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Capital Concerns
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Business New Haven
3/6/2000
By: BNH
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Fla. Companies Cited
in Paper Scheme
A cease-and-desist order was entered in January against two Florida companies doing business in Connecticut: Sebastian International Entertainment Inc. and World Vision Entertainment.
State Banking Commissioner John P. Burke and Insurance Commissioner George M. Reider Jr. had warned local insurance agents in October about fraudulent schemes involving the marketing of promissory notes and commercial paper.
Burke said his department's Securities & Business Investment Division had received complaints from Connecticut residents involving more than $2 million invested in promissory notes and commercial paper, often sold through insurance agents.
Most of the complaints received centered on products promoted by the two Florida companies.
According to Burke and Reider, the companies allegedly duped local insurance agents into marketing their investments by falsely telling agents that the products were not securities and that the investments were fully backed by foreign surety companies. Although the surety companies had credible-sounding names, they appear to be questionable enterprises.
Burke said his agency considers products like those marketed from the two companies to be securities. He also said insurance agents who sold the notes violated Connecticut securities laws. Such activity would subject the agents to possible criminal sanctions and expose them to civil liability from investors.
Train Time for Orange?
Officials in Milford, West Haven and Orange are working with the South Central Regional Council of Governments to determine the feasibility of building a Metro-North train station in Orange.
A possible site is the Marsh Hill Road area near Exit 41 off I-95. The area is easily accessible to residents of the three towns and is close to one of the region's largest employers, Bayer Pharmaceutical.
While the state's Department of Transportation has not committed to the project, it is giving it serious consideration.
According to Harry Harris, chief of the DOT's bureau of public transportation, four criteria must be met for site approval: significant amount of parking space, easy road accessibility, wheelchair accessibility, and a site free of environmental contamination.
A crucial issue of immediate concern is whether the proposed site is available for purchase, and its potential cost.
State Targets IT for Growth
A new software and information technology “cluster” was announced last month by Gov. John G. Rowland. Rowland was joined by Laura Kent, president of the Connecticut Technology Council, as well as software executives and other development officials to announce the launching of TSI International Software in Wilton.
Connecticut's industry cluster initiative centers on the idea that nurturing the state's key industry, information technology, improves the competitiveness companies in that industry, in turn growing Connecticut's economy. Companies involved with clustering share market knowledge and expertise. They use this information to work with government, education and economic-development organizations to identify the overall needs of their industry.
IT companies in Connecticut employ almost 72,000 workers with an average salary of more than $50,000. IT is the fastest growing segment of the state's economy.
Charting Job Growth
Between 1992 and 1998, private companies created more than 113,000 jobs in Connecticut, a nine-percent increase. Most of the new jobs were in the services industry, which grew 26 percent during the same period.
Hospitals were the exception. The hospital sector, the largest employer within the services industry, shed nearly 6,000 jobs, or ten percent, over the same six-year period.
Managed care and strong competition have precipitated a restructuring of the health industry and in turn, a reduction of inpatient hospital stays. This has contributed to the sharp decline in hospital employment.
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