whom you talk to. Continue Reading →
The state’s chief business lobby, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, took to the airwaves Monday to press for bold spending reforms to mitigate growing state budget deficits. Continue Reading →
It was inevitable. Suzanne Bates of the Yankee Institute, a conservative think tank critical of public-employee benefits, found herself at a table next to Daniel J. Livingston, the lawyer who negotiates those benefits for state employee unions. The unlikely table mates were emblematic of an experiment staged Friday to find a new approach to economic policy in Connecticut. Continue Reading →
Leading advocates for Connecticut’s businesses, workers and municipal governments will gather next month in Westbrook to tackle the challenges facing the state economy and state government finances. Continue Reading →
The annual business survey by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association was released Friday as the new state Commission on Economic Competitiveness begins assessing a business climate regularly described as dismal in national ratings. “The challenge for us is why,” said Joseph McGee, co-chairman of the commission. Continue Reading →