Your Voice

I recently had the opportuntiy to talk with several locally elected officals about Economic Development.

It is an interesting subject and my conversations had a surprising outcome. While other states across the country have taken economic development seriously, for some reason Connecticut, I am told, has not been paying attention. While other states are actively and even agressively working to steal our jobs and our corporate tax base, we have sat idilly by. A governor of one of these states was actually quoted saying, “the great thing about Connecticut, (in terms of economic development efforts) is that they do not even know there is a competition going on.” That is how other state leaders view us. As a state that assumes we have so much going for us that we do not have to work at it to compete for our jobs.

At the same time I have learned, that the legislature and other elected officials do not really get involved. This seems counter intuitive. Shouldn’t our locally elected officals know, care and fight for the corporations in their districts as well as the people. I am told that part of the problem is that the centralized economic development office does not provide a structure to allow true regional development projects to take flight. One candidate for Governor, Dan Malloy, explained the current bureaucracy and its shortfalls to me the other night. I was impressed at his idea and plan to bring new statewide community development initiatives to Connecticut. Regionally, appointed boards could develop and implement plans while taking advantage of federal funding that exists to pay for many initiatives. He suggested checking out his web site for more details. I think I will!