Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal • January 21, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Week in Review Briefs Hartford HealthCare to raise hourly minimum wage to $15 After months of consideration, Hartford HealthCare (HHC), Connecticut's second-largest health system, announced plans to raise its minimum hourly wage to $15 in March. HHC said the wage hike will take effect March 31, benefiting more than 2,400 of its 20,000 employees across the state. HHC's $15 hourly wage mirrors the minimum pay requirement progressive Democrats are working to pass in this year's legislative session. Connecticut last increased its minimum wage from $8.70 to $10.10 over three years ending Jan. 2017. The state's $10.10 minimum wage is lower than nearly all New England states and New York. Officials said the wage hike is expected to increase employee retention, attract more applicants and improve employee satisfaction, among other benefits. Google tech training coming to Hartford Google says it's bringing its digital skills training tour to Hartford, New Haven and New London next month. "Grow with Google," the California tech giant's economic opportunity initiative, said it will provide free digital-skills workshops and one-on-one coaching services across the state in February to help Nutmeggers grow their career or business. The training tour kicks off at the Hartford Public Library on Feb. 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The all-day sessions include hands-on courses in a variety of tech topics — search-engine optimization, online marketing, coding, etc. — geared toward job seekers, small business owners, educators, students and entrepreneurs. Middle-class growth sparks latest surge in CT tax receipts State income tax revenues have surged upward again, but this time it was the middle class — not the wealthy — behind most of the gains. A new report from fiscal analysts projects overall revenues this fiscal year will surpass budgeted expectations by $464 million — an improvement of $204 million from a rosy revised forecast issued in mid-November. The consensus report from Gov. Ned Lamont's budget staff and from the legislature's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis also anticipates nearly $500 million in additional revenue during the upcoming two-year budget cycle — an average of almost $250 million per year — where multibillion-dollar deficits loom. But it remains unclear whether Lamont and the General Assembly can spend much of this projected windfall, given stringent new spending cap rules enacted in late 2017. Keith Phaneuf | CT Mirror Hartford's Shipman & Goodwin names former DCF Commish Katz a law partner The former commissioner of Connecticut's Department of Children and Families (DCF) has joined Hartford law firm Shipman & Goodwin LLP as a partner. Joette Katz, who led DCF for eight years under former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, is a new partner in Shipman's business litigation practice group. She will work in the firm's Hartford and Stamford offices. The firm's business litigation group has almost 70 attorneys that represent clients in state and federal courts throughout the U.S. in a variety of subjects. Liberty's retiring CEO still on the job Longtime Connecticut banker Chandler Howard, who previously planned to retire at the end of 2018 as president and CEO of Liberty Bank, remains in place as the search for his successor continues, the Middletown lender says. The $4.8 billion-asset community lender, one of New England's oldest banks, announced last May that Howard would step down Dec. 31, ending more than four decades as a Connecticut banker. Liberty spokesman Anna Brothers said the bank's search committee continues to seek Howard's successor, and that no new date for his exit has been set. Howard is one of only a handful of African-American bankers to achieve key Connecticut leadership slots. He joined Liberty in 2007 after several career banking stops. He started as a teller in 1974 for the thrift now known as People's United Bank. The Connecticut Fair Housing Center TOP STORY Enfield's MassMutual campus for sale S pringfield insurer MassMutual has hung a "for sale'' sign on its sprawling, 66- acre Enfield campus. The asking price was not disclosed. The property MassMutual has occupied at 100 Bright Meadow Blvd., since acquiring it in 2004, became expendable when the insurer announced last February that it would build a new Boston campus, increase its presence at their Springfield headquarters and close its Enfield campus. The moves are expected to add 2,000 Bay State jobs through 2021. MassMutual has retained CBRE to market the property to potential buyers worldwide. Originally built in 1983 as a regional campus for former insurer The Phoenix Cos., now part of Nassau Re, MassMutual bought the property in 2004. Totaling approximately 430,000 square feet, the campus, visible from I-91, consists of three interconnected, four-story Class A office buildings. It has a 6,000-square-foot child-care facility and a 1,460-car, six-story parking garage. BY THE NUMBERS 1,500 The estimated number of federal workers in Connecticut working with- out a paycheck as of last week, due to the government shutdown. $1.5B The newly estimated Connecticut budget deficit for next fiscal year, which has fallen from about $2 billion two months ago, due in part to gains in personal income-tax collections. 1.2M sq. ft. The amount of additional industrial space that Greater Hartford tenants absorbed in 2018, led by demand from e-commerce companies like FedEx, according to CBRE. $100M The amount CVS Health, which recently acquired Hartford health in- surer Aetna, has committed to invest in community health and wellness programs for underserved and under- insured communities. TOP 5 MOST READ On HartfordBusiness.com • 1. Hartford HealthCare to implement $15 minimum wage • 2. Hartford's Shipman & Goodwin taps DCF's Katz as partner • 3. Enfield's MassMutual campus for sale • 4. Bristol apts. fetch $4.4M • 5. East Hartford adds brewery, brewpub zones STAY CONNECTED For breaking and daily Greater Hartford business news go to www.HartfordBusiness.com HBJ on Twitter: @HartfordBiz HBJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HartfordBiz HBJ on Linkedln: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/ subscribe MassMutual, which is shuttering its Enfield operations, is now selling the 430,000-square-foot campus in town. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Joette Katz, Partner, Shipman & Goodwin LLP

• Cover