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8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 5, 2025 What's Trending 860.482.7613 | www.borghesibuilding.com 2155 East Main Street, Torrington, CT 06790 Check out our new website! Do you need a specialty building for your business? Do you need a specialty building for your business? © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing ™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. Creating "Building Ideas That Work" has been the Borghesi specialty since 1942. We are prepared to work with you all the way from concept to occupancy. PROJECT SPOTLIGHT NETTLETON HILL FARM Proposed reforms to JobsCT hiring incentive program would broaden small biz access By David Krechevsky davidk@hartfordbusiness.com W hen it was enacted in 2022, the JobsCT tax rebate program was hailed by businesses as a significant incentive program to create and retain jobs in the state. Eligibility guidelines for the program, however, make it difficult for small businesses to qualify. To correct that, the state legisla- ture's Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee has introduced and passed House Bill 7268, which decreases the number of jobs a small company needs to create in order to qualify for a tax rebate. The proposal, which received bipartisan support in the Finance Committee but still needs House and Senate approval, reduces the number of new full-time equivalent (FTE) employees required under the program from 25 to just five for a qualified business with 75 or fewer employees. According to the bill, an FTE is based on the hours worked or expected to be worked by a full- or part-time employee in a calendar year. A job in which an employee worked or is expected to work 1,750 hours or more in a calendar year equals one full-time equivalent. Few participants Under the existing program, to qualify for the tax rebate a business must: • Be engaged in an industry related to finance, insurance, manufac- turing, clean energy, bioscience, technology, digital media or any similar industry approved by the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). • Create a minimum of 25 new FTEs. • Pay a minimum annual wage of $37,500, and • Provide salaries that must be 85% of the median household income of the municipality where the jobs will be located. Eligible employers can earn a rebate equal to 25% of the withholding taxes from net new employees. Employers that locate or grow in a distressed municipality or Opportunity Zone are eligible for a 50% rebate. According to DECD's fiscal year 2024 annual report, there are just seven companies in the state taking advantage of the tax rebate program. Three of those companies — Avelo Airlines Inc. in New Haven, Ensign Bick- ford Aerospace Defense Co. in Sims- bury and Greenbriar Equity Group L.P. in Greenwich — signed on for JobsCT in 2023, the first year it was available. Four other companies — Fuss & O'Neill Inc. and Talcott Resolution Life Inc., both of Hartford, and TTM Technologies North America LLC and WaveAerospace Inc., both of Strat- ford — signed on in 2024. Combined, the seven companies have created and/or retained 2,463 jobs through the end of fiscal year 2024, which ended June 30. The program has allocated $6.67 million in tax credit rebates, or $2,708 in tax credits per job. Rebate payouts are earned in years three through seven, while years eight and nine are discretionary, so the first rebate payments will be made during the current fiscal year, DECD said. Christopher Davis, vice president of public policy for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said his organization supports the bill because expanding the incentive will help small businesses that continue to struggle with the high costs of creating jobs in the state. JOBSCT PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS COMPANY CONTRACT FISCAL YEAR TOTAL REBATES ALLOCATED Greenbriar Equity Group L.P. (Greenwich) 2023 $1,275,000 Ensign Bickford Aerospace Defense Co. (Simsbury) 2023 $1,013,460 Avelo Airlines Inc. (New Haven) 2023 $355,000 Talcott Resolution Life Inc. (Hartford) 2024 $1,161,777 WaveAerospace Inc. (Stratford) 2024 $853,884 Fuss & O'Neill Inc. (Hartford) 2024 $1,142,489 TTM Technologies North America LLC (Stafford) 2024 $867,155 TOTAL $6,668,765 Source: Dept. of Economic and Community Development FY 2024 annual report