Hartford Business Journal

16 Hartford Business Journal • October 1, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Matt Pilon mpilon@hartfordbusiness.com R. Nelson "Oz" Griebel spent 17 years leading Hartford's regional business chamber, so it's perhaps no sur- prise that his gubernatorial campaign's main focus is private-sector growth. Griebel, the unaffiliated candidate on the ballot this November, said every decision he would make as governor would be filtered through the lens of a single question: Will it help the state add 200,000 private-sector jobs by 2028? That's the jobs-growth number he has set out to reach over the next decade. "If we don't have job growth, the only thing we're going to get is more taxes and fees or higher rates, and that leads to outmigration," said Griebel, a former Republican, banker, and CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance, in a wide- ranging interview. Griebel's jobs target is an ambitious one. For context, the last time Connecti- cut has seen that level of job growth over a 10-year period was from 1981 to 1990, when the state added about 230,000 jobs right before the income tax was imple- mented. In the last 10 years, Connecticut added about 120,000 private-sector posi- tions, but that only reclaimed jobs lost during the Great Recession. Meantime, the labor department projects the state will add only about 111,000 jobs over the next 10 years. "To me the number is realistic," Griebel said of his target. He envisions growth in ad- vanced manufac- turing, insurance, fintech, health care and tourism. Griebel said a key tactic will be to restore confidence in the private sector, letting employers know they have "an advocate in the governor's office," and that he will be the state's chief marketing officer. He said tax hikes would be an "absolute last resort" to deal with the state's budget crisis. He laments that tax rates are too high, and would seek to eliminate "nuisance taxes" like the $250 business entity tax. He also talks about lowering the personal income tax, though he's still evaluating it. He also ruled out a hike to the sales tax, which he called regressive and a bur- den on businesses. A bigger issue, he said, is employers' and residents' dissatisfaction with how tax dollars are being spent, with a large and increasing chunk allocated for pen- sion, benefit and debt obligations. A core part of Griebel's strategy is to involve busi- ness leaders more in state decision- making. He sees public-private partnerships as a cornerstone of his governing style, which means including ex- ecutives on major strategy boards he plans to form to seek consensus on thorny issues like tolls and transportation funding, health care and energy. In addition, Griebel said he or running mate Monte Frank will chair those boards, showing members their work could actually lead to legislative changes. "I think the most important thing we can do in the near term is demonstrate to current employers that we're serious about making change," Griebel said. While Griebel supports leveraging unused corporate tax credits to do big deals, like the one Gov. Dannel P. Malloy did to keep Pratt & Whitney head- quartered in East Hartford, he said he would cut back on the governor's use of incentives and even seek to privatize the state's core economic agency, the Department of Economic and Commu- nity Development (DECD). Griebel said he would discontinue the First Five Plus program, which has been Malloy's marquee economic-develop- ment initiative. It offers forgivable loans and grants tied to job-creation targets and other investments. "I would not move forward with it," he said of First Five. He also doesn't favor the Small Busi- ness Express program, which provides loans and grants to employers with fewer than 100 workers. Would he kill corporate lending entirely? "You never say never because those are kind of foolish statements," Griebel said. As for DECD, he said he would seek to model it after Florida's comparable agency, give it a "sexier" name like "Grow Connecticut," and have it be advised by a board of private-sector members. "Who best would understand what an economic-development strategy should be than those who were involved in em- ploying people, in investing in the plant and equipment and research?" he said. Griebel's challenge It's a basic fact in close elections in this country — and this one is pretty Governor's Race 2018 Unaffiliated candidate Griebel seeks major role for private sector "I think the most important thing we can do in the near term is demonstrate to current employers that we're serious about making change." Unaffiliated gubernatorial candidate Oz Griebel is hoping 2018 is the year Connecticut voters will cast traditional political parties aside. HBJ PHOTOS | GREG BORDONARO

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