Legislators Get to Work on Jobs Bill

The Connecticut Legislature’s Special Session on jobs begins today. Legislators were hashing out the details of the proposed jobs bill right up until yesterday but Gov. Dannel Malloy, who visited businesses in New London and Waterford over the weekend, said he’s confident that the bill will pass.

“We’re going to have a great jobs bill and it’s going to pass,” Malloy said during his visit to Lumachip, Inc., an LED lighting company in Waterford.

The bipartisan bill is designed to spur job growth which, by most accounts, has been flat since the state passed the income tax three decades ago. It includes a spending package of $516 million, $180 million of which will be used to provide assistance to small businesses.

The bill includes investments in education to ensure that Connecticut’s workforce has the skills required by employers in fields that are growing. There’s also a plan to establish “innovation centers” in some cities to help connect entrepreneurs with mentors, services, and investors.

While the jobs bill seems to have broad bipartisan support, a proposal to provide $291 million to help The Jackson Laboratory of Maine relocate to Connecticut does not. Funding for the Jackson Lab was originally part of the jobs bill but when it became the sticking point, legislators decided to remove it from the larger proposal. It will be voted on as a separate bill during the special session.

The money earmarked for Jackson Lab would help pay for the construction of a new genetics lab at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington and would help fund future research. Some legislators, however, questioned whether the number of jobs created by the Jackson Laboratory—estimated to be about 320 over 10 years--merited such an investment by the state. Project supporters say the lab would also create thousands of “spinoff” jobs.

Other wondered whether Jackson Laboratory could be counted on to stick around.  A number of legislators pointed out that, despite heavy incentives from the state, Pfizer cut 25 percent of its workforce in New London and Groton earlier this year and closed the New London site—so hard won via eminent domain—ultimately selling it off to Electric Boat.

Gov. Malloy made reference to those recent losses during his visit to Waterford. He said he felt this region has a lot to gain if the jobs bill passes as expected. As for the Jackson Lab proposal, he said he doesn’t expect many Republican legislators to vote for it but he doesn’t think that will stop that bill from passing, either.

“It’s very exciting,” said Malloy.