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It’s the Education, Stupid
Training, transportation, technology top CBIA
agenda for lawmakers
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Business New Haven
4/3/2000
By: Michael C. Bingham
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Officials of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) have been making the rounds to pitch the business group's legislative agenda for the “new economy.”
The state's largest business organization is urging lawmakers to concentrate on education and job training, transportation, keeping business costs low, upgrading technology and revitalizing urban areas.
CBIA President Kenneth O. Decko called for “continued cooperation” between the business community and the executive and legislative branches of state government, as well as “innovative thinking that stresses flexibility in government.”
CBIA proposes addressing the shortage of skilled workers, especially in economic sectors such as manufacturing and information technology, through greater involvement by institutions of higher learning and improved collaboration with Connecticut businesses and existing job-training programs. The group also wants legislators to increase the supply of IT workers by creating a scholarship program for engineering students in the state and by increasing all students' access to computers.
The state's Department of Transportation (DOT), CBIA officials said, should develop a new mission focusing on transportation as an engine of economic growth. This would include a long-term strategic plan to make Bradley International Airport a “best-in-class” airport.
The business group naturally opposes any legislative efforts to impose new mandates on businesses, as well as measures that would drive up costs of health care, workers and unemployment compensation. It calls for lower business taxes and elimination of the sales and use tax on computer and data-processing services.
In technology, CBIA wants the state to help develop “smart” buildings and business parks with access to an array of new technologies to help businesses grow. According to CBIA Executive Vice President John R. Rathgeber, this is already being done in other states such as Maryland. Connecticut must follow suit, he says, if it wishes to be competitive.
The group's urban agenda involves support for public-private partnerships and tax incentives to encourage new economic development as well as to clean up abandoned industrial sites (see related story, page 16).
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