t would be a colossal mistake for Connecticut to permanently back away from its commitment to expand energy infrastructure, which would provide increased statewide access to clean, affordable natural gas and support thousands of good-paying jobs.
Connecticut has suffered too long from the highest electricity costs in the nation. High energy costs not only hurt household budgets, but also hold back businesses and undermine job creation. Why would a business — especially an energy-intensive company — relocate or expand in Connecticut if the cost of energy isn’t competitive?
In February 2013, Gov. Dannel Malloy set Connecticut on a course to address our energy, economic and environmental challenges by releasing the state’s first-ever Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CES). This plan, supported by the state legislature and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), projected converting 280,000 state energy customers to natural gas over a decade. This conversion would have been made possible through a critically needed expansion of Connecticut’s energy infrastructure, primarily pipelines.
Investing in our energy infrastructure — as envisioned by the CES — was an important step in providing a wide range of environmental and economic benefits, with job creation right at the top. DEEP estimated that construction of new pipelines alone would support 3,000 to 4,000 jobs over a decade. Connecticut construction had suffered severely during the recession, and this marked an opportunity for us to finally create new jobs on a large scale.
As part of the early implementation of the CES, my organization, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478, sprang into action to meet expected demand for construction of 900 miles on new natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure. Pipelines are designed and built to operate safely for decades, and construction requires skilled, well-trained workers. Our local launched a training program, immediately opening the door for unemployed and underemployed Connecticut construction workers. We even received $4 million worth of equipment and support from our International.
Gov. Malloy visited our training center, where he underscored the broader economic promise of building out our energy infrastructure. “We will have a substantial positive impact on the environment while we lower costs… [and] make Connecticut competitive for jobs,” said the governor. Building pipelines, in other words, will provide the foundation for long-term economic growth and job creation across the economy.
In 2014, CES infrastructure projects began to put Connecticut men and women to work. For example, well-paid, union employees helped build Yankee Gas’ Wilton Expansion Project. In addition to building the pipeline, workers were needed to hook up businesses, schools and municipal buildings, as well as install new boilers. Wilton estimated that it would save $450,000 to $500,000 annually on future energy costs.
Under Gov. Malloy’s CES, this type of scenario should be repeated across the state for years to come. Infrastructure construction will create jobs, lower energy costs and help Connecticut attract jobs and businesses. We’ll also have cleaner air as households replace fuel oil with natural gas for heating. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Malloy: Only realistic 3rd casino option is the tribes’
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy moved forcefully Friday for the first time to focus the legislature’s debate on casino expansion, saying the only measure he would consider signing is a bill granting the owners of Connecticut’s two tribal casinos permission to build a commercial casino in East Windsor to compete with MGM Resorts International in Springfield.
In an interview with CT Mirror, the governor said he remains neutral on the question of whether to expand, but if the General Assembly is going to permit the state’s first casino off tribal lands, then lawmakers should respect the state’s long-standing exclusivity agreement with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations.
The tribes have paid the state $7 billion since 1993 under the terms of agreements in which Connecticut granted gaming exclusivity to the tribal casinos, Foxwoods Resorts and Mohegan Sun, in return for annual payments equal to a 25 percent share of gross slots revenues. The deal is expected to produce at least $260 million for the state this year.
“If I can help the legislature focus, it’s do you want to work with the two tribal nations that employ thousands and thousands of people in our state? If that’s what you’re trying to do to help secure those jobs and that base, then there is one road to go down,” Malloy said. “I will not sign a transaction or bill that puts into real danger our existing arrangement with the tribal nations, nor would anyone in this building who thought about it. And I’m not sure we’ve had that clear, crisp discussion.”
The General Assembly is considering three options: Grant the tribes authority to jointly develop a casino just off I-91 in East Windsor, between Hartford and Springfield; create a competitive process to consider new casinos, including one in Fairfield County that could tap the New York market; or do nothing.
“I’m not pushing it, or pushing against it,” Malloy said. “But I always believe you should have a realistic discussion about realistic outcomes, and it’s not realistic to put $260 million or more at risk.”
