Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • March 23, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com Top STory OTB operator asks lawmakers not to leave it out of gaming expansion Off-track-betting operator Sportech said last week that its business could be damaged if it's not involved in the one or more new casinos state regula- tors might approve. Ted Taylor, managing director of the UK online betting giant, told members of the Public Safety & Security Committee last week that the combination of a coming MGM casino in Springfield, Mass., and the possibility of a casino near the northern I-91 area that doesn't involve Sportech would "devastate" his business, which has OTB parlors in Hartford, Windsor Locks and New Britain. He hopes lawmakers will steer a Hartford-area casino to Sportech's Brad- ley Teletheater in Windsor Locks, near Bradley International Airport. Besides having rights to operate OTB parlors across the state, Sportech also provides technical services to Mohegan's racebook, while Foxwoods uses Las Vegas Dissemination Co. Taylor indicated that relationship isn't enough to ensure Sportech's in- volvement in any new casinos that might be approved. He said Sportech, LVDC and the two casinos have had some discussions over the past six months, but characterized them as general conversations. Meanwhile, Anne Noble, CEO of the Connecticut Lottery Corp., last week said any new gaming would cannibalize lottery revenue, which totaled nearly $320 million for the state last year. To preserve lotto revenue in the face of more casinos, Noble said the legislature should approve new lottery products, such as online offerings. She also noted that in Massachusetts, the coming casinos will be required to sell state lotto products. Banking & Finance CT credit unions see lowest 2014 returns Federally-chartered credit unions in Connecticut had the lowest return on as- sets of any other state in the country last year, according to the National Credit Union Administration. Those credit unions had a median return on average assets of 10 basis points, or 0.1 percent. The national median return was 0.32 percent. Just ahead of Connecticut was Pennsylvania (0.15 percent) and New Jersey (0.16 percent), while North Dakota credit unions recorded the highest return in the country, at 0.78 percent. Median membership levels at federal credit unions in Connecticut fell by 0.8 percent last year. Across the country, 53 percent of credit unions also lost members. In Connecticut, median assets ticked up 0.1 percent, while median deposits and loans grew 0.5 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively. economy & LaBor CT adds jobs, but unemployment rate unchanged Connecticut added 6,400 jobs in January, but the state's unemployment rate remained at 6.3 percent, where it's been since September, the state Department of Labor said. It was the seventh month in a row of seasonally adjusted job growth. The state has gained 24,600 jobs since Jan. 2014. The private sector was responsible for much of the January increase, adding 5,500 jobs. The education and health services supersector posted the largest number of added jobs, at 2,800, while the largest percentage increase was in the con- struction and mining supersector, which added 1,300 jobs, or 2.3 percent. HeaLTH care & inSurance Harvard Pilgrim names CT head Health insurer Harvard Pilgrim, which has operations in Hartford and began selling plans in Connecticut last year, has named its executive in charge of Con- necticut operations. Jason Madrak, the former chief marketing officer for the state's insurance ex- change Access Health CT, will be Harvard Pilgrim's vice president for Connecticut. While at Access Health CT, Madrak developed the initial go-to-market plan for the Connecticut health insurance exchange. Prior to that, he was vice president for consumer experience at insurer WellPoint, which since has been renamed Anthem. educaTion CT graduation rate ticks up The statewide graduation rate for high school students last year ticked up to 87 percent, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced last week. That was up from 85.5 percent in 2013. The rates represent the percentage of first-time ninth-graders who received their diploma in four years or less. Female students had a 90.1 percent graduation rate, ahead of the male rate of 84.1 percent. White students had the highest graduation rate, at 92.2 percent, up from 91.4 percent in 2013. But black and Hispanic students continued to close the gap, officials said. The graduation rate for black students jumped from 75.7 percent to 78.6 per- cent, while the rate for Hispanic students rose from 70.2 percent to 74 percent. Lower-income students who are eligible for free or reduced school meals also improved their graduation rates, with 75.9 percent receiving diplomas, up from 72.1 percent. manuFacTuring Novitex opens Windsor facility Stamford document outsourcer Novitex said it has opened a cloud-based document processing facility in Windsor's New England Tradeport. Novitex, which manages and produces sensitive documents for Fortune 500 companies across a range of industries, touted the security features of the sys- tems housed in the 137,000-square-foot facility, including two-factor authenti- cation infrastructure and incident and event monitoring. The state Department of Economic and Community Development has loaned Novitex $5 million. If the company retains 336 jobs and creates 200 more within five years, DECD will forgive the loan. Novitex kicked in $6.4 million of its own funds for the project. The company was formerly a part of Stamford's Pitney Bowes, which sold the unit to Apollo Global Management for $400 million in 2013. TranSporTaTion United Airlines cutting 69 Bradley jobs United Airlines is cutting 69 customer service and ramp operator jobs at Bradley International Airport, it said in a filing this month with the state Department of Labor. United said it plans to hire a contractor to handle those functions instead. The cuts are needed "in order to continue to have sustainable financial success and run an efficient and reliable operation," wrote Hermes Pineda, United's human resources and airport operations managing director. The airline is cutting 38 customer service reps and 26 ramp service employees, who are all represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. There are also three managers and two administrative positions being cut. governmenT Towns ask lawmakers to reduce school spending requirement The Connecticut Council of Small Towns has asked legislators to change a law that requires them to spend at least the same amount of money on education as they did the year before. COST, which represents towns with populations up to 30,000, argues that the so- called minimum budget requirement is unfair for towns with declining enrollment or those that have achieved savings through insurance changes, consolidating programs and other measures. The council is using a projection from UConn's Connecticut State Center to bolster its position: That the number of school-age children will fall by 10 percent in the next 10 years. The current law allows schools with enrollment declines to budget $3,000 less per student, capped at half a percent of the prior year's budget. Municipalities are supporting legislation that would allow towns with shrinking enrollment to save as much as 50 percent of its per student costs and to increase the cap to 3 percent of the prior year's budget. By THe numBerS 90,500 The number of jobs Connecticut has regained since the 2008- 2010 recession, representing 76.1 percent of the 119,600 jobs lost during that period. $4M The total estimated economic impact the American Athletic Conference basketball tournament had on the Hartford region. 12 The number of New Hampshire power plants Eversource Energy plans to sell. 30 The number of months former Gov. John Rowland will spend in prison for his role in a campaign consulting scheme. Top 5 moST read on HartfordBusiness.com ■ Harvard Pilgrim names CT head ■ Feds give $600K to startup regional solar group ■ Webster's Smith saw 2014 pay rise ■ Bond Commission approves $31M for 8 CT cos. ■ Rock Cats to become the Yard Goats STay connecTed For breaking and daily Greater Hartford business news go to www.HartfordBusiness.com. HBJ on Twitter: @HartfordBiz HBJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HartfordBiz HBJ on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe Weekly e-newsletters: CT Green Guide Weekly www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe Week in review Casinos, the state lottery, and off-track-betting establishments are all lobbying to expand their gaming operations in the face of increased competition. P H O T O | C O n T r i b u T e d

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