Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • October 19, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 11 Quality Construction + Butler Manufacturing = Repeat Customers www.borghesibuilding.com © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. 2155 East Main Street • Torrington, Connecticut 06790 Gregor Technologies, Torrington, CT | 2007 | 40,000 sq. ft. • 2009 | Addition — 28,500 sq. ft. Contact us at 860-482-7613 or visit us on the web. Director, Informatics w/ Aetna in Hartford, CT. Responsible for the delivery of analytic projects that provide tactical & strategic solutions to constituent needs. Rqmts: Master's in Cpu Sci, Cpu Info Tech/Systems. Min 2 yrs exp coordinating Data Warehouse projects. Prior ex must include: performing Business Intelligence work in the Sales Domain; performing SAS programming & SQL dvlpmt; utilizing tools inclu Toad, IBM DB2, UNIX, ETL, Data Modeling, JCL, COBOL, CICS, SoupUI, Business Objects & Crystal; & utilizing SAS, DB2/ SQL Server databases, and Hadoop/open technology. Apply online at www.aetna. com; Req #: 72384BR in independent expenditures to support a largely Republican slate of legislative candidates, helping the party gain three Senate seats and eight House seats. CBIA aban- doned that tactic in 2018, choosing to spend its money advocating for business-friendly policies rather than donating to specific campaigns, something that will continue. DiPentima has high praise for Brennan, whose leadership style he described as even-keeled and thoughtful, but willing to fight when the situation called for it. "Joe has been aggressive at times and he's encouraged me to do the same thing, and if we need to be ag- gressive we will be, but until then, we want to be part of the solution and work collaboratively," DiPentima said. Rep. Matt Ritter (D-Hartford), who is expected to become House Speak- er next year, is not among those who have signed CBIA's new pledge. But he said he hopes to work col- laboratively with the association and DiPentima. "You have two options as an advo- cacy group: You can be so strident in your views that you're just always a 'no,' … or you work with both sides of the aisle to find compromise," Ritter said. "There are issues where I think CBIA has done that in the past and I hope they'll continue." Ritter also said the state's $3-bil- lion Rainy Day fund balance should serve to alleviate some of the budget pressures in the upcoming session. "We're so much better off than we were, say 12 years ago, when the Rainy Day fund was zero and we had to bor- row $800 million for operating costs," he said. "There are improvements and it's important to point that out and make note where Connecticut has im- proved. Sometimes it seems that no one wants to accentuate the positive." Growth in dynamic, difficult times As CBIA looks ahead to 2021, DiPentima said he's pleased with the health of the organization itself. Given the prolonged economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, CBIA could certainly be in a much worse position — many chambers of commerce around the state have faced declining memberships and budget constraints amid the CO- VID-19 pandemic. Making matters worse, CBIA and other business associations were not eli- gible for Paycheck Protection Program stimulus funds, which provided a finan- cial lifeline to many small businesses. At least one group — the influ- ential Business Council of Fairfield County — actually ceased opera- tions in March. However, despite the state's econ- omy running at an estimated 15% to 20% below normal after shedding nearly one-third of its GDP over the spring, the CBIA has actually added to its membership ranks during the past seven months, DiPentima said. "[CBIA] has at least held its own, if not gotten stronger," he said. DiPentima said the CBIA gener- ated goodwill in the early months of the pandemic by offering webinars and other content free of charge to non-members, some of whom de- cided to join over the summer. CBIA, which had a $5-million bud- get in fiscal 2018, would not divulge its current membership count for this story, describing it only as in the "thousands." It had 7,000 members in fiscal 2015, which was the last year it disclosed the number in its not-for- profit IRS tax filing. CBIA did say it is currently running about 10% ahead of its 2020 mem- bership growth goal, which was set before the pandemic hit the state. Rep. Matt Ritter, who will become the top Democrat in the House next year, said he hopes to work collaboratively with the CBIA and find common ground on legislative proposals. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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