Hartford Business Journal

20 Hartford Business Journal • December 14, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY EDITORIAL CT's aging population poses opportunities, threats T his week, the Hartford Business Journal wrapped up its year-long "Connecticut's Silver Tsunami" series, which took an in-depth look at the business and economic implications of the state's aging population. HBJ published about two dozen stories on the topic. More recent installments focused on Connecticut business owner's lack of succession planning and the push to recruit urban students to replace an aging workforce. What did we learn? First, Connecticut's aging population will have a far-reaching impact on our economy and lack of planning and strategizing by business leaders and policymak- ers to confront the issue will further constrain Connecticut's economic competiveness. Private-public partnerships will need to be further developed among industry, gov- ernment and educational institutions to ensure we are training and educating the future workforce in in-demand careers. We've highlighted many of these efforts over the last year, including in this week's issue, where we detail Professional Insurance Agents of Connecticut Inc., working with Goodwin College in East Hartford, to help train students for insurance careers through insurance-specific course work and paid externships. Job growth will be another key. Connecticut's population has been dwindling in recent years as residents move to lower-tax states with warmer climates and greater job-growth prospects. The state can't simply rely on its own residents to fill future job vacancies. We need the ability to attract the best and brightest minds from around country and world to remain competitive. Only then will employers large and small be comfortable firmly implanting their roots in the state. But that job growth will only come when the state gets its fiscal house in order and creates a business landscape that has fair and predictable taxes and regulations. Many would argue we aren't yet close to that happy medium. Last week the state legislature took baby steps towards recognizing the need for a com- petitive business environment, when it provided modest business tax relief including modi- fications to the controversial unitary reporting system for corporate taxes, among other measures. But with more significant deficits looming, Connecticut's structural budget woes haven't been rectified and businesses have no assurances that the cost of doing business in Connecticut won't continue to rise. That's one of the chief concerns Fairfield-based General Electric has harbored during its search for a potential new corporate headquarters. Connecticut offers a great quality of life with some of the best schools in the country, but our state's value proposition is severely diminished with a high cost of living that increas- ingly makes it more difficult for individuals, families and businesses to live and operate here. That's not rhetoric — it's a notion supported by fact: About 96,000 Connecticut residents moved out of the state in 2014, and we lost 13,285 more residents than we gained last year. Another key lesson we learned was the need to leverage the skills, talents and knowledge of our older workers. Too often we read about companies letting go veteran employees at the top of the pay scale in order to cut costs, but there will come a tipping point when the loss of that institutional knowledge will severely damage companies. Several organizations in Connecticut, including Leadership Greater Hartford and Capital Workforce Partners, are running programs that aim to utilize the skills of older retired or unemployed workers, particularly helping them adopt their private-sector knowledge to help area nonprofits. It's a model that businesses should seriously con- sider when trying to figure out how to leverage their older workers. Connecticut's aging population poses both threats and opportunities. It's the busi- nesses and policymakers who are proactive in addressing the issue that will put the state in the best position to succeed long term. n OTHER VOICES The death of political speech as we know it By Dean Pagani R ecent political events suggest that, more than anything, what the American people want is government leaders who simply tell the truth. We have all learned how to decipher purposefully deceptive language and we simply don't have the time for it anymore. We not only want our poli- tics in 140 characters or less, we want can- didates to share their true beliefs, even if those beliefs are not supported by facts. Communications experts often tell cli- ents that audiences respond to leaders who "say what they mean and mean what they say." Even so, there is the tendency in politics to devise well-test- ed word formulations meant to steer public debate in one direction or another. Sometimes these formulations mean just the opposite of what they appear to mean, but they are calculated to win votes. It's this second part of political mes- saging — the manip- ulative part — that voters are rejecting as we approach the coming presidential election year. K nowledgeable observers continue to predict the collapse of the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump, Ben Carson and to a lesser degree, Bernie Sanders. The experts say all three men hold extreme policy positions that make them un-electable. Some say Trump has no meaningful policy positions at all. What all three do have is an un-restrained willingness to say exactly what is on their mind no matter how unpopular it may be. Their opponents are mostly incapable of doing so, because they have succeeded in politics under the old rules of political com- munication that require candidates to thread the needle rhetorically, on almost every issue, to appeal to the largest number of potential voters, or to appeal directly to their base. Something has changed. Politicians have always been known for being slick, or disin- genuous with their language, but voters have adapted and can see through it. Even the most practiced politicians realize it. In a recent Republican debate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) accused former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush of attack- ing him on his voting record only because Bush's advisers told him it would work. The tactic undercut Bush's authenticity and allowed Rubio to suggest he was telling it like it is. We might call it the Pope Francis effect. People around the world are responding posi- tively to the Pope because he has made a point of refusing many of the trappings of power and choosing to speak directly about controversial issues. Though many may disagree with him — and his church on many issues — they over- whelmingly appreciate his candor. Here in Connecticut, the election of Joseph Ganim as mayor of Bridgeport, car- ries a similar message. In conventional terms, it is hard to explain the city's willingness to return a former mayor, convicted of corruption in office, to that very same office. On the other hand, what could be more honest than a known felon stand- ing in the public square asking voters to give him a sec- ond chance despite everything they know about his past. Ganim's new deal with the voters of Bridgeport is perfectly clear. They have given him another chance, but if he strays he will be banished for good. For other reasons, it is unlikely Trump, Carson or Sanders will be elected president, but their communications style is changing the nature of the debate and could influence future candidates, because politicians emu- late what works. Candor works. To paraphrase former president Bill Clin- ton, we are witnessing the death of political speech as we've known it. n Dean Pagani is a public relations adviser with McDowell Jewett Communications in Hartford. HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL Did lawmakers' deficit-mitigation plan improve CT's business environment? ● Yes ● No ● Not sure To vote, go online to HartfordBusiness.com. Last week's poll results: Do you expect your household income to climb in 2016? 3 0.7% Yes 69.1% No Dean Pagani ▶ ▶ What could be more honest than a known felon standing in the public square asking voters to give him a second chance despite everything they know about his past. The Hartford Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and guest commentaries for our opinion pages. Electronic submissions are preferred and welcome at: news@HartfordBusiness.com. Or you may fax submissions to Editor, Hartford Business Journal, at (860) 570-2493. Send Us Your Letters

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