Without the Malloy administration’s playing a role, the casino debate has been oddly unfocused. Legislative caucuses have included assumptions of new revenue — $100 million or more — based on fees they hope to collect for rights to a casino in East Windsor or competition for rights to develop a gambling resort in Fairfield County.
But numerous sources say the revenue numbers are not based on negotiations with the tribes, MGM or any other casino company MGM has enticed to look at the Connecticut market. An entry-level question that the legislature has not explored is: Could a casino near New York generate more revenue than is paid by the tribes?
The Senate Democrats caucused on Wednesday to discuss the status of casino expansion, sparking speculation the Senate was getting ready to take up a bill. But the Senate adjourned Thursday without action and will not meet in session again until Tuesday, when only two weeks and a day will remain until the adjournment deadline of midnight June 7. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Bronx developer turns his attention to downtown Norwich
Norwich — Randy Persaud's Stackstone Group website boasts in big letters: “What We Do: Revitalize Forgotten Communities.”
In downtown Norwich, Persaud believes he has found the perfect candidate for his Bronx, N.Y.-based five-person development and project management team to show its stuff. The three-year-old firm has rehabbed residential and commercial buildings in the Bronx and one six-unit Tudor building in New Britain and is branching out to more towns in Connecticut and upstate New York.
Persaud has been visiting the region to go to the casinos in recent years, and friends who live here and do business here and in New York invited him to take a look around in eastern Connecticut.
“They tell me I should come here and do stuff,” Persaud said Friday at his remote office in the Norwich Community Development Corp.'s Foundry 66 building at 66 Franklin St.
Persaud has been scoping out downtown Norwich since March, boosted by the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority's plans for a major entertainment and resort complex at the former Norwich Hospital property in Preston, a 5-minute drive away.
His company now has contracts to purchase three vacant, derelict buildings on lower Broadway: the Fairhaven at 26-28 Broadway across from the Wauregan and two smaller buildings that sandwich Billy Wilson's Aging Still, one at 51-53 Broadway and the other 59-61 Broadway.
Persaud hopes to close on the properties — which all have different owners — sometime in June and begin renovations shortly thereafter. He already has engineers and architects working on plans for mixed-use residential and retail/commercial development, he said. He declined to discuss details until he acquires the properties.
“The thing that intrigued me the most,” Persaud said of downtown Norwich, “was how can a place so beautiful be so desolate? This place needs a shot of adrenaline.”
Persaud has met with city officials in several agencies who serve on a review team that counsels prospective developers on what they will need to do. He also has walked through downtown with NCDC President Robert Mills to view available properties. He hopes the lower Broadway block will be the start of his Norwich investments.
He is aware of the negative attitude that appears pervasive about revitalization prospects for downtown and that others have tried and given up. He hopes to prove the naysayers wrong by starting with the highly visible commercial block directly in front of City Hall.
“We want a holistic strategy,” Persaud said. “If we can take one area in Norwich and restore it, then we will rinse and repeat.”
Persaud said he is aware that others have tackled the Fairhaven building in recent years. It has been renovated twice in the past decade only to return to its current derelict state. Persaud said by upgrading the entire block, he hopes to sustain all three buildings, improving the surrounding area, as well. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Home builders can't find enough workers
There's a huge "help wanted" sign hanging over the home building industry.
Builders throughout the country are struggling to find workers, and it's causing major problems: Labor costs are rising, homes are taking longer to complete and buyers are facing higher prices.
"We are now at the point that there is a serious shortage of workers," said Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. "It's a real problem that ripples throughout the home-building process that ultimately costs the consumer."
When the housing market collapsed nearly a decade ago, home construction came to a screeching halt, leaving many workers in the field without jobs.
Workers fled to other industries or other countries, and many haven't come back. Some took jobs in the manufacturing and auto industries, while others found work in the energy sector.
"Simply, they were getting any work they could and had to go into other sectors to find ways to put food on the table," said Howard.
