Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com January5,2015•Hartford Business Journal 9 Brennan's focus is to make CT the best place for business By Brad Kane bkane@HartfordBusiness.com J oe Brennan has prepped 26 years to take over as head of Connecticut's leading business lobby, and he is readying the 200-year-old organization for what will be a pivotal year in its latest campaign. Brennan took over as president and CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association Dec. 11, replacing John Rathgeber, who retired after 37 years at the organization, the last six in the top role. "Connecticut is never going to be a cheap place to do business, but it can be the best place to do business," Brennan said. Sen. Bye leads efforts to balance CT's $1.4B budget deficit By Brad Kane bkane@HartfordBusiness.com A ny year in which the Con- necticut General Assem- bly has to balance the budget, talks of raising taxes and making spending cuts often dominate the political discus- sion. With the state legislature facing a projected $1.4 billion deficit in the first year of its next budget, those conversations will be all the more extreme. "The state budget situation is the single biggest issue on business owners' minds right now," said Andrew Markowski, Connecticut state director for the National Federation of Inde- pendent Businesses. "It creates so much uncertainty about our economic condition and how state government operates." At the center of all this debate will be State Sen. Beth Bye, (D-West Hartford). As co-chair of the all-important Appropriations Committee — along with State Rep. Toni Walker (D-New Haven) — Bye will be in the thick of all the public and behind-the-scenes discussions/negotiations over how Connecticut will spend and raise money to balance its budget for the next two years. "I don't think there is any appetite for increasing taxes," Bye said. "We have to look everywhere to make as many cuts as possible." The no-more-taxes credo has been repeated by other key legis- lative leaders and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, but the last time policy- makers faced such a large budget deficit — when Malloy took office in 2011 — it led to the largest tax increase in the state's history. To avoid that fate, lawmakers and lobbyists will have to face reality about the amount of cuts that will be necessary, Bye said. "No one wants to give up what they have," Bye said. The Appropriations Com- mittee will take a hard look at business tax credits to see if any cuts can be made, Bye said. Tax credits are a good way to incentivize businesses, espe- cially companies important to the state's economy like manu- facturing, but the legislature needs to make sure those tax credits are benefitting Con- necticut as a whole, Bye said. Another spending area on the chopping block will be healthcare costs, Bye said. Connecticut needs to work to provide more home-care pro- grams and keep people out of Frontier's Quick says brand awareness, market share growth keys to 2015 By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com I f Frontier Communications' push into Connecticut has a face, it's Paul Quick. The self-proclaimed "young 50-ish" general manager and senior vice president has oversight of sales, field opera- tions and customer service for the Stamford-based telecom's Connecticut landline, Internet, and television business, which it acquired from AT&T in October for $2 billion. In a late October interview at Frontier's newly acquired Hartford reporting center on Brainard Road, Quick said his charge is to take market share away from competitors, win back cord cutters, and upsell existing customers, all P H O T O | P a b l O R O b l e s P H O T O | P a b l O R O b l e s P H O T O | P a b l O R O b l e s State Sen. Beth Bye (D-West Hartford) co-chairs the Appropriations Committee. Paul Quick, general manager and senior vice president of Frontier Communications' Connecticut operations. Joe Brennan, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10

• Cover