Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal • September 25, 2017 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Week in Review Briefs Webster's Smith retiring; cedes CEO baton to Ciulla James C. Smith, only the second CEO in the history of Webster Financial Corp., is retiring from the Waterbury lender his father founded and will be succeeded by John R. Ciulla, effective New Year's Day 2018. Smith, who has served as the parent holding company's CEO since 1987, will remain as nonexecutive chairman of Webster Financial's board, the regional banking giant announced. Separately, Webster announced that Albert J. Wang is the new chief accounting officer for both the holding company and its flagship Webster Bank. These changes reflect the culmination of a multiyear leadership succession planning process, the bank said. "It has been an honor to lead Webster and work with our community-minded, values- guided bankers as we've built Webster into the leading regional bank we are today," Smith said in a statement. "Over the past 10 years in particular, we've undertaken a transformation to position Webster for continued growth as a high-performing regional bank." Smith praised his successor, a Connecticut banking veteran named Webster Bank's president in 2015. Ciulla also is president of the parent company and is the 2017 board chair of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, the state's leading business lobby. Ciulla joined flagship Webster Bank in 2004 as senior vice president for middle market banking, and later served as chief credit risk officer, among other leadership posts at the bank. CT income up, poverty down Median household income in Connecticut ticked up nearly 3 percent in 2016, while the number of people living below the poverty line trended down, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Household median income was $73,433 last year, up from $71,346 in 2015. Median income has been mostly on the rise since a dip in 2010. Meanwhile, the percentage of families living in poverty in Connecticut last year fell to 6.8 percent, down from 7.4 percent in 2015, according to the Census Bureau's data. The poverty rate for individuals last year was 9.8 percent, down from 10.5 percent the year before. Analysis: Continued budget impasse will hurt city, town credit ratings A protracted state budget stalemate is expected to result in reduced credit ratings for municipalities in coming months, S&P Global Ratings said, before lawmakers passed a $40.7 billion Republican budget and the governor vowed to veto it. With the impasse on the budget persisting and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's revised executive order reducing state aid to municipalities by 38 percent, or $928 million compared to 2017 funding levels, S&P analyst Victor M. Medeiros said many cities and towns don't have the reserves available to manage the impact of those cuts. "The longer the impasse," Medeiros wrote, "the greater the likelihood we would lower credit ratings, potentially by multiple notches, on those communities most exposed to liquidity pressures." S&P Global issues ratings to 88 of the state's 169 municipalities, and "virtually all" of those would have to absorb cuts of 1 percent or more of general fund revenues under Malloy's executive order. About 37 communities, including Hartford, which is struggling to avoid bankruptcy, will have to absorb cuts in aid representing 10 percent or more of revenues, the analyst said. The approved GOP budget spares communities from major cuts in state aid but does not provide the $40 million the Democratic spending plan would have provided to the city of Hartford, which is facing bankruptcy. Malloy has vowed to veto the GOP plan. CT greenlights major renewable projects The state's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority has signed off on power purchase contracts negotiated between Connecticut's two utilities and the developers of 28 renewable energy projects, selected last year in a major government-led bidding process. PURA recently issued final decisions for six larger projects, as big as 126 megawatts in size, and for 22 small-scale projects between 2 and 20 megawatts. Of all generation projects with approved contracts, a dozen — all of them solar — would be located in Connecticut. The largest is the 49-megawatt Quinebaug Solar Project straddling the Brooklyn-Canterbury border, developed by NextEra Energy Resources. In all, the projects are expected to generate just over 700,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year for Connecticut, according to PURA documents. The 28 projects — which include four wind projects outside of Connecticut — have a combined capacity of 658 megawatts. An TOP STORY MGM Resorts unveils plans for $675M Bridgeport casino M GM Resorts International, which is developing a $950 million casino in Springfield, Mass., announced plans to develop a privately financed $675 million resort casino in Bridgeport. The conglomerate is already competing with Connecticut tribally owned casinos Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino by building MGM Springfield, which is slated to open in the fall of 2018. The looming competition prompted the Mohegans and Mashantucket Pequot tribes to seek and win legislative approval to build a smaller casino in East Windsor. But the fate and timetable of that project is still uncertain. MGM Resorts International and The RCI Group, a real estate company and the developer of Bridgeport's Steelpointe Harbor neighborhood, say the proposed casino would create "thousands" of new jobs and increased revenue for the city, region and state. For MGM and RCI to move forward with their plans, the legislature would have to reopen the approval process for a new casino. MMCT, the Connecticut tribes' joint venture, plans to build its new 200,000 square-foot casino in East Windsor to compete with MGM Springfield, providing 2,000 slot machines and up to 150 table games, but the casino would have no hotel or other features of a major resort. In June , Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a bill authorizing the East Windsor casino. At the time, MGM tried but failed to convince lawmakers to open a competition for a casino resort in Fairfield County. BY THE NUMBERS $675M The price tag of a proposed MGM ca- sino development in Bridgeport, which the developers say will create thou- sands of jobs in the state's largest city. $73,433 The median household income in Con- necticut in 2016, up from $71,346 in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 70 The number of jobs ESPN plans to add in Bristol, where it will operate the new ACC college sports network. 3,900 The number of jobs Connecticut lost during the month of August, putting the state's unemployment rate at 4.8 percent. TOP 5 MOST READ On HartfordBusiness.com • 1. MGM Resorts ready to fund $675M Bridgeport casino • 2. Dillon Stadium could get makeover to attract pro sports • 3. Hartford region cracks top 25 list of best cities for jobs • 4. CT greenlights major renewable projects • 5. Webster's Smith retiring; cedes CEO baton to Ciulla 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 Linkedln: 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, CT Health Care Weekly www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe MGM wants to build a waterfront casino in Bridgeport pictured in this rendering. John Ciulla (left) is taking over for Jim Smith as CEO of Webster Financial Corp. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED RENDERING | CONTRIBUTED

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