Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • April 8, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Gregory Seay | gseay@HartfordBusiness.com Real Estate, Economic Development/Construction, Banking & Finance and Manufacturing MANUFACTURING Some producers say tolls will be a burden T o the long list of concerns Connecticut manufactur- ers have about the state's economy, their industry and the people who work in it, add highway tolls. Many of this state's producers of mostly industrial-commercial prod- ucts, like aircraft parts and medical- device components, worry that Gov. Ned Lamont and state lawmakers will tag commuting motorists with tolls to fund transportation-infrastructure improvements. The prospect of tolls dominated the chit-chat among members of the Smaller Manufacturers Association of CT Inc. at their March 18 meeting, said SMA President Cyndi Zoldy. But it's not just commuting work- ers who would be impacted by tolls. Most manufacturers and machine shops in this state have salespeople who rack up miles across Connecti- cut, New England and portions of the Atlantic seaboard, calling on custom- ers and soliciting prospects. They also have truck fleets in which thousands of vehicles daily traverse Connecticut highways, as well as into neighboring Massachusetts and New York, two other states with interstate tolls. One SMA member calculated, Zoldy said, that tolling this state's inter- state highways would burden each of his workers who commute from New Haven into the Hartford area by an extra $1,200 a year. "Connecticut is such a small state," Zoldy said, "that it's not uncommon for someone to commute into Hart- ford from the suburbs.'' So far, a few different tolling pro- posals have been pitched, including Lamont's plan to toll most major high- ways to raise $800 million a year. The issue has created a divide within the business community, with some chambers and business leaders support- ing tolls as a way to invest in much- needed infrastructure repairs, and others worried about the added cost burden. Leaders and workers at Sirois Tool, a small Berlin "job shop'' that performs metal-finishing services to parts mak- ers and suppliers, are concerned about tolls, said Cheryl DiPinto, Sirois' hu- man resources director. Sirois also has two affiliates, Dow Gage and North American Spring Tool. More than just the cost to workers, DiPinto says management worries about the potential challenges from tolls in recruiting skilled talent out- side Berlin and Greater Hartford. "They're going to want to be closer to home. They're not going to want to travel,'' she said. "That's a huge concern of ours." SMA's Zolty says some of her mem- bers have begun plotting alternatives, if Connecticut implements tolls. The biggest solution, she said, is that they would simply raise pay for their workers, to cover tolls. Of course, manufacturers can resolve that burden one of two ways: Allow the cost of tolls to erode their profit mar- gins, or simply roll the added cost into what they charge customers. Paul M. Murphy, executive director of the Aerospace Components Manu- facturers (ACM) in Hartford, said most of his members daily run between two to five trucks on state roads. Tolls would add an extra layer to their transportation bills, Murphy said. "That's a cost we cannot pass on. We have to absorb it," he said. Woodbridge manufacturing execu- tive Jamison Scott said many truck- ers decry transporting raw materials and finished products between points throughout Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. "They hate coming into the tri-state area,'' said Scott, executive vice presi- dent of Air Handling Systems and also president of the New Haven Manufac- turers Association. "It's the tolls. It's the traffic. It's the roads.'' Scott said NHMA has not yet taken a formal stance on tolls, a topic he will broach soon with the organiza- tion's leadership and members. DEAL WATCH $2.75M Enfield office sale A 52,000-square-foot Enfield medical- office building has sold for $2.75 million. Enfield-based Enfield Corporate Properties LLC purchased the 38-year- old building at 113 Elm St. from TNOP Inc., of Holyoke, Mass. Baystate Radiology & Imaging is among the building's tenants. $841K Avon office-condo sale A 10,000-square-foot Avon office- condominium building sold recently for $841,000, or $84 a square foot. Avon-based Red Foot Realty Holdings LLC bought the office-condo at 50 Avon Meadow Lane from West Hartford- based AML Properties of Avon Inc. $700K Hartford office sale HGM Properties LLC purchased a 14,000-square-foot Hartford office building at 645 Farmington Ave., from Hartford- based Farmington Ave Pro Building for $700,000, or $50 per square foot. 2 Windham retail leases A Windham retail center has landed a pair of new tenants. At 1548 West Main St., in the town's Willimantic section, FFD Central Inc., operator of Fine Fettle Dispensary, signed with landlord Michael Taylor's Windham RT for 3,500 square feet to house its marijuana-dispensary operations, according to sole broker Lyman Real Estate of Westbrook. Fine Fettle plans a new location there. Next door, Watertown's The Next Street driving school, formerly All-Star Driver, took 1,350 square feet to open a branch school. Lyman co-brokered this lease with Pollock Co. BANKING & FINANCE CT bankers want to get tough on cyber criminals T he Connecticut Bankers Asso- ciation (CBA) wants to toughen penalties on cybercriminals by increasing fines and potential jail sen- tences on hackers and others who try to break into lenders' digital vaults. The CBA is backing Senate Bill 811, which recently received unanimous approval from the 15-member Banking Committee and will now head to a vote in the Senate. It increases the penalty for a computer crime against financial institutions to a Class A felony, punish- able by 10 to 25 years imprisonment and up to a $20,000 fine. The penalties would apply to com- puter crimes — including attacks tar- geted at money, property or personal information — committed against a financial institution, or any comput- ers, networks, programs or software it owns, leases or licenses. The last part of that language is important, bankers say, because it also covers attacks on third-party vendors banks use to help manage their IT operations. Under current state law, a person found committing one of those comput- er crimes can be charged with a Class D felony at worst, with a fine up to $5,000. In testimony in support of the bill, CBA said current law provides for "an extremely lax penalty," and that the legislative proposal "would create stronger, clearer and more effective de- terrents from committing these types of crimes." According to the Office of Fiscal Analysis, there have been 27 charges un- der the current state computer crimes law since fiscal 2014, but all of the cases have been thrown out. 50 Avon Meadow Lane, Avon. 1548 West Main St., Willimantic. PHOTO | LOOPNET.NET PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Cheryl DiPinto is the human resource manager for Sirois Tool in Berlin. HBJ PHOTO | GREGORY SEAY

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