Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • May 18, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com TOP STORY Trinity, edX to globally offer online courses Hartford's Trinity College this fall will begin offering a pair of online cours- es to pupils around the globe. Trinity announced Thursday its membership in edX, an online course plat- forms co-founded by Harvard, MIT in 2012 and that now more than four dozen U.S. and foreign colleges and universities as members. The 192-year-old private college is edX's first Connecticut member, of- ficials said. With TrinityX, a mobile-computing course and another entitled, "Science in Art,'' will be offered online for noncredit, beginning Oct. 19. Three more courses are in the works, Trinity President Joanne Berger-Sweeney said in a statement. EdX was created to increase access to education, improve the quality of education on campuses and online, and research ways to advance teaching and learning, Berger-Sweeney said. "TrinityX will undoubtedly allow us to reach broader audiences, while, at the same time, influence the use of educational technology on our campus," she said. BIOSCIENCE Protein Sciences gets FDA approval for N.Y. facility Meriden's Protein Sciences said it has received a license from federal drug regulators to manufacture its influenza vaccine at its facility in Pearl River, N.Y. Acquired from Pfizer in late 2012, the facility has four times the manufactur- ing capacity as Protein's Meriden plant, according to the company, which said it will continue to make Flublok in Connecticut. It will ramp up production of Flublok starting this year. Federal money helped to pay for New York facility, the company said. In 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded a $34.5 million contract to the company to develop its vaccine, which was approved in early 2013. While common flu vaccines are grown in chicken eggs, Protein Sciences uses a faster method, which HHS officials said would be of use if a fast-spreading epidemic arose. ENERGY & UTILITIES Bill to allow grocers to charge for plastic bags New legislation set to be introduced last week will allow grocery stores to charge customers to use plastic bags, part of an agreement reached with State Sen. Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D-Branford). Kennedy has been working on a bill to ban plastic bags entirely from Con- necticut. The bill he introduced last week is a compromise between him and the Connecticut Food Association, which represents grocery stores. One source with knowledge of the bill's language said grocers could charge 5 cents per plastic bag the first year and 10 cents per bag the following years. The money raised by the plastic bag fee would be split with 60 percent going to the state to be spent on food banks and conservation efforts and 40 percent going to the grocery stores for conservation education, according to a government source. The Connecticut Retail Merchants Association plans to oppose the bill be- cause of the added cost to consumers, said Tim Phelan, CRMA president. "We have to be sure that the impact doesn't hurt sales or consumers," Phelan said. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who must ultimately sign any bill into law, has previ- ously said he believes plastic bags can be useful beyond their initial use. Eversource last in customer satisfaction Hartford/Boston utility Eversource Energy scored last in a national ranking for customer satisfaction among investor-owned utilities, according to a report released last week. Michigan survey firm American Customer Satisfaction Index in its report scored Eversource a 66 out of 100 for how its ratepayers felt about the utility. The score was a 7 percent drop from the 2014 rankings. "We recognize the ranking for many electric companies has gone down, but we are always striving to improve," Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said. "We understand it's been a difficult time for our customers with electricity sup- ply prices reaching historic highs this winter. We're happy that those prices will be coming down on July 1, and we can pass those savings onto our customers." The customer satisfaction industry average, which fell 1.3 percent, was 74. ACSI said Eversource's score was hampered by the utility's response to winter storms, although the last time that was a major issue was 2011. Eversource owns six electric and natural gas utilities in Connecticut, Massa- chusetts, and New Hampshire, including the former Yankee Gas and Connecticut Light & Power in Berlin. "We continue to work hard on system upgrades and improvements to our pro- cesses and procedures to give our customers the best possible service," Gross said. GOVERNMENT, POLITICS & LAW Report: Fining low-wage employers would create jobs While business groups argue that a proposed bill to fine larger low-wage em- ployers would reduce the number of jobs in the state, a report released Wednes- day claimed the opposite. Funded by the worker-advocacy nonprofit Jobs With Justice, the report deter- mined that SB 1044 could create between 532 and 1,388 net jobs in the state — many of them within state agencies. The bill proposes to fine companies with 500 or more employees $1 per hour for every hour worked by an employee earning less than $15. The report, written by two economists and a UConn professor of social work, determined that the fines would result in $188.6 million in revenue for the state (based on 2014 data). That money will allow major state agencies, such the Department of Social Services and the Department of Developmental Services, to increase employ- ment, the report says. If the bill passes, companies will likely use a variety of strategies to offset its impact. Some may choose to take lower profits, while others may choose to pay the fine and adjust their pricing and cost structures to make up for it. A scenario in which affected employers choose to pass on the full cost of the fines to customers would generate the most net new jobs, the report said. HEALTH CARE CT small firms favor public retirement plans Many Connecticut small businesses favor an impending voluntary public re- tirement savings option for the approximately 750,000 residents who lack one, an AARP survey said. The major lobby organization for aging Americans said last week it surveyed more than 450 business owners statewide with five to 50 employees about the is- sue. Few said they offer retirement-savings plans to their workers and they'd like a public option as way to improve their competitive position in the marketplace. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy last year signed a legislative measure authorizing cre- ation of its public retirement savings plan. An oversight authority also was creat- ed that is hammering out the implementation and operational framework for the financial amenity into which individuals and/or their employers could contribute. One main feature of such a plan, experts say, is its "portability,'' meaning an individual would own her account and funds whether she spent a career with one or multiple employers. Among the key findings: • More than 60 percent of small businesses said they support a Connecticut retirement savings plan, and nearly 80 percent agreed that Connecticut should be doing more to encourage residents to save for retirement. Those surveyed said they favor low-cost, voluntary plans that would follow em- ployees from job to job, offering flexibility and security for the future. • The survey found that two in five small business owners do not provide a retirement savings plan to their employees, and about one in five do not even have a retirement plan for themselves. The most common reason cited was cost (49 percent). However, 64 percent of those who do not currently offer a retirement plan said they would use the public plan if it was offered. REAL ESTATE CT foreclosure inventory fell in March The percentage of mortgaged Connecticut homes in foreclosure is down a full percentage point over the past year, according to CoreLogic. The state's inventory stood at 2 percent in March, down from 3 percent in March 2014. Over the past year, 5,269 foreclosures have been completed in the state, up from 5,226 over the year-ago period. The rate of seriously delinquent mortgages also fell over the year, from 6.2 percent to 5.3 percent, CoreLogic said. Nationally, the March foreclosure inventory stood at 1.4 percent. BY THE NUMBERS 5 cents The amount grocery stores would be allowed to charge customers who use a plastic bag under a new bill being considered by state lawmakers. 20,000 The number of businesses that face higher sales taxes under the Democratic legislature's proposal to expand the 6.35 percent levy on 25 new services. 45 Connecticut's credit quality ranking out of 50 states, according to the latest "State of the States" report by Hartford investment manager Conning, which takes into account debt per capita, home values, tax revenue growth and unemployment. $30M The pending budget gap for the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system if Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposed budget cuts become law. TOP 5 MOST READ on HartfordBusiness.com ■ Bill to allow grocers to charge for plastic bags ■ $131.5M for UConn tech park ■ Malloy nominates four judges ■ $28K fine for Wethersfield construction firm ■ Eversource last in customer satisfaction 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 Trinity College professor Henry DePhillips, pictured here at the Wadsworth Atheneum, will teach a "Science in Art" course hosted on the edX online course platform. P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D

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