Hartford Business Journal

11 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 3, 2022 5 To Watch in 2022 conversation was that Connecticut can't balance its books. I'd like to think we've turned the corner on that." Connecticut's business recruitment efforts, as Lamont pointed out, have borne fruit, especially over the last year. State officials in recent months have boasted about firms such as IT giant HCL, fintech TOMO and Philip Morris International setting up new offices in the state, with pledges to bring on hundreds of new jobs. But the state continues to contend with high taxes and costs, including the highest electricity prices in the mainland U.S., aging and congested transportation infrastructure and, perhaps most notably, a scarcity of workers, which, while not unique to Connecticut, is all the more concerning here considering how many jobs (over 70,000, according to one estimate) are currently left unfilled. Lamont acknowledged that the labor issue is complex, and said the usual rhetoric about a "skills gap" — in which employers can't find workers with the appropriate education, training and experience — doesn't fully explain the problem. "I've got to get people back to work," the governor said. "We can talk about the skills gap until we're blue in the face, but it's not a skills gap when it comes to our restaurants and retail stores. There's just a little bit of inertia from people not going in [to work] every day. And now we have [the omicron] variant, so I'm not positive people are going to want to go pouring back into serving in a restaurant [short term]. It was hard enough when we had the lowest infection rate in the country." For too long, Lamont said, good-paying jobs that form the basis of a stable career could only be accessed by those with considerable education and existing means. He said he hopes new certificate programs, which could get people trained for certain technical jobs in weeks or months rather than years, will be one potential remedy. "It should be a time of real opportunity if we can give folks who were left behind that chance," he said. On the whole, Lamont said he believes the Connecticut economy is well-positioned for 2022 and beyond, because even when the effects of massive federal spending gradually wear off, Connecticut can fall back on the strength of three critical sectors — aerospace and defense, the biotechnology and life sciences industry coalescing around New Haven and Yale University, and fintech, as illustrated by the growth of TOMO and DCG, an investor in bitcoin and blockchain technologies that is moving its headquarters from New York City to Stamford. Policy priorities Heading into 2022, Lamont has a few policy goals he'd like to advance, but his overriding message, he said, is "do no harm" — or, don't raise taxes when you don't have to. He'd like to reintroduce a property tax relief plan, calling the current system "regressive" and overly burdensome for homeowners. Similar efforts have stalled in the legislature before, but with the state now enjoying a surplus, political calculations could be different this time around. "It's something I promised to do and I'm going to try again," he said. Lamont also voiced support for doing away with, or at least reducing, licensing fees or other small taxes on businesses that he said send the wrong message to companies that might be looking to relocate to the state. In the business recruitment realm, the governor said he wants to continue in the direction forged by David Lehman, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development. "Before, they gave incentives to companies that didn't have a compelling reason to be here," he said. "Lehman has turned that on its head. He's talking about why companies should want to come to Connecticut, what we offer." Lamont said he isn't under any illusions about the kind of businesses he can bring to Connecticut, but he is hopeful that growing the density of experienced IT workers in cities such as Hartford, through the presence of companies like HCL and Infosys, could have a knock-on effect. "I don't think it's going to be an elephant coming in," he said. "I don't think I'm going to get the Amazon headquarters here to Hartford. But I do think you're going to see a hundred really exciting startups and a couple dozen of them will create something meaningful." 2022 More than commercial banking. COMMERCIAL BANKING from a bank that can take your business to the next level. Our local teams have helped Connecticut businesses for more than 220 years, let us help you. Visit washtrust.com or call 800-475-2265 Member FDIC.

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