Foreign-born workers, the vast majority of whom come from Mexico and the Americas, make up a chunk of home builders' crews, and many returned home during the Great Recession and ultimately found gainful employment there.
"A lot of workers went back to Mexico," said Alan Laing, executive vice president at Taylor Morrison Home Corporation, a national home builder. "The Mexican economy has improved during that time so it's not a compelling proposition to come here. The immigration policies and employment practices make it harder for undocumented workers to gain employment."
What's more, the flow of immigrants into the industry has been slowing for awhile.
"The spigot was sort of being turned off in the later part of the George W. Bush administration and throughout the Obama administration," Howard said. "So it probably started then and got worse and worse."
In April 2006, the industry employed roughly 3.4 million workers, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Last month, home building employment was 2.7 million. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New accounting rule gradually brings corporate tax breaks to light
Want to know how much money governments give away in corporate tax breaks? Good luck.
For years, the figure has been incredibly difficult to calculate. That’s because states, cities and other government units haven’t been directed to uniformly report the value attached to the various tax incentives, abatements and financing deals they agree to as a way of stimulating economic growth.A major accounting shift taking place across the U.S. now is changing things.The nonprofit Government Accounting Standards Board changed its guidelines beginning in 2016 to require reporting of economic development tax breaks.
For the first time, state, local, county and township governments were instructed to include in their annual reports information on their tax abatement programs. That included how many such deals they had going, the amount of tax revenue foregone and the value of any non-tax commitments, such as land purchases or utility structures, they had agreed to contribute in order to seal the deals.Watchdog groups praised it as an important precursor to debating whether such incentives are a good investment for taxpayers.“Before you get to the question of whether they’re getting their money’s worth, you have to know how much is being spent,” said Zach Schiller, director of research for Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based think tank that tracks government budget issues.Rollout of the new guidelines has not been without its hiccups, however. The accounting board late last month had to issue a clarification to its rule to assure that governments are reporting one of the most widely used economic development tools: the tax increment financing, or TIF, district.
The mechanism has been used to develop the Polaris Fashion Place mall in Columbus; the Harbor Point Project in Stamford, Connecticut; Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque; the downtown Union Station in Denver; the Red Wings hockey stadium in Detroit; the Naval Air Station in Alameda, California; and a Cabela’s in Fort Worth, Texas, that promoters expected to draw more tourists than the Alamo, among dozens of other projects. Columbus, one of the first big cities to comply with the new rule, had opted not to list its TIFs in the tax abatement section of its 2016 financial report. Its decision appeared to comply with guidance on the matter issued by Ohio’s state auditor, Republican Dave Yost. Yost spokesman, Ben Marrison, said the guideline was based on the fact that there’s no reduction in revenue to the city under a TIF. “The existing taxes remain unchanged,” he said. “The property taxes that would have been collected on the improvements are collected from the property owner in a different form, but generally in the same amount.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Persaud has been visiting the region to go to the casinos in recent years, and friends who live here and do business here and in New York invited him to take a look around in eastern Connecticut.
“They tell me I should come here and do stuff,” Persaud said Friday at his remote office in the Norwich Community Development Corp.'s Foundry 66 building at 66 Franklin St.
Persaud has been scoping out downtown Norwich since March, boosted by the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority's plans for a major entertainment and resort complex at the former Norwich Hospital property in Preston, a 5-minute drive away.
His company now has contracts to purchase three vacant, derelict buildings on lower Broadway: the Fairhaven at 26-28 Broadway across from the Wauregan and two smaller buildings that sandwich Billy Wilson's Aging Still, one at 51-53 Broadway and the other 59-61 Broadway.
Persaud hopes to close on the properties — which all have different owners — sometime in June and begin renovations shortly thereafter. He already has engineers and architects working on plans for mixed-use residential and retail/commercial development, he said. He declined to discuss details until he acquires the properties.
“The thing that intrigued me the most,” Persaud said of downtown Norwich, “was how can a place so beautiful be so desolate? This place needs a shot of adrenaline.”
He is aware of the negative attitude that appears pervasive about revitalization prospects for downtown and that others have tried and given up. He hopes to prove the naysayers wrong by starting with the highly visible commercial block directly in front of City Hall.
