Scribner: State Budget Deficit Growing, Jobs Scarce

Check out this report by Scott Benjamin published in the Nov. 20 issue of the Housatonic Times:

State Rep. David Scribner (R-Brookfield) painted a bleak portrait of the state’s current revenue stream and job prospects to the Greater Brookfield Chamber of Commerce recently, indicating that the General Assembly may soon be in special session to address a $624 million deficit that already exists for the fiscal year that started in July. Mr. Scribner said during a PowerPoint slide show during the Nov. 6 breakfast meeting at the Brookfield Senior Center that the state has lost 76,300 jobs since September of last year.He told the 30 people in attendance that the number of workers employed now is about comparable to 1989.

Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele (R-Stamford) said the previous night during a talk in Danbury that Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s (R-Brookfield) team of independent economists has indicated that the figure would probably hit 100,000 job losses before the economic recovery takes hold.

New York Times national economics reporter Jackie Calmes said on PBS earlier this month that during the recession that started in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks the job losses continued for 19 months after other economic indicators showed that a recovery had begun.

Reports indicate that some economists believe that those indicators began to improve in June of this year.

Some observers have said that it may be more difficult now to have large job gains as a recovery occurs since, as a result of technological advances that have resulted from the Internet and automation, some companies have discovered that they can maintain productivity with fewer workers.

Mr. Scribner said that the state ranks dead last in job growth and one national magazine has rated its Legislature as the “least business friendly” in the nation.
Former state Sen. David Cappiello (R-Danbury), who served on the Appropriations Committee for many years and who accompanied Mr. Scribner in his recent presentation, said in an interview last December that many of the elected officials in state government have never “owned and operated” a business.

Mr. Fedele, who owns The Pinnacle Group, an information technology company based in Stamford, said earlier this month that Connecticut could generate more jobs by lowering taxes, noting that the film production tax credit has not only brought major producers to the state for weeks to make movies, but also has helped establish permanent operations that are employing workers in Stamford and elsewhere.

Mr. Scribner said, “The mix of existing jobs has trended to lower skilled jobs.”

Some observers have said much of the job growth in Connecticut over the last 15 years has been entertainment-related as a result of the continued expansion of the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun resort casinos in the southwestern part of the state and of ESPN in Bristol, which The New York Times reported in 2007 was the most profitable cable-oriented company in the world.

Mr. Scribner, who was initially elected to the state House in 1999, said that state residents want the General Assembly to reduce spending.
He said a poll released July 22 by Quinnipiac University in Hamden stated that of the resident surveyed, 60 percent supported cutting services and only 30 percent indicated that they wanted to raise taxes.

Mr. Scribner told the chamber members that Fairfield County, one of eight counties in Connecticut, pays 46.8 percent of the revenues from the income tax, which was instituted in 1991 under then-Gov. Lowell Weicker (ACP-Essex).

Political observers have said that when wealthy residents in lower Fairfield County are paying significant capital gains taxes, the state budget usually has a surplus.
In a recent phone interview, Mr. Scribner said that the state might have to consider laying off state employees to address the budget deficit for the current fiscal year, which state Comptroller Nancy Wyman (D-Tolland) recently estimated at $624 million through the early stages of the current fiscal year.

Mrs. Rell negotiated some contract concessions with state employee bargaining units earlier this year with the promise that there would be no layoffs over the next two years.

Mr. Cappiello has said that the Connecticut state employees have the most generous benefits package in the nation, including low co-pays on prescription drugs and a 35-hour work week.

However, historically, the bargaining units have been resistant to make major concessions.

Former Gov. Ella Grasso (D-Windsor Locks) failed to establish a 40-hour work week during an economic downturn in 1975, her first year in office.

In late 2002, former Gov. John Rowland (R-Middlebury) eliminated 3,000 positions after the bargaining units declined to make significant concessions.

Mr. Scribner said that in addition to the growing deficit for the current fiscal year, the state also needs to address the moderate-term future, since the current two-year budget of roughly $38 billion was built on federal stimulus funds and other one-time revenues, which probably won’t still be available when the next two-year cycle begins in July 2011.

Mr. Fedele said during his recent talk in Danbury that the state has economic potential, noting that it has recently hovered between second and fourth in the country in productivity.

It also is recognized as a leader in fuel-cell research in development, largely because UTC Power in South Windsor has been in the field since the late 1950s when it began putting the technology into the first space capsules for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

However, Mr. Fedele said that the fuel-cell industry will not become a major employer for a while since, for example, its vehicles still are not being mass produced.
He said a typical diesel bus costs between $175,000 and $200,000, a hybrid bus runs $350,000 to $375,000 and a fuel-cell bus costs $1 million.

In an interview immediately after Mr. Scribner’s presen­tation, incoming Brookfield First Selectman Bill Davidson said he believes that the town would have to rely primarily on small- and medium-sized employers to increase its job base since it has limited land and a small industrial base.

He has long been a supporter of the emerging 198-acre Village District business center near the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road but noted that, even with the forthcoming opening of the Route 7 bypass, which will relieve some of the traffic congestion, it will be a little while before the proposed pedestrian-friendly streetscape will yield much revenue for Brookfield.

During the recent municipal election campaign, Mr. Davidson pledged to appoint an ad-hoc committee to study possible alternate revenue sources for the town, which might include cellular tower communications systems sites and a contract for a municipal garbage hauler.
On another topic, he said that he plans to meet with the Board of Finance shortly after taking office on Dec. 7 to discuss finding funds in the current fiscal year for hiring a town planner to coordinate activities in the municipal land-use office.

“The faster we get a planner, the better chance we have for economic development up and down Federal Road,” Mr. Davidson said.
He said he plans to meet with finance board member Bill Tinsley, who was the Republican nominee for first selectman this fall, about his proposal for the establishment of a Brookfield Economic Development Corporation.

Mr. Davidson said there might be pieces of that plan that he might want to ask the town to adopt, although he said he doesn’t believe that the piece related to eminent domain would have much support among town residents.

He also said that he will continue the efforts of the departing First Selectman Robert Silvaggi and Mr. Silvaggi’s predecessor, Jerry Murphy, to provide public water throughout Federal Road from the New Milford to Danbury borders.

Mr. Davidson said that, among other things, water service along the southern corridor of that road might help attract a business to locate on the northern section of the Kohl’s Shopping Plaza.

Incoming Selectman Howard Lasser, who was Mr. Davidson’s running mate on the Democratic ticket this fall, also attended the breakfast.

Former Board of Education Chairman Matt Grimes, a Republican, said that his records indicate that this is only the second time in Brookfield’s 221-year history that the town will have two Democratic nominees on the Board of Selectmen at the same time. The first time it happened came between 1975 and 1977 when Mike Walrath was the first selectman.