“We want a holistic strategy,” Persaud said. “If we can take one area in Norwich and restore it, then we will rinse and repeat.”
Persaud said he is aware that others have tackled the Fairhaven building in recent years. It has been renovated twice in the past decade only to return to its current derelict state. Persaud said by upgrading the entire block, he hopes to sustain all three buildings, improving the surrounding area, as well. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Home builders can't find enough workers
There's a huge "help wanted" sign hanging over the home building industry.
Builders throughout the country are struggling to find workers, and it's causing major problems: Labor costs are rising, homes are taking longer to complete and buyers are facing higher prices.
"We are now at the point that there is a serious shortage of workers," said Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. "It's a real problem that ripples throughout the home-building process that ultimately costs the consumer."
When the housing market collapsed nearly a decade ago, home construction came to a screeching halt, leaving many workers in the field without jobs.
Workers fled to other industries or other countries, and many haven't come back. Some took jobs in the manufacturing and auto industries, while others found work in the energy sector.
"Simply, they were getting any work they could and had to go into other sectors to find ways to put food on the table," said Howard.
Foreign-born workers, the vast majority of whom come from Mexico and the Americas, make up a chunk of home builders' crews, and many returned home during the Great Recession and ultimately found gainful employment there.
"A lot of workers went back to Mexico," said Alan Laing, executive vice president at Taylor Morrison Home Corporation, a national home builder. "The Mexican economy has improved during that time so it's not a compelling proposition to come here. The immigration policies and employment practices make it harder for undocumented workers to gain employment."
What's more, the flow of immigrants into the industry has been slowing for awhile.
"The spigot was sort of being turned off in the later part of the George W. Bush administration and throughout the Obama administration," Howard said. "So it probably started then and got worse and worse."
In April 2006, the industry employed roughly 3.4 million workers, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Last month, home building employment was 2.7 million. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New accounting rule gradually brings corporate tax breaks to light
Want to know how much money governments give away in corporate tax breaks? Good luck.
For years, the figure has been incredibly difficult to calculate. That’s because states, cities and other government units haven’t been directed to uniformly report the value attached to the various tax incentives, abatements and financing deals they agree to as a way of stimulating economic growth.A major accounting shift taking place across the U.S. now is changing things.The nonprofit Government Accounting Standards Board changed its guidelines beginning in 2016 to require reporting of economic development tax breaks.
For the first time, state, local, county and township governments were instructed to include in their annual reports information on their tax abatement programs. That included how many such deals they had going, the amount of tax revenue foregone and the value of any non-tax commitments, such as land purchases or utility structures, they had agreed to contribute in order to seal the deals.Watchdog groups praised it as an important precursor to debating whether such incentives are a good investment for taxpayers.“Before you get to the question of whether they’re getting their money’s worth, you have to know how much is being spent,” said Zach Schiller, director of research for Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based think tank that tracks government budget issues.Rollout of the new guidelines has not been without its hiccups, however. The accounting board late last month had to issue a clarification to its rule to assure that governments are reporting one of the most widely used economic development tools: the tax increment financing, or TIF, district.
The mechanism has been used to develop the Polaris Fashion Place mall in Columbus; the Harbor Point Project in Stamford, Connecticut; Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque; the downtown Union Station in Denver; the Red Wings hockey stadium in Detroit; the Naval Air Station in Alameda, California; and a Cabela’s in Fort Worth, Texas, that promoters expected to draw more tourists than the Alamo, among dozens of other projects. Columbus, one of the first big cities to comply with the new rule, had opted not to list its TIFs in the tax abatement section of its 2016 financial report. Its decision appeared to comply with guidance on the matter issued by Ohio’s state auditor, Republican Dave Yost. Yost spokesman, Ben Marrison, said the guideline was based on the fact that there’s no reduction in revenue to the city under a TIF. “The existing taxes remain unchanged,” he said. “The property taxes that would have been collected on the improvements are collected from the property owner in a different form, but generally in the same amount.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE